Thalassery: Mambally’s Royal Biscuit Factory

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Plum cake

1883 onwards

Rajeev KR, Oct 27, 2023: The Times of India

Kozhikode : As they say about cakes, count the memories, not the calories. Cake memories of a family from Suffolk, England stretch back four generations and span thousands of miles – all the way to Kannur, Kerala.


Paul Brown, a dentist with adecided sweet tooth, and his family came to Kannur bearing a cake, which bore a legend that’s surely unique — “Murdoch Brown’s Cinnamon Christmas Cake, With Cashew Toddy”.


Custom-made for them by a French pastry chef, per the Browns, the cake was a tribute to sweet memories shared by two families, dating back to 1883. The Browns met MK Ranjith, a fourth-generation confectioner from the local Mambally family, and presented the cake to him. Later, they visited the Mamballys’ bakery at Thalassery, run by another family member MM Prakash.

From Raj to Swaraj, Christmas cake that continues to earn loyal fans

Here’s the delicious story.


Back in 1883, when India was firmly under the British raj, Brown’s greatgreat grandfather, Murdoch Brown, ran a cinnamon plantation in Anjarakandy, Kannur. One day, goes the lore shared by the two families, the plantation owner walked into the Mambally’s Royal Biscuit Factory at Thalassery with a rich plum cake. He threw a challenge to bakery owner Mambally Bapu – recreate the plum cake he had brought from England and do so in time for Christmas.
Murdoch Brown had given Bapu a 10-minute lesson on baking cakes, handed over some ingredients and asked that the cake be ready in 10 days. Brown had suggested Bapu use French brandy for the Christmas cake, as was the norm in England. But Bapu rebelled, and used a local brew distilled using cashew and bananas. He also used other local ingredients.


The result was a Christmas cake with a unique flavour, the Mamballys say. On December 22, 1883, Bapu presented the Christmas cake to Murdoch Brown. One bite, and so goes the story, Brown said, “excellent”. He placed an order for 10 pounds (around 4.5 kg) of Bapu’s Christmas cake, Ranjith says. 
Paul Brown told TOIthat Mambally Bapu’s creation became known to his family as the ‘Brown Family Cinnamon Christmas Cake’. “I have heard this story in the family since I was a child. It’s wonderful to come here… and to rekindle our friendship with the Mambally family. We are so pleased and proud.”


He said the current Browns’ interpretation of Bapu’s cake has been a big hit with everyone who got a bite back home in England. The Mamballys have a rich history beyond the Browns’ cake. They exported bakery goods to British troops during World War II and post-independence, counted Field Marshal K M Cariappa among its loyal customers. The Field Marshal loved the Mambally bakery’s biscuits, the family said.


Mambally bakeries have set up shop in many Kerala cities. But none of their many toothsome offerings carry memories sweeter than that Christmas cake baked in 1883. And for the Browns, no Christmas cake holds as much meaning as that one.