Random smells We are driving in Industrial Area, in the midst of the chaos that is Nairobi traffic and road construction dust. Matatus, motorbikes and people selling kitchen towels and bananas are everywhere. Suddenly we enter the twilight zone of smells. That yummy smell that can only be sugar, butter and baking. House of Manji…
Category: Cakes & Cookies
Cocopine Upside Down Cake
Buy or borrow books In which category do you fall? All my life I have been an avid reader. My home is filled with books. But (insert the current crime-scene music that everyone is adding to their Instagram stories and a horrified emoji), the truth is I have actually bought very few books. Mainly because I…
Cocopine Cake
Buy or borrow books In which category do you fall? All my life I have been an avid reader. My home is filled with books. But (insert the current crime-scene music that everyone is adding to their Instagram stories and a horrified emoji), the truth is I have actually bought very few books. Mainly because I…
Coconut Cake
Want to bake something different? Coconut cake is delicious but I find it needs to be eaten a few hours after it has been taken out of the oven—at its moistest. The next day though, even though it is still delicious, it is a bit dry. What’s with the weird designs in the cake pictures?…
Marble Cake for a Crowd!
Why? You promised a bunch of boys cake—big boys, small boys, it doesn’t matter. Or for a family gathering. Basically you need a huge cake. And you are not in the mood to bake two different cakes, or double recipes. Awatif’s recipe to the rescue. It is delicious and does not sacrifice moistness because of…
Coconut Lime Zucchini Bread
What shall we name this cake? Courgette cake somehow doesn’t sound as delicious so we will stick with the above. You call it bread but it looks like cake The concept of courgette/zucchini cake is very similar to carrot cake. It is an oil cake but slightly denser (hence its being called a bread and…
Date Cake
Family traditions For our Sunday suppers I almost always bake dessert, and then have the leftover cake or cookies with tea the next day. I photographed this cake on Tuesday evening, that’s why there’s only a third of it left. Which recipe? It had been awhile since I baked a date cake and found two…
Lemon Yoghurt Cake
This French lemon cake ni mambo yote (is everything!). I came across it two weeks ago on the blog Dinner a Love Story. I tried it and have since baked it four times in two weeks. Some lemon oil cake recipes I made in the past for me hit the same notes as lemon mandazis…
Easy Lemon Cake!
This French lemon cake ni mambo yote (is everything!). I came across it two weeks ago on the blog Dinner a Love Story. I tried it and have since baked it four times in two weeks. Some lemon oil cake recipes I made in the past for me hit the same notes as lemon mandazis (beignets). And that’s alright,…
Gluten-Free Chocolate Cake
Creative cooks Rita is a genius at gluten-free baking. And not just gluten-free baking, but gluten-free on a budget. Major problem—she is a truly creative cook and so almost never makes the same thing twice. I have been forcing her to write down her recipes so that I can copy and post them here (more…