Icing on The Landour Cake

by Ganesh Saili

These souvenir books offer unbeatable value and quality. Subjects include places of interest, art and cultural heritage, erotica, cookery… the list is endless

64 pages, Paperback

Published December 31, 2000

About the author

Ganesh Saili wears many hats and, miraculously, sometimes, some of the hats actually fit! If you find him not teaching photography to the young Officer Trainees at National Academy of Administration, he’s probably trekking the high mountains, capturing in words and images the beauty of his roots in the Himalaya. Settled atop a spur in Landour’s, he has had the good fortune of living in these hills, seeing the changing facets of the hill station and recording it in over two dozen books. His screenplay for the film Splendour of Garhwal & Roop Kund won the Panorama Film Festival Award in 1994. In 1995, he was awarded the Sanghi Trophy for Best Travel Writing, and he followed it up in 1997 with the National Award for Best Travel Writing (English). He is a close friend of Ruskin Bond for four decades and more. He has taught English and American literature at Mussoorie’s post-graduate college.

Reviews

[Vikas Singh · Rating 5 out of 5]

A lipsmacking delightful collection of old world cake recipes with interesting tit bits by Ganesh Saili. There are some rare vintage photographs in the collection. A collector's gem

[Saurabh Kumar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Icing on the Landour Cake: ‘Olde Worlde’Cake Recipes by Ganesh Saili is a true delight. Saili is a wizard with words—I’ve had the pleasure of interacting with him in the past, even helping him design his website briefly—and he is a writer of the first water. The book is filled with beautiful, varied cake recipes from a bygone era. I loved the inclusion of old photographs of Landour by T.A. Rust, from the 1880s and early 1900s—like the views of Camel’s Back Road or the grand merriment at the Savoy, the social hub of the Raj. The recipes themselves range from chocolate cake to marble cake, egg yolk sponge, banana nut cake, and even Swedish orange cake—each surprisingly doable. The production quality is top-notch, thanks to the fine folks at Roli; it’s beautifully bound in Singapore, making it a perfect gift or keepsake. I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves both history and baking.