The month of love is upon us. And while the cliché week necessitates you celebrate it with your significant other, there’s one day that is recalibrating those norms — Chocolate Day. Choose to indulge yourself or celebrate it with a loved one.
This year, however, why not tweak the celebrations a little? Instead of buying a slab of cocoa, let’s order some artisanal ones. Here are home bakers and chefs across India, making our mouths water with their virtual menus loaded with chocolate and a whole lot of love. Happy snacking!
1. Bakemyday, Mumbai
Imagine waking up to a charcuterie board! But Henal Bhuta’s delicatessen features all things chocolate instead of the usual dressed meats that occupy the board. It’s eclectic, it’s fun and it spells love in all its chocolat-y glory. If there’s anyone who knows how to achieve the right balance between the cliché and the classic, it’s Henal.
It makes for a perfect Valentine’s breakfast, she says, adding that the platter includes strawberries, eggless marshmallows, two heart-shaped brownies, chocolate ganache, Nutella, cookies, two cake bites and chocolate bars. Aside from this, there’s also the cupcake bouquet — eight cupcakes topped with chocolate frosting and strawberries — chocolate tarts and the double chocolate heart brownie topped with ganache to binge on.
Order online here.
2. Harsh Chocolates, Pan-India
Carrying on the legacy of the eponymous almond rocks that are an ode to their mother’s signature recipe, two sisters, Ankita and Anuja Jain, helm Harsh Chocolates. It all started in 2001, when their mother Harsha Jain started making chocolates — born out of a deep love for patisserie — in Mumbai.
“At the time, customers were delighted by her ‘Almond Rocks’ and biscuit chocolates,” the website reads. Soon, Harsha expanded into a commercial kitchen. While the signature almond rocks tend to go off shelves due to the high demand, there’s also the brownie chocolate, biscuit chocolate, and the chocolate orange mousse to check out.
Order online here.
3. The Better Binge, Mumbai
This Mumbai bakery has found favour with Bollywood celebrities the likes of Rajkummar Rao, and Hema Malini. When Juhi Pahwa kicked off her venture, ‘The Better Binge’ in 2017, she never imagined it would clock fame.
Sharing how her husband’s grandfather, Ved Prakash Pahwa, was the brainchild behind The Better Binge, she says, “His health wasn’t something to worry about, just a 90-year-old man with diabetes who wanted to enjoy desserts! Dada (grandfather) wasn’t allowed refined sugar or flour. This is where the entire concept of The Better Binge came up. So, I started experimenting with desserts with natural sugars and wheat and jowar flour instead of refined flour.”
This Valentine’s here’s to making healthier choices in food and relationships!
Order online here.
4. Miss.Baker, Pan-India
Take the celebration up a notch with these different varietals of chocolate — that all converge on the menu at Miss.Baker. There are triple chocolate brownies, Kinder brownies, Nutella cookies, milk chocolate cookie pies, chocolate macrons and chocolate chip cookies to choose from, all homemade by Ernakulam’s Sanjana Pavamani. We hear that the chocolate buttercream cake with Nutella and Ferrero fillings is very dreamy too.
Order online here.
5. Maska Bakery, Mumbai
Why limit the decisions to chocolates when you can rub shoulders with eclairs, pralines, custard tarts, and babka (sweet braided bread)? We hear a cult favourite at Maska Bakery is the black forest cake with dark chocolate cake and mousse, cherry compote made in-house, Mascarpone (rich creamy Italian cheese) cream, and a dark chocolate ganache. It’s also called the ‘Revenge Black Forest Cake’.
Order online here.
6. Sivako, Mumbai
You may remember her as the woman who bagged the third position at the World Pastry Queen championship held in Rimini, Italy in 2023. Well, here’s a chance to have Eureka Araujo’s finesse grace your table. The Goa-born pastry chef helms the brand Sivako with her sister Nikita.
Their Valentine’s Day menu is redolent of decadence — a red velvet cake with fresh strawberry compote, zesty lemon almond sponge, and silky strawberry-yuzu mousse, layered over a crisp white chocolate almond croustillant; ‘La Vie en Rose’ is an assortment of lip, heart, and rose-shaped bonbons made of ganache, praline, cherry compote, dark chocolate and pistachio marzipan among other delights.
Order online here.
Edited by Khushi Arora
