I Love To Cook! It Gives Me Joy!

By Mabi Azefor Fominyen

I remember growing up as a young girl in a family of seven (five girls and two boys). Our mother made sure the girls all took turns to cook. She would teach us many recipes and how to prepare food using the ingredients available at home at any given time - put simply: how to "manage" .

Each one of us received feedback and ratings for the food we prepared. Good ratings were quite motivating and made us love cooking the more! I still remember the family sitting on the dinning table and my mum saying "thanks to today's cook, keep it up, may be next time you have to reduce the amount of oil you put in the beans" and I would actually feel some relief, just like my sisters did each time mum commented on the food.

I have never stopped cooking and doing my own ratings since then. In fact I love all that has to do with cuisine. At home I spend the greater part of my time in the kitchen. I am passionate about collecting and trying out new recipes. Posting them on the fridge as well as sharing them with others.

As a TV -Presenter, I carried along my love for cookery to the 3-hour breakfast show "HELLO" on the Cameroon National Television(CRTV) , launched in February 2006. It was the first time-ever that viewers were witnessing live-cooking on Cameroonian Television.

As a duet with "Hello"s consultant Mrs Mathilda Ntamack (Auntie Mathilda) - an educationist/home-economist with a passion for cookery - we prepared a variety of items on the set. We explained to viewers the different steps to follow for certain recipes as well as served food to the guests on the live-show. We made quick breakfast options, salads, pastries, desserts and lots of other recipes.

The feedback from Viewers was terrific!

Cooking on the "Hello" set became a tradition with viewers watching out for the new recipes and cookery tips each day I came on set. I upheld the tradition even when "Auntie Mathilda" became less regular on set. I didn't mind that this entailed buying the items and transporting the utensils from my kitchen to "Hello's kitchen".

How about sharing with you, my latest recipe for what I call home-made six simple cup-cakes

2 cups of all purpose flour,

1/2 cup of sugar,

1/2 cup oil or butter,

1/2 cup milk

2 eggs, 3-teaspoons of baking powder,

1 teaspoon vanilla flavour and /or nutmeg.

• Heat oven to 350°F or 175° C
• Whisk the egg white, add and mix sugar, oil or butter, vanilla and milk.
• Mix the dry ingredients separately before combining the wet and dry ingredients ( flour, baking powder, nutmeg)
• Gradually add into the mixture and be sure its smooth, then beat the yoke add and mix well.
• Oil the cake pan, fill in the six -cups and bake for 25 - 30 minutes. Remove, leave to cool for about 2minutes before removing them from the cake pan.

Try it out , its easy and delicious.

Enjoy it!