Santas find rum cake replacement in alcohol-free Bihar

Patna: Santa Clauses are gifting “duplicate” rum balls and rum cakes in Bihar owing to a fear of being caught and sent to jail in the aftermath of the eastern Indian state imposing total prohibition on alcohol.

The new excise law provides for severe jail punishment for flouting the liquor ban. Bihar imposed a total ban on alcohol in April last year.

With the alcohol or even fermented cake mixtures used to make rum balls and rum cakes — described as the essence of Christmas — having gone totally missing from the markets, it is cakes or chocolates with rum essence that are being distributed by the Santas in Bihar.

“What else can Santas do? They are left with no options and hence are distributing duplicate rum balls or rum cakes among the children,” asked Praveer Kumar, a member of the Christian community. But according to him, rather than relying on such cakes, Santas are now distributing toffees, which are cheap and free from risks.

Even the bakers and local confectioners are refusing to make such cakes owing to the harsh liquor law. “Rum cakes used to be quite much in demand among the Christian community members during this festival earlier but the alcohol ban has forced us to do away with them. We instead have come up with alternatives, such as rum-essence cakes, which give similar taste,” a local confectioner Mantu Kumar Singh said.

Quite a few confectioners are even organising live demos for Christian members on how to prepare fruit cakes at hometo make up for the absence of rum cakes.

This is not the only problem Santas are facing. The practice of distributing cakes is now becoming a challenge owing to costlier cakes as a result of the goods and services tax, which has made cakes costlier by 18 per cent.

The new excise law passed by the state government provides for harsher punishment for the violators. Earlier this week, a man from Madhepura district in Bihar was sentenced to five-year imprisonment for consuming alcohol, while on December 15 a 45-year-old poor widow was awarded 10-year rigorous imprisonment along with a fine of Rs100,000 (Dh5,735) for keeping mahua, an ingredient used for making country liquor.