NEW DELHI: Warning: These cakes may not exactly be child-friendly—in fact, they’re meant only for adults! Forget fondant and butter cream and the elaborate structural engineering that you see on shows like Fabulous Cakes, some Indians are getting all excited about a very different kind of design.Erotic or adult-themed cakes—popular in the West for years—are now flying off Indian bakery shelves as people across age groups look to spice up pre-wedding parties and private bashes with risque themes. Bakers in India’s big cities all agree business in this cake category has shot up in the last one year. And a lot of the people doing the ordering are women."Demand doubled in 2014 from a year ago," said Delhi-based Aditi Kohli, who runs Papillon Cupcakes and More. "I have started getting more calls for bachelorette parties, especially during the marriage season. Most of my naughty cake orders come from close friends and women."Deepika Khaitan, another Delhi-based baker, said she prepared eight adult-themed cakes last weekend. "Demand has increased by about 60% in the last one year, especially for bachelor and bachelorette parties.”Still, Indians are generally bashful about discussing such matters openly, so ordering can be a tricky business. That’s why these are almost never placed in person, with customers preferring to do so over the phone or through a chat app.“I take and pass on orders over WhatsApp to avoid the awkwardness involved in explaining the details to my staff,” said Khaitan. Problem solved: “The new trend is raunchy cakes for 40th birthdays and 90% of my customers are women," added Khaitan.Hundreds of miles down south, in relatively more conservative Hyderabad, Melanie Gabriel churns out cakes from her home oven. "Orders for bawdy cakes have definitely gone up. Awareness has increased and youngsters are no longer afraid of expressing themselves," Gabriel said over the phone, adding that the "wild bed” theme with lingerie strewn around is popular.Demand is not restricted to the big cities. Khaitan's eponymous bakery gets orders from Agra, Jaipur and Chandigarh too. "I don’t deliver--my customers in these cities send someone to pick up the cake," said Khaitan.People in Mumbai and Chennai also seem to like their cakes with a special layer of icing.Maaria Kulsum, who runs Cafe Adoniya in Chennai with husband Tanveer, said demand for naughty cakes has been steady since they started a few years ago. Body parts and the bedroom are the usual themes for cakes celebrating “milestone birthdays, hen nights and bachelor parties."Mumbai-based confectionery house Sweet Passions said it has a special team to design adult-themed cakes. "Demand has gone up by 50% because of awareness." Also, kinky is no longer just a guy thing and that’s something that can be expressed—safely and no doubt sweetly. "I was throwing a bachelorette party and wanted something naughty. Usually it's guys who fancy a bold theme, but I wanted us girls to have a good laugh and have an exciting time," said Ramanjot Singh, who shops at Papillon.Rashi Bhasin, who threw a bachelorette party for a friend last year, said, "The theme was kinky and naughty to celebrate her last few (unmarried) days. We surprised her with a very naughty cake."Saman Vashisth, who ordered a naughty cake for her husband’s birthday, said, “I ordered a special fondant cake with figures for my husband's 40th birthday surprise party. I wanted a cake that would add a fun and naughty element to the party and be different from the regular cakes we had been doing every year.”Naughty doesn’t mean vulgar, though—it’s all in good taste. Ram Reddy, managing director of Just Bake, said, "More women customers are ordering risqué shape cakes for their partners for their bachelor parties, anniversaries and birthdays. In the last three years, our fun and naughty cake range has grown manifold. We make sure these cake shapes are tastefully done so that people have a good laugh and celebrate this occasion in their privacy." Just Bake, which has presence in Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Mangalore, is one of south India's largest cake houses with more than 100 outlets.Kohli said she was open to making explicit adult-themed cakes but has toned it down a bit as the packing is usually handled by male employees. “I take orders for such cakes from only women these days as I once had a bad experience with a male customer who got too deep into detailing,” Kohli said cryptically. When dealing with such orders, apart from using WhatsApp to avoid any embarrassment, Khaitan has another kitchen aid to lean on. “When there’s too much detailing in the cake, I seek my husband’s help,” she said.