Azawad. Have you heard about this country?I haven’t. It may be due to my not so strong geographic knowledge, but it may also be due to the fact that it is an unrecognized state, part of Mali. But the country was on the Wikipedia list and on my cakes list, respectively. 😊
In 2012, a local Islamist group and Tuareg rebels proclaimed the independence of a Mali region and the creation of a new state called Azawad. It is the motherland of the Tuaregs and a training site for Al Qaeda terrorists, and the name Azawad comes from the Berber name of a dry river crossing the Niger, Mali and Algeria. The region became as a cradle of civilization in West Africa over the centuries. Each of the three major cities of Azawad on Malian territory – Tombuktu, Kidal and Gao – were capitals of empires that ruled over this part of Africa between the ages of 14 late 19th century at different times. Since 1884, the entire West African region of Azawad is in the possession of France and is referred to as French Sudan, Upper Senegal, Middle Niger, Senegal, and again French Sudan until 1960, when it became part of the independent Republic of Mali. Nowadays without international recognition and doomed to complete isolation, the Saharan nomads face an impossible situation – to defend their independence of Azawad when no one but them believes in it.
I knew it would be hard to find a cake recipe when it came to an African country. For the most part, this continent is very poor, people are hungry, they have no clean water, and it is hardly possible to invent and prepare cakes. After a lot of searching, I came across this recipe for ” Fruit cake with semolina”. Honestly, I was very skeptical about the taste of this dessert. It sounded too simple. – merely ordinary. Due to the lack of an alternative, I decided to prepare it and add something from myself to get a more refined flavor. I will make a sorbet that I will be served along with the cake and which will complement the orange taste of the cake.
For the cake:
120 grams of fine wheat semolina
500 ml whole milk
4 eggs
120 grams of sugar
1 orange
pinch of salt
For the cake topping:
honey / jam / caramel
For the sorbet:
4 oranges
3 bananas
1 tea cup of sugar
1/4 capsule of rum essence
Steps of preparation:
We’re going to start with the cake.
Squeeze the orange juice in a separate container. Heat the milk to boiling. Remove from the heat and add the wheat semolina by stirring continuously. Return the mixture to the hotplate, lower the temperature and stir with a wire stirrer until it thickens. When done, remove the mixture from the hotplate and add the sugar and the orange juice. Stir until a homogeneous mixture is obtained. You should add the eggs one by one by stirring to make the mixture smooth and not to make scrambled eggs instead of a cake mix.
Bake in a 20 cm diameter tray, covered with baking paper at 180 degrees for 35 minutes. Wait for it to cool before carefully removing it from the tray.
Store in a refrigerator for at least 3 hours before serving.
While the cake is cooling, prepare the sorbеt.
Pour the sugar into a small saucepan and pour 1 tea cup of water. Let the mixture boil for about 3-4 minutes, then let it cool down. Drain the orange juice. Put the bananas in a blender, add the rum essence and whisk by gradually pouring the orange juice. Finally, add the sugar syrup and mix. Leave the resulting mixture in the freezer for at least 6 hours, stirring for 30 minutes to mix the products well. If you have an ice cream machine, use it.
Serve the pastry topped with honey, slightly warm jam or caramel. I chose to put jam with mango, orange and chili. Yes, chili! A slightly spicy taste was obtained. For splendor and mood I made some decorations of fondant and orange peel. Plate and serve this cake with the orange – banana sorbet. The tastes combine divinely. And this sorbet won a spot in the shortlist for frequent preparation during the coming summer months.
This is from me and Azawad. After this experiment, I realized that every pastry can become something special if you put in it some imagination and ideas, and also a part of your heart. 😊
Next destination – Azerbaijan.
