Baking over Charcoal

Pot with cake on ebambola

Cindy has started learning how to bake using a large pot on a charcoal cooker, called an ebambola in Lingala. What she was told to do was to get a pot larger than the pan you want to bake in, put 3 small tomato paste or 2 tuna cans in the bottom and fill the bottom with sand to that level. Then you heat up the charcoal fire and put the pot over it. Allow that to heat up a bit and set your baking pan on the cans in the pot. Put the lid on the pot and away she bakes. The challenge she is finding is getting a hot enough charcoal fire and keeping it hot for the entire baking time.

Her first effort last week was a small lemon bread. It was very good, but it took about an hour and a half to bake and the bottom was starting to burn to the aluminum pan. We’re getting some better pans this week.

Pineapple Upside-Down Cake

This past weekend she did pineapple upside-down cake. YUMM!! It was very tasty, great flavor, but a little gummy because the baking was too slow. Nonetheless the four of us, we two plus Tim & Helen Smith who are eating all their meals with us, finished it off in 1 sitting. I mean why not–what else is a good 8×8 cake for??

On Monday she made brownies. Delicious!!