LFC Mumbai | October 2025
A small tradition I’ve kept over the years involves baking a different cake for every occasion that matters. This year, my wedding anniversary came and went in the middle of a chaotic few weeks. I hadn’t baked anything yet, and then the LFC meetup came around. So, I figured—two birds, one batter.
As I turned over ideas in my head, my husband, Apurv, casually asked, “What would our song taste like, as a cake?”
The song in question was from the 1997 film Yes Boss, where Shah Rukh Khan serenades Juhi Chawla with “Main Koi Aisa Geet Gaun”. Apurv had sent this song to me almost five years ago, when our equation was still new and we were separated by distance and an unforgiving pandemic quarantine. Back then, every text, every voice note, felt precious. It became our favourite reminder of love, playfulness, and dedication to one another.
So I listened not only to the melody but to the memory it unlocked. It felt velvety, soft and yellow — a nod to the iconic yellow dress Juhi wore in the song, too. Could it be lemon? No, that felt too sharp; Apurv’s love was mango, I decided: sweet, flavourful, desi.
I wanted the cake to be as nostalgic as the song: sentimental yet playful, familiar yet surprising. I imagined walking into an old bakery with this tune playing in the background. What cake would belong there?
It had to resemble those birthday cakes of the ’90s—like an elaborate black forest cake—with piped borders, studded with glazed cherries, waiting inside glass cases. The cherries also reminded me of childhood afternoons with my nani, who would save the plumpest ones just for me.
But mango and chocolate—how would they speak to each other? So I said, “Maybe white chocolate will mute the tartness of the mango and blend into the decadence of the dark chocolate.” Still, the cake needed texture. Almonds and cashews didn’t sit right, visually or otherwise. Pistachios, perhaps? Their green flecks felt like an unexpected harmony where you hadn’t expected it.
I imagined walking into an old bakery with this tune playing in the background. What cake would belong there?
And how could I forget the stars? In the lyrics, Shah Rukh Khan promises, “Zameen ko aasmaan banaoon, sitaaron se sajaoon…” To decorate the earth like a sky with stars; I wanted that too. So I thought of those tiny silver sugar balls and, with tweezers, placed them one by one across the frosting. They glittered like constellations, carrying the promise of the lyrics and the charm of old-school bakeries.
At the LFC meetup, the cake was received with so much warmth. A woman came up to me later, sharing how she doesn’t have a sweet tooth and never goes back for seconds. But for this cake, she did.
It reminded me that food lets you reveal what you cannot always put into words. You can bake affection into flour, fold memory into whipped cream, and press longing into the glaze of a cherry.