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Next: 25 Dec 2026

Christmas in Kerala and Goa

Plum cake soaked in rum with cloves and cinnamon, and a Goan bebinca layered with nutmeg and cardamom.

Bebinca, uma sobremesa tradicional de Goa, servida com uma bola de gelado. Bebinca, a traditional dessert from Goa, served with ice cream.
Photo: Warren Noronha, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Spices for Christmas in Kerala and Goa

The Christian communities of Kerala and Goa keep a Christmas table that combines European baking with local spices. Kerala's plum cake is made from fruit steeped in rum for weeks and flavoured with cinnamon, clove, nutmeg and cardamom; the spiced stew with appam is a Christmas breakfast. In Goa, bebinca, a layered coconut milk, egg and ghee sweet, is built up layer by layer with nutmeg and cardamom, and dodol and kulkuls are made at home. Both regions have supplied Europe with spices for 500 years.

The spices

NutmegGrated in bebinca and plum cake.CinnamonSpices Kerala Christmas cake.CloveAdded to the cake spice mix.
About this page

Written by the EveryMasala desk with AI assistance. Background: "Bebinca" on Wikipedia. Customs differ from place to place and family to family. If this is your tradition and we have it wrong, tell us.

Photo credits on this page

The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.

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