The boutique cakeshop that introduced Kolkata to bespoke cakes is downing shutters from Friday. There will be no Sweet ‘n’ Salty or Blueberry Cream Cheese Cake or Lemon Drizzle Delight to order at Mrs. Magpie on Lake Terrace Extension, off Southern Avenue.
Sohini Basu, who earned the sobriquet of Cupcake Queen with the little mouthfuls that she would personally design, has taken the tough call, faced with two tough hurdles.
“I have been diagnosed with gluten, lactose and yeast allergies. This means there’s nothing left for me to do in the bakery. I do not want the quality to go subpar (without getting to do the tasting),” Sohini told Metro on Thursday, which was the last working day for the signature outlet in south Calcutta as also the delivery outlet in Salt Lake. “My heart is also not there ever since my father passed away (in 2020).”
Despite her father Arnab Basu having brought the Monginis chain to Calcutta and being a partner, Sohini had forayed into the bakery business on her own. That was 2012. “I would develop the recipes myself. That was the joy of it,” she said.
Those were the days of mid-level confectionery chains. “Everyone used to do standard pastries. I started with cupcakes as they come in neat portions which let you try two or three flavours.” She also devised the look of each with care, creating details like marzipan teddy bears to sit atop her baked delights.
She recalls creating cupcake avatars of Varun Dhawan-Alia Bhatt in 2014 as also Deepika Padukone-Imtiaz Ali ones in 2015 when they visited The Telegraph office to promote their films.
“These days it is a common practice to mark celebrity visits but not back then,” she smiled.
Though she had started with cupcakes, she added savouries as her father believed no one could have sweets without salty sides. So patties, scones, ham ‘n’ cheese quiche and salmon sandwiches figured on the menu too. “In those days, we used to offer afternoon tea,” she recalled, which would be served with her signature magpie logo-shaped cookies.
“I created such funky recipes when I started. There was cotton candy butter cake decorated with pepsi cola candy,” she said with a laugh. Sweet & Salty, that every Mrs. Magpie fan would swear by for its unique salty overtone, she says was a winner from the start.
Sohini spends the summers in London and runs a villa on rent in Goa. Though she has not decided about the future, she is considering going into interior decoration or home furnishing. “I used to work with fashion designer Sabyasachi,” she signed off.