Bread and Roses rule!

WITH International Women’s Day coming up on Saturday, I wanted to take some time out to celebrate women — mothers, sisters, daughters, lovers, friends — all the women who stand up for us, who take care of us, who feed us — body and soul.

A product of the socialist movement of the last century, Women’s Day was initially the brainchild of German socialist Clara Zetkin who at the International Conference of Working Women held in Copenhagen in 1910, proposed that every year in every country there should be a celebration on the same day — a Women’s Day. The first one took place in 1911 — in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland.

1911 also saw women’s “Bread and Roses” campaign. Associated with a successful textile strike in Massachusetts, USA, the slogan pairing bread and roses appealed for both fair wages as well as dignified conditions. We need the basics — but we also need love and beauty.  To celebrate this idea, I wanted to offer a fragrant cardamom cake which seems to embody both bread and roses. Cardamom belongs to the ginger family and is native to India and Pakistan.

It’s a very pretty jungle plant with big broad leaves and orchid-like flowers on long spikes. The spice is the seedpod. Seeds are highly aromatic and give a lovely, oriental twist to cakes, coffees and meat dishes.  I have cooked a wonderful lamb dish flavoured only with peppercorns and cardamom — an amazingly delicious and delicate combination.

This cake comes from Karen Dudley’s lovely cookbook, “A Week in the Kitchen”. (Jacana 2012). Growing up in Cape Town, Karen learned to celebrate diversity and The Kitchen, her tiny, inspirational restaurant in Cape Town’s Woodstock does just that. This cardamom cake is her all time favourite and could become mine too — sweetly scented, light and lemony — it’s a real treat — for tea or breakfast!

Beat together 220g butter, ½ cup sugar, 8Tbps honey and zest from two lemons until creamy. Add 4 egg yolks one at a time. Into a separate bowl sift 2 cups flour, 1tsp baking powder, 1 tsp bicarb and a pinch of salt. Fold the batter into the dry ingredients alternately with 1 cup Greek yoghurt. Add 2/3 cup sultanas and 1 tpsp of cardamom seeds (about 25 pods – crushing the pods slightly in a mortar and pestle helps to get the seeds out.) Beat egg whites till stiff and fold into the mixture. Pour into a greased tin lined with baking paper — you need quite a big one — 22cm diameter minimum — and sprinkle with sesame seeds.
Cook at 180 degrees for about an hour.

Meantime make a syrup by boiling together juice of 2 lemons, 6 tbsp honey and rind of I lemon. Pour the cooled syrup over the warm cake. Enjoy! Annually on 8 March, thousands of events are held throughout the world to inspire women and celebrate achievements.  Increasingly, it’s a time to reflect on progress made, to call for change and to celebrate acts of courage and determination by ordinary women who have played an extraordinary role in the history of their countries and communities.

This year’s theme is “Inspiring Change” and Harare’s Book Café is one of the places which pulls out all stops for the sisters on Saturday.  Starting at 11am with a health conscious “Weigh-in Party”, the day moves on to SISTAZ OPEN MIC in the afternoon with a special presentation “Women Scream” — and culminates in the evening with a debut perfomance by women’s acapella group Nobuntu from Bulawayo followed by local star Prudence Katomeni-Mbofana with afrojazz singer Rute Mbangawa.

Bread and Roses rule!

g.jeke@yahoo.com