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CONTEST Journalism student Harini gifts a sweet legacy for all to taste at the Donut House fest. Here’s how… SHRADDHA NAIR

Tucked away in Egmore is the only exclusive doughnut store in Chennai. Unfortunately for me, I discovered it only two weeks ago.Festive feast

Recently they hosted a week-long fest during which they had on display close to 50 different varieties of donuts. A few of the newest varieties introduced during the fest are Donut Popcorn, Swirls, Twisties, Apple Pie donut, Caramel, Cream fillings and lots more. Apart from these, the Donut Burger and spicy flavours like the Italian Cheese, South Indian Spicy, Mustard and Olives were added attractions.

At the end of the fest, The Donut House organised a competition at their outlet where its customers and aspiring chefs got a chance to make their own donuts in Donut House’s open kitchen. The final four were short-listed from all those who dropped their ideas in the form of a recipe at the Donut House outlets The judges for this event were Mohammed Ali, founder of Chennai Food Guide, Nanditha Shashidharan, founder of the Sugar Hut Dessert Boutique (personally, one of my favourite dessert makers!) and Parveen Sikkandar, food critic and founder of Damini Artisans.The first of the finalists was Kamalika, a software professional, who prepared two differently-topped doughnuts for the judges. One, a pineapple and fresh cream covered doughnut and the other a blueberry finished one.

Meanwhile, Vasumathi made a doughnut with a never-seen-before topping — a dry fruit mix sprinkled with sesame. Her creation is probably the healthiest doughnut in the history of doughnuts!The third finalist, Alice, a teacher, made a banana and cinnamon smothered doughnut with cornflakes strewn on for that extra crunch.And the last contestant was Harini, a journalism student. She created two doughnuts as well — strawberry glazed number followed by a lemon glazed one.

Getting creative

Once the participants got started in the kitchen a lot of toppings came out from the shelves and onto the slab. Strawberries, bananas, prunes, cinnamon, honey, pineapple, lemons, blueberries fresh cream, honey, plastic bottles filled with sprinkles of every colour, dates and more. Eye candy!In about an hour the doughnuts were ready to be tasted and the photographers crowded around the trays full of delicious doughnuts to capture them before they get sampled by the judges. I got to have a bite of Alice’s banana and cinnamon confection which in my opinion was absolutely lip-smacking.

Although it was a close call, the winning doughnut was Harini’s creations. The judges especially loved her zesty lemon glazed one. Though all the contestants went home with their arms full of complimentary doughnuts and other gifts, Harini went back leaving the Donut House with a new flavoured doughnut in her name. That’s a pretty sweet legacy, to leave the world with, I think!

Shraddha is a Grade XI student.

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