Monday 16 January 2012

A Multi-Layered Cake for a Multi-Cultural Country


“Black notes, white notes and you need the two to make a harmony, folks!” – Spike Milligan

There really is nothing as sweet and tasty as multiculturalism and this beautifully layered cake is our very own tribute to that fact.

Indeed making a cake in which the careful layering of vanilla, chocolate and red velvet sponge – each with its own very distinct flavour – produces a wickedly delicious whole should be particularly relevant in a country such as ours.

We live in a country where the word tribalism plays way too prominent role. The Hausas apparently don’t like Ibo people, the Muslims don’t like the Christians and the Yorubas always seems to be fighting amongst themselves. Then there’s this confusing issue of the south south vs. the south east vs. the south west vs. the North vs. whichever geographical region you can makeup using the various points on a compass.

I’ve got a suggestion – lets play the metaphor game and see if we can learn  about pressing social issues through cake. Lets say that the Yorubas are the red velvet sponge or, as I like to call it, the owambe sponge – festive, fun and full of pizazz. The Ibos then would be the vanilla sponge; there are well-established Ibo communities dotted all over Nigeria and so like vanilla cake they seem to blend well with everything. The chocolate base would be the Hausas – luxurious, dense (in population for the Hausas and in texture for the cake) and perhaps darkened a touch by that south Saharan sun. So now we’re left with the minority tribes – like the frosting in between each layer – the glue that holds the various parts together. It may not be the most prominent part of the cake but trust me a cake without icing would be pretty dull.

So you see its really easy to visualize our entire country in a slice of our delicious multi-layered cake with each part being very different yet coming together to make a pretty awesome whole. The removal of one part whether it be the chocolate, vanilla or red velvet sponge or the critical cream cheese frosting would be disaster, and leave the cake lacking a certain je ne sais quoi.

So whilst you all might be out on the streets protesting, we’re gonna be hanging in the kitchen hoping we can teach our fellow Nigerians a little something-something with our sumptuous baked goods. Don’t ever say that baking can’t be deep and profound.

xoxo

Hans and Rene








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