Desserts Using Spices

Desserts using spices were common since the time of the Roman Empire.

Long time ago, in Rome, the word cinnamon was equivalent to the current use of "sweetheart" or "darling".

In modern times we are familiar with cinnamon sugar, cinnamon pretzel and cinnamon flavored apple pie or pineapple jam.

Clove and nutmeg are another two spices which we normally use in our sweet treats.

In Asia, sweet Indian dessert like ladu and jalebi maybe are not familiar to many of us. They are very heavy in syrup and very rich in butter or ghee.

To show respect, the young ones offer sweets to the elderly. In return, the elderly give sweet treats to show their pleasure to the young ones. In Malay culture, when a baby girl is born to a family, visiting guests normally give away some desserts to the family, so that the baby girl will grow sweet and charming.

A Malay wedding is also not complete without a gift of sweets to the guests. Old traditional cakes like "pulut kacau" (glutinous rice cakes cooked in molasses) often contains peanuts and cloves.

Nyonya cooking uses spices too in their dessert. An example is bubur cha-cha which uses ginger to flavor this sweet treats. A simple Nyonya dessert  that uses spices is Sweet Potato in Ginger Syrup. I have the recipe here.

Fast forward to a more modern times, gingerbreads are popular in America. If you want to know more about gingerbreads and all their variations, find it all here from Kelly, an expert in making gingerbreads.

I am sure you have heard of this saying: Sugar and spice, and everything nice.

Yes, very nice indeed, as the following three desserts using spices these recipes will show you:

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Kek Lapis Indonesia (Indonesian Layered Spiced Cake)

Nyonya Dessert - Sweet Potato in Ginger Syrup

Jalebi (Apple Fritters in Saffron Syrup)

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