Plastic Cake: A Belizean Delicacy Born from Tradition

Garifuna Settlement Day is almost here, and Belizeans everywhere have already begun their celebrations. Whether it’s vibing to Andy Palacio’s greatest hits at home or dancing Punta down south, Garifuna Settlement Day celebrations are in full swing. For one Belize City family, the day is all about tradition and hard work. Instead of just enjoying the festivities, they spend hours in the kitchen preparing authentic Garifuna dishes so others can savor the culture. For years, Daisy Mae Valencio and her daughter have been serving up these flavors, and tonight, they let us in on their secret, starting with a crowd favorite: cassava pudding. In this edition of Kolcha Tuesday, News Five’s Britney Gordon takes us inside their kitchen and their legacy.

 

Britney Gordon, Reporting

Garifuna Settlement Day is celebrated in many ways, some toast the occasion with family and friends, others dance the night away. For Daisy Mae and her family, the celebration happens in the kitchen, where they prepare a mouthwatering spread of traditional Garifuna dishes. Among those dishes is a local favorite, cassava pudding. According to her, the nineteenth wouldn’t be complete without making a couple notches.

 

Daisy Mae Valencio, Cook

“People love the cassava pudding, the way how it has been made. So people always ask for it.”

 

Cassava pudding or plastic cake, as many Belizeans know it, is a traditional dessert made from grated cassava, coconut milk, sugar, and spices, baked into a dense, sticky, and flavorful treat. It’s just one of the many recipes Valencio learned growing up in her family’s kitchen.

 

Daisy Mae Valencio

“My mom would make it. And I would normally stand up and watch how my mom make it, so I learned from her.”

 

Daisy Mae, who lives in Barranco Village, made the trip to Belize City to join her daughter, Marsha Valencio, in preparing traditional Garifuna dishes ahead of the holiday. Here, they bond over the hours spent grating cassava and coconut. Although it’s time-consuming work, Marsha explains that it is that extra step to include fresh ingredients that make their food so special.

 

Marsha Valencio, Cook

“Because everything natural, the real tradition I guess like weh you woulda seh the ancestors do.”

 

The mother-daughter team says the secret to a perfect cassava pudding starts with getting the spice blend just right. This includes nutmeg, cinnamon and of course, ginger. Marsha shares that these are flavors found in several Garifuna dishes.

 

Marsha Valencio

“Before the cassava pudding they have dani. That one is like the one we boil. My mom do that one too. And people love that one too. Nineteenth we usually find dani. So now people more like the cassava pudding, but da the same thing, just that one boil and one bake.”

 

Daisy Mae has been cooking for over thirty years and continues to do so out of a passion for sharing her culture with others in her community.

 

Daisy Mae Valencio

“It’s very important because even if we don’t want to make it, sometimes I say I don’t want to cook for this nineteenth. People would call, are you going to make food? Are you going to make hudut? So it’s very hard to get away from it because then people do ask for it.”

 

Alongside her famous plastic cake recipe, Daisy Mae has also passed down her passion for the craft and the two continue to cook together until the work is done.

 

Daisy Mae Valencio

“Da wa exciting moment, at the same time, hard work. People look out for it, ’cause something you want take a break, go enjoy the nineteenth. But this, da the way how we enjoy it, di work like this. And they’re not just like couple hours the whole night we are busy di prepare for the nineteenth.” 4

It is guaranteed that if there are people to celebrate Garifuna Settlement Day, there will be a need for home-made Garifuna food and Daisy Mae, Martha, and her grandchildren are willing to do what it takes to keep that tradition alive. Britney Gordon for News Five.