Somalia – Doolshe Buuro

by Tanomba Thati

Talking about cakes in Somalia, you may be referring to most needed cuisine, start with spongy cakes to pound cakes. Pound cakes were merely produced at homes and sold in the tea shops.

Somalia is located in the western part of African continent, simply located at the horn of Africa. It is bordered with Ethiopia to it’s west, Kenya to the south west of the country and to the east part is Indian Ocean.

Pound cakes like Doolshe Buuro were once prepared with a secret-like guarded recipe, but now you can have it at your home kitchen.

The cake is mixed with vanilla, milk and butter to enhance it’s taste, despite of various version during preparations. There some of the Doolshe Buuro that are plain and the ones mixed with nuts, and yet tastes as much as the same with addition of nuts taste.

Doolshe Buuro cuisine will credit you with respect from your guests, friends or partner due to the taste it provides from carefully traced procedures during preparation. I warmly welcome you to this recipe, tricky during preparation yet sweet and yummy while eating.

Things to consider

• 2 cups of any purpose flour
• 1/4 cup of milk
• 1 cup of white sugar
• 1/2 cup of softened butter
• 1/2 cup of vegetable oil (Canola oil is recommended for this cake)
• 3 eggs
• 1 tbsp of vanilla
• 1 tbsp butter
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1 orange zest
• 1/4 tbsp of salt (it’s optional though I recommend to use)

Baking steps

• Heat oven to 350°F/177°C. It is better to keep the first step at first when baking.
• Extract zest from orange, add sugar, oil, and softened butter into the mixer bowl. Beat for about 5 minutes at fast speed.
• Add eggs, zest, vanilla, baking powder and salt, beat fast for 2 minutes.
• Add the flour into the mix, mix for 1 minute, followed with milk, beat for 1 minute like in flour.
• Grease the cake pan using 1 tbsp of butter then bake for 45 minutes.
• Once done with baking, let it cool for about 10 minutes. Remove from the pan and serve in pieces on a plate.
• Enjoy the cake, serve with tea, juice or coffee.