Hello!
So, for school, we had to do an African country report. One of the ways we presented our country to the rest of the class was to make a dish from our country and we had an African feast. My country was South Africa, so I made Ystervarkies. "Ystervarkie" means "hedgehog" in Afrikaans. A ystervarkie (the dessert) is a sponge cake coated in a chocolate syrup then rolled in coconut flakes. The coconut flakes are what is supposed to make this dessert resemble a hedgehog, but I don't really think it does. Regardless, they were delicious and I will definitely be making them again!

Ystervarkies (South African lamingtons)

Makes 25 ystervarkies.

Ingredients

Sponge cake:

• 3 tablespoons oil
• 1/3 cup (85 ml) milk
• 3 jumbo eggs or 4 smallish eggs
• 1 cup (250 ml) sugar
• 1 ½ cup (375 ml) flour
• 1 ½ teaspoons (7 ml) baking powder
• ½ teaspoon (2 ml) salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Syrup:

• ¾ cup (180 ml) boiling water
• 1 ½ cups (375 ml) sugar
• ½ teaspoon cream of tartar
• pinch of salt
• 2 tablespoons (30 ml) cocoa
• 1 ½ teaspoon (7 ml) butter
• ½ teaspoon (2 ml) vanilla
• less than 200 gram coconut

Method

Sponge cake:

1. Boil the milk and oil together. Allow to cool
2. Pre-heat oven to 180°C and grease or line a square baking tin sized 22 x 22 x 4cm.
3. Beat the eggs and sugar together until light and creamy. The mixture should be pale and thick. Add the vanilla.
4. Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt over the egg mixture.
5. Fold the milk-and-oil mixture and the flour mixture alternately into the egg and sugar mixture and mix gently.
6. Spoon batter into pan and ensure that the batter is evened out.
7. Bake for about 25 minutes until done.
8. Turn out and leave to cool down completely, preferable overnight (warm, oven-fresh cake crumbles too much), before cutting into squares that measure about 3 cm by 3 cm.

Syrup:

1. Mix the sugar, cocoa and boiling water in a saucepan.
2. Heat the mixture over medium heat to boiling point, while stirring continuously. Boil for 2 minutes.
3. Add butter. Turn heat down until it is just enough to keep the syrup warm.

To make the ystervarkies:

Dip the cake blocks into the syrup, leave to drip out for a few minutes on a wire rack and then roll the blocks in coconut.