A Piece of (Plum) Cake

Meet Peter D’Souza, a banker for forty years who found a post retirement vocation in his very own kitchen and now has a thriving demand for his yummy plum cakes! 

Peter D’Souza, 68, a Mangalorean by birth, a Chennaiite for many years and now settled in Bengaluru, had been a banker for 40 long years. D’Souza loved his job as it was also here that he had met his life partner. But soon the same job proved to be his nemesis as regular official transfers and inability to move the family along every time meant long periods of solitude. A five year stint in Delhi all by himself proved to be the last straw and D’Souza decided to take voluntary retirement at 51 when next transfer orders came in. Ever since then he has been spending his time being a doting father, grandfather and a loving husband.

The post retirement years brought D’Souza to the kitchen initially out of interest and then out of need as his wife, a diabetic of many years, was diagnosed with cancer. “I started spending more time in the kitchen as being a diabetic the kitchen was not a very safe place for my wife. Also, I wanted her to take rest from her kitchen career of forty years”, says D’Souza. The initial trials based on tried and tested recipes from cook books including The Chef by Isidore Coelho, the bible for Mangalorean cuisine, led him to experimenting and adding his own twists to these recipes. He mastered the art of cooking Manglorean staple dishes soon enough and started experimenting with cakes, inspired by his wife’s baking skills. “We had an old oven without a thermostat that my wife used for baking cakes for Christmas in which the sides would burn but the centre would remain undercooked. About 10-15 years back we bought a new oven and I got interested in baking”, says D’Souza reminiscing.

Soon D’Souza was giving out his home made plum cakes as Christmas gifts to neighbours and family. Appreciation started flowing in from all quarters and he got his first order two years back from an elderly woman in the neighbourhood who wanted two cakes. Encouraged by his family, D’Souza got over his initial inhibitions and obliged. Slowly the orders started trickling in from friends and colleagues of family members who had had the chance of trying D’Souza’s bakes. The next year saw repeat orders and the enterprising senior sold 70 kilos of cake, all through word of mouth publicity. The result – the overwhelming response to his cakes has fuelled D’Souza’s passion and he is now actively thinking of selling his cakes through bakery shops and canteens. “I am told I need to get a registration done to be able to sell commercially. My son is helping me look into that”. He hopes it will be a piece of cake to get things organized.

Right now D’Souza is a happy man. Other than exploring new avenues and fulfilling his Christmas orders, he was also a participant at a recent exhibition at his grandson’s school where his grandchildren went around selling his cakes. “My granddaughter is also interested in baking. She makes cake pops and cupcakes,” says the proud grandfather with a broad smile.

To grab a piece of Peter D’Souza’s rich plum cakes place your order at 9741464045 or write to openspaces.bangalore@gmail.com. Hopefully next year you will find it in a bakery next door!