Brown sugar and coriander cake with honey-cream cheese topping and apricots…

Dear Readers, I have been working my way through a baking book (‘Sift – The Elements of Great Baking’ by Nicola Lamb) and this week I reached this cake. Well, it doesn’t look quite as professional as the one in the photo but boy does it taste good. The secret and mysterious ingredient is coriander seed (ground, of course) – it gives a strange citrussy, slightly sour note that really blends well with everything else. And that set me wondering if anyone had ever done a poem about coriander, and here we are. I love the way that this poem conjures up a whole person through scent and sound, without ever describing her appearance.

Auntie
Nadine Aisha Jassat

My Aunt’s hands are soft and brown
and they smell like cumin and coriander.
She is a gardener in the kitchen.

Auntie, I remember your skin
the way some people remember the bus route.
I know I need to trace it to go home.

The world of work, bus bells and sirens
are harsh alarm clocks.
I would rather wake gently,
in 5 am light,
to your softly whispered duas
welcoming the morning.