Yum! These are typically just a little smaller than a tennis ball.
Alice is my favorite fat cake vendor. She gets up at 4:30am to start making them.
Fat cakes (aka Fatty cakes or Phat cakes) are a real South African treat. Their technical name are Vetkoeks, Dutch for fat/oil cake or cookies. Basically, they are fried dough balls, but when you’ve gone six months or more without a Krispy Kreme or Dunkin’ doughnut, they taste pretty good. Apparently, Michelle Obama tried them when she visited SA last summer. She endeared herself to the country when she gave them a thumbs up! You can read all about it if you Google “fat cakes South Africa.”
I was first introduced to these treats during PC training. Several host mothers of other PCVs would make them for their PCVs to take for lunch. Both of my host moms have diabetes, so I knew it wasn’t going to happen for me. Later, I found some women selling them at the entrance to the office park where we often had training classes. It was just as well that we didn’t go to that site everyday.
After moving to site, I found a couple of women who occasionally sell them at one of the schools or the taxi stand. The woman at school sells them for 2-for-one-rand or about 7 cents each! Who could resist? They are unhealthy so I don’t indulge too often. However, I now have a recipe, so when the weather cools down a bit, I’ll give them a try myself.
