Adventura De La Gringa: The Cake

Hey Everyone!

I know it's been a while since my last post. The internet has been up and down this week; the terrorist bombs damaged the fiber-optic lines in Kampala, so the company has been repairing it this week. We are all well; we live 3-4 hours west of Kampala in the little village of Kaihura, so there is very little chance that we would be targeted.

So life has been good in the village. The first Embrace Uganda team left last Saturday, and another team arrives next week. So this week has been a week to recuperate a little.

Recently Dorcas had their third graduation ceremony; Dorcas doesn't have a graduation every year. They hold them every two or three years. This was the graduation for class of 2008 & 2009, so together they make up the class of 2010. There were 62 graduates in the areas of tailoring/design, nursery school teacher, carpentry/agriculture, general studies. It was a wonderful day for the graduates.

There were many speeches and gifts given and in the end there was cake. Only it was served Ugandan style. Normally we (westerners) would cut the cake into pieces and serve them on individual plates to everyone...Not in Uganda.

I was asked to bake a cake that would serve 80 people, so that's what I did. Little did I know that it would serve about 200 people. In Uganda, they cut a large piece of cake and put it on a plate. Then they proceed to chop it into little pieces, so that it doesn't resemble cake any more but a mangled mess. Then they serve it, and each person grabs a handful off of the communal plate and eats it with their fingers. (I'm grateful for forks, plates and napkins.)

Everyone enjoyed the cake; for many it was the first time that they had tasted a typical graduation cake. It was an unforgettable experience.

Here are some pictures of the cake making process.

There was cake everywhere. I burned 1 so I had make another batch. I ended up baking 10 cakes that day.

The cake was actually 8 small cakes put together.

I'm glad that I was not alone making this cake, Amos came and helped me from start to finish. We didn't have an electric mixer so we mixed everything by hand. He decided it was easier to mix the frosting African style...by hand. Thanks Amos; you're awesome!