Hi Everyone, In life one should never say “never,” so I won’t say it. What I will say is that it will be a very, very long time before I ever make Chinese cake again, even though I love it so much. There’s just too much work involved. Of course, there is always the reward after that hard work of eating one or four of those delectable pastries.
A Chinese cake is a baked pastry filled with sweetened black-eyed peas, and it’s one of those things that I’ve always wanted to learn how to make. So when a Guyanese friend of Chinese heritage visited over the holidays, I eagerly sought an audience with her to get the recipe and have her talk me through the process. Before she even gave me the recipe she warned that it was a lot of work. But I thought I was up to the challenge, after all, I had stirred a pot of cornmeal cou cou for 90 minutes and the pulp to make guava cheese even longer; I had spent the better part of a day making conkies, from cutting the branches to steaming the packages. I thought I was ready for Chinese cake. I was wrong.
It all started with the cooking of the black-eyed peas. The actual cooking of the peas was easy, but pressing and mashing them through the sieve can get tiresome. You see, the peas immediately begin to dry off as soon as they are out of the water-cooked solution. So you have to put a little more effort into rubbing, mashing and pressing them through the sieve and you have to be sure to scrape the bottom of the sieve so that there’s a clean passage as you continue to mash and press the peas.
Whew, alright that was done; the peas were smooth and creamy, time to cook the mixture for the filling. I had been told that I would have to add equal amounts of sugar to the mashed peas and set it to cook until the mixture came away cleanly from the sides of the pot. I groaned at this prospect. This meant that it was going to take ages and that the heat had to be regulated to avoid scorching and burning. This also meant that I would have to stir the mixture constantly. By the time the filling reached the right consistency and came away easily from the sides of the pot, any chance of making the cakes was shot because the filling had to be cooled completely before being handled. Given the thick soft fudge-like nature of the filling, that meant it would be hours before it cooled completely, so I made a decision there and then that I’d complete the Chinese-cake-making process, the following day.
Actually, later in the evening when the filling cooled, it became solid and I started to panic, was it supposed to get like this? But I kept saying to myself all the time, “Nora said break off a piece of the filling.” So certainly, it meant that the filling would be solid once cooled. I wasn’t convinced though; I worried all night and wondered if I should cook another set of peas. I calmed down enough to overcome that urge.
The next day, it was time to make the pastry dough. You would think that it is one dough to make right? Wrong! There are two different doughs to make this cake/pastry; Nora calls the first one a cheap pastry and the second one a rich pastry. The cheap pastry is one-part shortening to three-parts flour and the rich pastry is one-part shortening to one-part flour. The cheap pastry is made first and set aside as the rich pastry is made. The dough of the rich pastry is divided equally into say, 1 oz pieces and here’s where it gets tricky, one now has to divide the rich pastry, which is considerably less than the cheap pastry, into the same number of parts as the cheap pastry! For example, I got 20 1-oz pieces from my cheap pastry and so I needed to get 20 pieces of the rich pastry, the weight of course was different, all you really need is a little more than a pinch but it’s important that it is equally divided.
Okay so now the pastries were all divided equally. I then had to flatten each piece of cheap pastry, insert a piece of the rich pastry, enclose it by pinching the edges together then flatten it again and roll it thin with a rolling pin. Once rolled, I had to roll up the dough from one end to another, to form like a thick cigarette, once that’s rolled; I twisted it into a swirl. These are necessary and important steps as they provide the necessary layers that are highly desired in a proper Chinese cake.
When I finished filling, flattening, rolling and twisting, I had to fill the dough, again, this time with the black-eye peas filling. This was simple, though it took some time. I made a disk of the dough, broke off a piece of the hard filling and then enclosed it, again by pinching the edges together. It is absolutely necessary that the edges are secured if not the filling will burst through the pastry and burn.
Once I’d finish filling the dough, adding a light egg-wash and a dot of red food colouring for decoration, into the oven went the Chinese cakes for 30 – 40 minutes.
The true test was yet to come; will the hard filling have melted? Is it going to taste like I remembered it? I broke one of the cakes in half and smiled as the pastry broke gently to reveal the layers and the dark, rich, sweet, paste-like filling. I ate it braced up against the cupboard in the kitchen and cast my mind back to my first taste of Chinese cake and one of my fondest memories.
My late Uncle Freddy used to be the head barman at one of the then posh hotels in Guyana, Hotel Tower. Some afternoons, when he worked the shift that would end at 7 pm, my Aunt Betty would take my cousin Keshwar and me for a walk so we could all meet Uncle Freddy as he was coming off his shift. We’d always leave home just as the sun set and with enough time to stop at Faraj’s which used to be at the corner of Main and Quamina streets (now Arapaima). There, Auntie Betty would buy us Chinese cakes and peanut punch. We’d sit on the bench in the avenue and enjoy our treat. I liked biting into my cake and looking up at the bright lights that lit up the hotel outside, all the while waiting for my dear Uncle Freddy.
Nora, thanks for the recipe that’s helped me to recreate a taste and a memory that’s very dear to my heart. Thank you.
Cynthia
tasteslikehome@gmail.com
www.tasteslikehome.org
