Zara Cooks in Cameroon

Ingredients:

2 c. flour 1 t salt 1 t baking powder 2 t baking soda 3/4 c. baking cocoa (Matinal) 2 c. sugar (or less)

1 c. oil 1 c. brewed coffee 1 c. milk 2 eggs 1 t vanilla extract

Sift dry ingredients together in a bowl (I actually did this because I have to sift the worms out of my flour). Add oil, coffee and milk and mix together. Add eggs and vanilla and beat for 2 minutes. The batter is thin. Pour into two greased and floured 9" cake pans. Bake at 325 for 25-30 minutes (or over a medium-high flame in a marmite, one at a time). Let cakes cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan (or not, if you only have one pan and a marmite oven).

Ingredients:

1 c. milk 5 T flour 1/2 c. butter 1/2 c. shortening (or all butter) 1 c. sugar 1 t vanilla extract

Combine milk and flour and mix out lumps. Heat in a saucepan until thick. Cover and refrigerate. Beat butter, shortening, sugar and vanilla together until smooth. Add chilled milk/flour paste and beat for 10 minutes. Frost cooled cake.

My sister made this cake for me when I was younger. She got the recipe from Taste of Home, which is where I've copied the recipe from. It is still amazingly delicious and the frosting doesn't require powdered sugar, which is hard to find here.

Ingredients:

3-4 ripe bananas 1/2 c. sugar 1 egg 1 1/2 c. flour

1 t salt 1 t baking soda 1 t lemon juice (or vinegar) 1/3 c. oil

Mash bananas. Add sugar and mix. Add egg and mix. Add flour, salt and baking soda, mix. Add lemon juice (or vinegar) and oil, mix well. Grease a round cake pan and dust with flour. Pour batter into cake pan. Cook in a marmite oven over medium heat for 20-30 minutes, until a knife or toothpick comes out clean. (Or, if you're equipped, bake in a loaf pan for 1 hour at 350˚F).
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This is my revision of the Banana Bread recipe from the Cameroon PCV cookbook Chop Fayner. I baked it a few times when the Engineers Without Borders were visiting. Even the Cameroonians helping them liked it!

Ingredients:

1 ¼ c. sugar 1/3 c. butter/margarine 1 c. milk 1 ¾ c. flour

2 ½ t baking powder 1 t salt 1 egg 1 t vanilla

Cream butter and sugar. Add half of milk and vanilla, mix well. Mix flour, baking powder and salt. Add flour mix gradually. Mix egg and second half of milk. Add to batter. Mix well. Pour into greased pan (9x9, or what have you). Bake at 375˚ for 25 min, or in a marmite oven over medium flame until a knife/toothpick comes out clean.

While the cake is cooking, make chocolate sauce.

Cameroon Chocolate Sauce
Ingredients:
Margarine
Matinal (or other cocoa mix)

Melt margarine over low heat, add Matinal or other cocoa mix to desired consistency. If you live outside of Cameroon, you probably can find a better recipe with better ingredients. However, this one is delicious. Serve cake with chocolate sauce. Yum.

At home in Alaska, my sister would cook up One-Egg Cake with chocolate sauce as a spur of the moment dessert. It was a staple dessert for winter nights, the perfect addition to an evening of reading or playing games with the fam.