Sugar Cake

Sugar cake is a simple, old-fashioned Antiguan sweet made by cooking grated coconut with sugar until it thickens, then dropping spoonfuls onto a tray to set into chewy, candy-like rounds. Cooks often add ginger or nutmeg for warmth, and a portion is frequently tinted pink, giving the trays of sweets their familiar two-tone look. The texture sits somewhere between fudge and brittle, sweet and full of coconut.

It belongs to the world of childhood treats and market snacks rather than restaurant desserts, the kind of sweet an Antiguan grandmother might still make at home. You will see sugar cake sold alongside tamarind balls, peanut brittle, and coconut drops at the public market in St. John's, at school fairs, and at the big Independence Food Fair held in early November.

Because it keeps well, sugar cake makes an easy edible souvenir to carry home. Buy a few pieces from a market vendor and you have a taste of the island's coconut-and-sugar sweet tradition that survives the journey in your bag.

Sugar cake also tells a small story about Antigua's past. The island was once carpeted with sugar plantations, the windmills of which still stand at sites like Betty's Hope, and cheap local sugar combined with abundant coconut made simple confections like this a natural part of everyday life. Today it is mostly nostalgia and treat, sold a few pieces to a bag. Try it next to a couple of tangy tamarind balls for the classic Antiguan sweet-and-sour pairing that market vendors lay out side by side.