Tongan Pumpkin Cake

"The Friendly Islands "is the name Captain Cook gave to the island nation Tonga nearly 250 years ago, a title that still holds true. When visiting Tonga  I got to experience the 'Friendly People' first hand, their hospitality and generosity surpasses none.

Today I share the Tonga Pumpkin Cake recipe I got on my trip to Tonga in 1983. I still have it "hand-written" in my first ever personal recipe book.

In summer with a nice light cup of tea, add a dash of whipped cream with a slice of this cake for a sweet treat for morning or afternoon tea. In the winter this cake makes a warming dessert that you can have with custard.

To make it an even richer cake that is often  favoured in the cafe culture of New Zealand, I have added a maple and cinnamon icing decorated with dried tropical fruits, walnuts and pumpkin seeds.

TONGAN PUMPKIN CAKE

Ingredients:

3 eggs                                                                           1½ teaspoon nutmeg

¾ cup vegetable oil                                                         1½ teaspoon cinnamon

2 cups sugar                                                                   ½ teaspoon allspice

2 cups pumpkin pulp                                                        ½ teaspoon ground cloves

2 cups standard flour                                                       Optional: 1 cup raisins and/or ½ cup walnuts

1 ½ teaspoon baking powder                                            icing sugar to sprinkle

1 teaspoon salt                                                                   

Beat sugar, oil and eggs together until the mix goes pale yellow colour.  Mix in pumpkin pulp.

Sift together remaining dry ingredients and mix into the pumpkin mixture.

Finally add the raisins and walnuts.

Place into a high wall 20 cm round baking tray.  

Bake at 180 C for 1- 1 ½ hours until the skewer draws clean when checked. Let rest 10 minutes. 

Then remove from baking tray to cool. When cooled, sprinkle with icing sugar.

Alternatively, ice with a maple and cinnamon icing and decorated with walnuts and/or dried tropical fruit mix that includes pumpkin seeds.  YUM!!

Tongan Pumpkin Cake with Maple and Cinnamon Icing

The cake mixture can be cooked as muffins or cupcakes as shown below. This recipe makes approximately one dozen medium sized muffins. 

Tongan Pumpkin Cake Muffins

Maple and cinnamon icing

150 grams butter

2 cups icing sugar

½ cup brown sugar

4 tablespoons maple syrup

1 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon

(add more or less maple syrup and cinnamon according to your taste).

Soften butter and mix in brown sugar, maple syrup and icing sugar and beat until the icing goes a pale brown colour.  Mix in the cinnamon. 

My Tips: 

Pumpkin pulp: I used butternut pumpkin, peeled and steamed, then mashed it. Crown pumpkin can also be used. Which ever pumpkin you use, go for something that is sweet and has a dense flesh. You don't want something that when cooked goes really mushy and watery. 

Vegetable oil: I use grape-seed oil as it is a light oil that takes on the flavours of the other ingredients of the recipe. Other light flavoured vegetable oils may be used. 

Tea in Tonga

I was never much of a tea drinker. My parents always drank tea but it was not a drink I naturally took up as I entered adulthood unlike many of my peers. I would mainly drink water, and on rare occasions Mum would splash out and buy some cordial like 'Thrifty®' or the overly sweet 'Raro®'. How I cringe at the thought of those overly sweetened and artificially coloured sachet drinks.

When I had tried tasting tea, I had found it extremely strong and unpleasant, and never liked the traditional milky brew of my British ancestors.

At the end of my secondary schooling I joined a summer work-camp of New Zealand students to the southern Tongan island of 'Eua. We painted the classrooms of the Horticultural College over a period of three weeks. In between we got to discover the  delights of 'Eua and Tongan lifestyle. The beaches, swimming around coral reef areas, climbing coconut trees, and the 'friendly people'.

Our meals were cooked by our Tongan hosts. Lots of taro, fish, green bananas in coconut milk and crusty  'homemade' bread shipped in from Nuku'alofa and the loveliest Tongan pumpkin cake for dessert.

Then there were the amazing Tongan feasts held for us after Sunday church where we were treated like Kings and Queens. The feasts were village affairs prepared by the community which in themselves were a testimony celebrating the approach of collective food contributions and collaborative village work that is needed to provide such a feast. Suckling pigs, fish and Tongan chop suey, the most tasty caramel coconut dumpling pudding called faikakai and watermelon based fruit salad were just a few of the feast delights. We quickly learnt not to leave our plate bare at the end of a meal.   Unlike 'palangi' (white) culture where you showed you enjoyed your meal by eating all that was served to you, leaving the plate bare, in Tonga meant you were still hungry. Consequently your hosts would try and put more food on your plate to ensure you got enough that fulfilled your appetite. Only by leaving food on your plate did it indicate you had eaten enough that you were full and could eat no more thus indicating to your hosts that they had done a great job satisfying your needs. 

Tongan Pumpkin Cake

During our time in Tonga for one weekend all the students were billeted out to stay with families in one of 'Eua's villages. We got to experience living with a Tongan family. 

As per tradition our meals were made by the family. My offers to help with any food preparation over the weekend, with a desire to learn the secrets of Tongan cooking, were kindly declined.  As a guest my meal was served separate to the family and away from where they would later eat. With each meal, Tongan tea was served. As a non-tea drinker, I suddenly had to learn to drink tea.  It would have been highly disrespectful to decline.  

Milk was not an ingredient that was readily available and most homes had no refrigeration. The best alternative was imported sweetened condensed milk and that was not cheap commodity. The tea was reminiscent of my prior tea tastings experiences. It was a dark brew of black tea similar to the tea brands that dominated the New Zealand supermarkets in the 80's. However this brew was far more palatable by the additive of condensed milk making it an intensely sweet and creamy hot drink.

On Sunday we all attended church dressed in traditional attire. Again after church there was a feast in our honour and then we went home and slept. As it was Sunday, there was no partying or kava drinking on the 'Sabbath day' so the village waited until after midnight and we all gathered at the local hall and Tongan danced into the wee hours while the men drank kava to one side. The experience was mind blowing for this teenager and the hospitality overwhelming. I loved it and I wanted to be Tongan! Returning to New Zealand was a bit of a cultural shock as I stepped off the plane in my Tongan clothing back into New Zealand westernized culture. 

Even though on my return to New Zealand I didn't take up drinking tea for many many years, the enduring hospitality of my Tongan hosts and the sweetness of that tea was reminiscent of my whole visit to Tonga. Tea in Tonga left an enduring essence of gratitude. Those who had very little gave up much to host this white teenager providing every comfort that I might need.  The strength, richness, sweetness and warmth of that tea could only symbolize the cultural richness and hospitality of the 'Friendly People' of Tonga and in particular the people of 'Eua. 

Tea and Toast

As a child Saturday and Sunday mornings were the days when Mum and Dad would sometimes have a bit of a lie in. I recall my father would get up to make a cup of tea for him and Mum. He would wonder back to the bedroom with two cups of tea sat on sauces with either a couple of pieces of buttered toast or a slice of fresh white buttered bread folded in half balancing on the side of the saucer.

This post is a homage to my father Alan Poole who has since passed away but imparted such a loving and enduring memory of his caring for my mother with 'tea and toast' on those weekends mornings. 

This memory laid the platform for my own journey in discovering tea and the foods that accompany tea.  I intend to explore an eclectic array of teas, different blends from around the world as well as within New Zealand. This will include fruit and herbal blends along with those teas made with our New Zealand native plants. 

So go make a cup of tea, sit back and relax. Sip and enjoy your delicious brew of tea wherever you are in the world.