There are two things that make me feel like myself: coffee in the morning and baking cakes for other people.
The first thing has been rectified for some weeks now; at first I attempted to ignore my need for a morning coffee but once a coffee person, always a coffee person. At all other times during the day I will gladly take Kenyan tea (although without sugar - they put like five teaspoons in one cup!), but the first cup in the morning must be coffee.
The second thing has taken a while to find a solution for; my host family doesn't own an oven - we generally cook with fire or charcoals. But thanks to the wonders of Google and the smart mama's at work, I have discovered how to bake a kaki rural Kenyan style!
First things first - get yourself a giant sufuria (like a big saucepan without a handle) and a lid that is big enough to cover. Then fill the bottom of your sufuria with sand - if it is wet sand like mine was then you will need to put in on the fire long before you start making the batter. Think of it as preheating the oven.
Another challenge you will face is not having an electric beater, so get those arm muscles working and beat your sugar and butter into submission. For this cake I used this recipe however I tripled the vanilla and added cinnamon.
Right, once you've made the batter, put your cake pan with the batter in it into the sifuria, put the lid back on and stoke the fire. I added charcoals to the lid also, but I think next time I will make an actual fire on the lid.
It takes a lot longer to bake the cake this way, but boy oh boy did it taste good! Everyone at work was very happy that I had finally made a cake, with daily requests for it to be repeated.
And now we can all breathe a sigh of relief now that I can bake cakes again.
The first thing has been rectified for some weeks now; at first I attempted to ignore my need for a morning coffee but once a coffee person, always a coffee person. At all other times during the day I will gladly take Kenyan tea (although without sugar - they put like five teaspoons in one cup!), but the first cup in the morning must be coffee.
The second thing has taken a while to find a solution for; my host family doesn't own an oven - we generally cook with fire or charcoals. But thanks to the wonders of Google and the smart mama's at work, I have discovered how to bake a kaki rural Kenyan style!
First things first - get yourself a giant sufuria (like a big saucepan without a handle) and a lid that is big enough to cover. Then fill the bottom of your sufuria with sand - if it is wet sand like mine was then you will need to put in on the fire long before you start making the batter. Think of it as preheating the oven.
Another challenge you will face is not having an electric beater, so get those arm muscles working and beat your sugar and butter into submission. For this cake I used this recipe however I tripled the vanilla and added cinnamon.
Right, once you've made the batter, put your cake pan with the batter in it into the sifuria, put the lid back on and stoke the fire. I added charcoals to the lid also, but I think next time I will make an actual fire on the lid.
It takes a lot longer to bake the cake this way, but boy oh boy did it taste good! Everyone at work was very happy that I had finally made a cake, with daily requests for it to be repeated.
And now we can all breathe a sigh of relief now that I can bake cakes again.
No comments:
Post a Comment
I like it when you comment; it makes me happy!