Diwali is a festival of light, but it is also, unmistakably, a festival of sweetness. In the days around Lakshmi Puja, homes fill with mithai: boxes carried to relatives, plates set out for guests, a sweet pressed into a child's hand at the door. To give sweets at Diwali is to wish someone a sweet year ahead.
This year Diwali falls on Sunday 8 November. Here is how we think about giving well.
Choose something made, not manufactured
The most treasured Diwali sweets are the ones that taste of a kitchen rather than a factory. Look for mithai made in small batches, from few ingredients you can name: good milk, real saffron, whole nuts, a little cardamom. Freshness matters more than variety. A single, perfect box says more than an assortment that has travelled a long way.
Our own Penda Shanta is pressed by hand into the shape of a rose, from gold top jersey milk infused with Spanish saffron, Iranian pistachios, Californian almonds, cardamom and nutmeg. Nothing more.
“A single, perfect box says more than an assortment that has travelled a long way.”
Consider the presentation
At Diwali, the box is part of the gift. It is set on a table, admired, and often kept. Choose packaging that feels worthy of the occasion and needs no wrapping of its own. Ours is a white lid traced with gold, opening onto six sweets resting in a gold tray, with a card inside listing exactly what is in them.
Who to give to
Traditionally, sweets go first to the people you visit: parents and grandparents, aunts and uncles, the friends whose homes you will sit in over the festival. Beyond family, a box is a graceful way to thank the people who quietly make your year easier: a neighbour, a teacher, the friend who always hosts. One box per household is the usual gesture; it is the thought, not the quantity, that is remembered.
When to order
Handmade sweets cannot be rushed, and the weeks before Diwali are the busiest of the year. We make every Penda to order, so we recommend reserving your boxes two to three weeks ahead, and earlier still if you need several. Tell us your date when you get in touch and we will confirm it personally.
A box of six is £8 for collection. We deliver across North London and Hertfordshire on orders of five boxes or more, with delivery charged separately.
Keeping them at their best
Milk sweets are at their finest when fresh. Keep the box somewhere cool and closed, away from sunlight, and share them within the first days of the festival. They rarely last longer than that in any case.
