LIKE me, many may not fancy cake baking though they are cake lovers. The thought of creaming butter for hours and making fruits just seem to be too much work for many.
However the tradition of a Guyanese Christmas constitutes that at least a pan of black cake should be in the home for the holidays, as should gingerbeer, pepperpot and mauby. For those who do not consume alcohol or are just not fans of black cake, sponge or fruit cake can be good substitutes, “but not box cake; that is downright cheating”, affirms experts of Guyanese Christmas.

Making a Guyanese Christmas a reality for many homes in Linden and around Guyana is well known cake decorator, Arlene Collins of Amelia’s Ward Linden. I basically had to beg her for a quick second to interview her for this piece. She was as usual busy baking scores and scores of black, fruit and sponge cakes for her clients, who just can’t get the job done, or may be too busy to do it.

Reflecting to when she started, Arlene said it was in the 1980’s when she attended a graduation of a friend at the YMCA and it was there she knew she had to be in the next batch. “When I was there I just wanted to jump out my seat, something within me started beating and I wanted to do the course too,” she noted.

Arlene was then successful at the beginners and advanced courses of cake decoration after which she immediately started receiving clients little by little. She not only baked Christmas cakes, but for weddings as other events as well.

While the process may be tedious, she has come to love what she does and does it to the best of her ability. This I can attest to, since I always go crazy over Arlene’s black cakes. The texture, the taste, the composition of ingredients are always right.

Describing the entire process of making traditional Christmas black cakes, Arlene said, “I would first start creaming the butter and the sugar with the lard, I would add my other ingredients such as rose water, eggs, burn my sugar, smalta and so forth but I never use baking powder and then I would make sure everything is right before I place it in the oven,” she said.

While she completed the cake decorating course, Arlene still believes that her prayers before baking each cake add to its perfection and so she gave God praise for bringing her thus far, as this has been her only means of earning.

Arlene testified that almost all of her customers would refer her and she has additional customers in that way. “I bake cake for persons on the West Bank of Demerara, Berbice and Georgetown that I have not even met, all through my customers in Linden,” she related. “These persons would just have one bite of my cake and then send in their orders and up to now I haven’t seen their faces.”

This Christmas, Arlene has already baked 20 pounds of fruit cake, 10 pounds of sponge cake and 36 pounds of black cake for families this season. She said that it melts her heart to know that she is completing the package of preparation for the holidays in someone’s home and plans to do so for years to come.