Friday 12 August 2016

The Black History Month Bake Off BHM 2016

On the 13th of October a baking contest will take place at City College.
If you feel creative, want to prepare a cake, and take part in our contest, contact us for more details at bhmnorfolk@gmail.com
The best cake will be awarded!!!
This year Norfolk Black History Month's theme is "The Power of words". So, get inspired and prepare your amazing cake.


CAKES, PUDDINGS, SWEETS, "SUGAR AND SPICE AND ALL THINGS NICE" ARE PART OF THE BLACK HISTORY 
An article of Danny Keen


When we eat our Christmas pudding, and rich fruit cake soaked in rum at Yuletide, few of us would consider that we are partaking in a ritual that is almost totally derived from Black History. Pause for a moment and think of the ingredients that go into these most traditionally British of dishes:

- Dates with other dried fruits from Africa, spices from India and the Caribbean, as well as sugar, treacle, and molasses are ingredients that bring a luxurious taste of the exotic to flour, eggs, and fat, which are the British contribution to some of the greatest of our national dishes. What a dull and insipid world we would live in without Black Culture! -

Cakes, gateaux, and puddings present an array of delicious constituents that symbolise colourful aspects of Black History. Here is a list of some of them:


  • All kinds of sugars including Demerara, Moscovado, Caramel, etc.
  • Chocolate
  • Cocoa
  • Coffee
  • Ginger
  • A plethora of spices
  • Vanilla (the method of mass cultivation of this wild orchid was devised by a slave) 
  • Dates and other dried fruits
  • Rum
  • Curacao, and many other liqueurs
  • Coconut in all of its various forms
  • Pineapple, mango, tamarind and a vast list of other exotic fruits
  • Manioc, cassava, sago, tapioca and other types of flour
  • Sweet potato, yams, etc.
  • And  many other
The insatiable demand for exotic foods, sugar and spices in Medieval Europe eventually lead to slavery, colonialism and empire. there is not time enough to write an essay about those things here, instead I call for a celebration of Black History via puddings, sugar and spice, and all things nice. "Let them eat the cake" is the motto of the Black History Month Bake off. Eat and Enjoy!  



No comments:

Post a Comment