After what seemed like months, my baby finally got his teeth just before my birthday in January. Not just one but two together. I’ve been waiting ever since for more but these two are enough cuteness for now.
A teeth ceremony you say?
It is in our heritage to have ceremonies for near enough every major milestone of a person’s life, starting from the first outing of a baby to first foods and yep first teeth. Technically the ceremony should be done quickly after the appearance of the tooth but as we couldn’t get a date in January, Feb ain’t too bad going!
The ceremony for the first tooth appearance varies between regions so we kept ours traditional and simple. But as I’m in the throws of practicing for subsequent birthday cakes, I used this as a good idea to get my bake on!
The edibles – the traditional and the….
In our tradition, we prepare a sweet dumpling called Kozhukattai, made from rice flour with a filling of moong daal, coconut and jaggery predominantly. We first prepare a similar dumpling called the modhagam which is usually done in association with our Hindu God Ganesha, to whom we pray to remove any obstacles in our path. As this is a Hindu ceremony, the modhagam is made first, followed by the Kozhukattai. As is tradition, we cut fresh coconut into tiny shards which are then placed on the outside of the dumpling, to resemble the teeth that is being celebrated! All very cute if you ask me, I spent my Saturday night chopping up coconut! The dumpling are steamed and then the ceremony begins.
The actual ceremony is that an uncle of the baby gently drops the dumplings ontop of the child’s head which is covered with a little veil. The baby then picks the dumplings and may try to eat it!
…Cake!
So this isn’t tradition, but I need some practice in icing in time for the many birthdays we have coming up in the family, not to mention the most important one this year of my little one. So, it was time to try out Swiss meringue buttercream. If you haven’t eaten it, it’s like actually, AMAZING. Anyway, I’m in love with cake, and more so now that I’m practising. Cue, me not actually dieting. I wanted the cake to not just be a cake but to be fun but without it being like a freaky whole tooth with a face kind of cake. So a little DIY bunting cake topper, a first for me, coupled with my attempt at making teeth shaped decorations and my cake was good to go! Also, the icing was a first attempt at watercolour, so forgive the roughness!
Excuse to bake – vanilla sponge with a salted caramel buttercream
- An excuse to dress up and get kissed another billion times, like this Amma needs another reason!
MATHURINI 