Cupcakes in South Africa are part of cultural identity, one of the things exiles in a foreign land crave. The children are raised on Rooibos tea (an herbal tea) and biscuits. These aren’t the pale, soggy affairs that pass for biscuits in the UK: Farleys biscuits that are given to teething babies and guaranteed to coat your whole house in gooey batter. South African rusks have a texture between bread and cake, with extra bits of raisins or nuts, baked hard, so they need to be soaked in tea or chewed slowly. They do last a long time in an airtight pot, so they are baked in big batches but still don’t last long in our house.
As an English woman married to a South African living in London, I came across biscuits on our visits to her family and was instantly converted. The ‘Ouma Bruscos’ are the famous ones that come in several varieties and we always came home with a few packages in our suitcase. On a longer visit to a country house in Philadelphia, near Cape Town, I found a recipe for baking my own biscuits, tried it, and have been baking them every two weeks ever since.
When our son was a kid who woke up at 5:30 every morning, the only thing that made the morning bearable was thinking about tea and biscuits. Our son started early with them and our sofa became a nest of cushions and crumbs. The first thing he helped bake were biscuits and my patience was always tested as the mixture became the scene of excavations with bulldozers or a castle with a moat. The girls also joined when they were old enough, so for a while I had three boys who were struggling to get their hands on the dough. Now the youngest is an expert at making balls the right size and I have a group of helpful helpers. So, cupcakes have also become part of our family culture, my kids may have missed out on the tradition of rooibos tea (I love it, they hate it), but at least they were properly educated about cupcakes!
Several friends in London fell in love, asked for the recipe and started baking and it has since spread as far afield as Pakistan and the US.
The recipe:
South African Buttermilk Rusks
1.240kg / 2lb12oz flour (I use 1kg wholemeal and the rest white)
2 teaspoons of baking powder
2 teaspoons of baking soda
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
2 teaspoons of salt
250g / 9oz butter
½ cup grapes (optional)
2 eggs
1 ½ cups brown sugar
2 cups buttermilk
1 cup of oil
(1 cup = 250ml)
Preheat oven to 190C/380F
Grease three roughly 20cm x 10cm/8″ x 4″ bottom loaf pans or any deep baking dish combination that adds about the same amount.
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cream of tartar, and salt. Cut the butter into small cubes and rub with the flour. Add grapes if you are using them. You can also experiment with various nuts and seeds, although the biscuits are just as good on their own.
In another bowl, mix together the buttermilk, sugar, eggs, and oil and beat until well combined. Add the liquid to the dry ingredients and mix, then knead into a firm dough.
Shape the dough into balls the size of a ping-pong ball and pack them tightly in one layer in the loaf pans. I usually get six rows of three in each of my cans. Bake for 45 minutes.
Invert onto a wire rack and let cool for 30 minutes before breaking into individual cupcakes along the seams of the balls. Dry in a low oven at 100C/200F for 4-5 hours until the center is completely dry. These can be kept for years in an airtight container.
Warning: guaranteed crumbs on the sofa, in the bed, on the carpet and car seats!
Copyright 2006 Kit Heathcock
