Pune bakery dishes out unique red guava cake

Since the red guava variety used in making the fruit spread is from the Purandar region, the product as 'Purandar Guava Cake'

Farmers growing the red guava fruit in Purandar tehsil of Pune district have a reason to cheer as the iconic Kayani Bakery is now using their produce to make a unique cake. The fruit variety named 'Ratnadeep Guava' is traditionally grown by farmers in Purandar tehsil of Maharashtra and has a high demand in the market due to its soothing taste and dark pink pulp inside.

Farmers who grow the 'Ratnadeep Guava' variety in the region have associated with Pune's Kayani Bakery, famous for its Shrewsberry biscuits and other products, to introduce a unique eggless guava preparation with the brand name 'Purandar Peru Cake'. A co-owner of the bakery claimed this cake, which they started making since last month, has been receiving a huge response from customers.

"The cake is made using the red guava bread spread, produced by Purandar Highlands Farmers Producers Company (PHFPC), a firm started by 14 individuals who are full-time farmers having a deep knowledge of farming and allied practices," the company's chairman, Rohan Ursal, told PTI. He said the objective of setting up the PHFPC was to take the figs, custard apples and red guavas grown in the region to the world market.

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"Farmers who grow figs, custard apples and red guavas bring their produce to us. We send these fruits to seven states and make them available on e-commerce sites. While doing this, we thought there was a need to get into the processing of these fruits as their shelf life very less," Ursal said.

"We then started a state-of-the-art fruit processing unit and launched fig bread spread, which is GI tagged, and also the red guava spread," he said. Ursal said the red guava spread is made from the Ratnadeep guava variety. In a bid to take the red guava variety to the next level, they approached several bakers including Rustom Kayani, the co-owner of the Kayani Bakery.

Ursal said Rustom Kayani mentored them to make some modifications in the fruit spread required for preparing the cake. "Kayaniji remarked that he never experienced such an amazing taste. He decided to make a recipe out of it and finally the red guava cake was baked," said Ursal. It was a proud moment for all the farmers here as the baker named it 'Purandar Guava Cake', he said.

Kayani told PTI that he knows Ursal's family, who have been fruit vendors, for many years. "Rohan once presented to me the red guava spread developed by them with no intention to make a cake out of it. When I tasted the spread, I was surprised to experience the real depth of its flavour," he said. "The first thought that came into my mind was to use the spread in our products. Since the Ganpati festival was around the corner, we thought of trying to make a cake out of it," he said. Fortunately, it worked well as the flavour of guava really got into the cake, he said. The good thing is the guava spread does not have any artificial essence used in it. It is pure fruit and good pulp, Kayani said.

"Since the red guava variety used in making the fruit spread is from the Purandar region, we named our product as 'Purandar Guava Cake'," he said. Meanwhile, Ursal said their company is committed to delivering high-quality processed products made from the lesser known but great tasting local varieties of fruits, which they intend to deliver to customers across the globe.