"Pink on Top" Jamaican Grater Cake
The School Gate & Corner Shop
At the three-thirty school bell, the Jamaican school gate floods with crumpled Jamaican dollars, women selling brilliant, sugar-bound treats designed to survive the Caribbean heat. Before supermarkets sanitized our snacks, Pink Pon Top set the standard, a chewy confection demanding fresh coconut run across a box grater, tumbling into a heavy pot. By boiling a smashed knob of ginger directly in the syrup and extracting it before adding the coconut, grandmothers impart a bright, spicy warmth. Grate the meat fine, wait until the sugar blisters, and do not skip the red food coloring, yielding a finish that tastes of scorched cane sugar and hot asphalt.
Ingredients
- unsweetened desiccated coconut3 cup
- granulated white sugar2 cup
- water1/2 cup
- fresh ginger root1 small
- kosher salt1/4 tsp
- almond essence or clear vanilla extract1/2 tsp
- red food coloring3 drop
- neutral oil1 tsp
Method
- 01
Grease an 8x8-inch baking dish lightly with neutral oil, or line it with parchment paper.
This candy sets up quickly, so you need your pan ready to go before the sugar begins to crystallize.
- 02
Combine the sugar, water, and smashed ginger in a heavy-bottomed pot over medium heat, stirring constantly until the sugar dissolves.
Allow the mixture to come to a bubbling simmer and cook for 5 to 7 minutes, watching closely to ensure the sugar stays clear and does not brown.
- 03
Once the syrup forms large, thick, lazy bubbles and smells deeply of ginger, fish out the smashed root and discard it.
You have captured its soul; you no longer need the body.
- 04
Reduce the heat to medium-low, add the desiccated coconut and salt, and stir vigorously.
Cook for 3 to 5 minutes until all excess liquid evaporates, the mixture becomes highly sticky, and the coconut pulls away from the sides of the pot in a unified mass.
- 05
Remove the pot from the heat immediately, stir in the almond essence, and press two-thirds of the white mixture into an even layer in your prepared baking dish.
Work quickly with the back of a spoon or spatula before the sugar matrix cools and hardens.
- 06
Add the red food coloring to the remaining one-third of the mixture in the pot, stirring vigorously until it takes on a uniform, vibrant pink hue.
If the mixture has cooled too much to spread easily, add a teaspoon of hot water and place it over low heat for 30 seconds to loosen it up, then spread this pink layer evenly over the white base.
- 07
Let the pan sit at room temperature for 25 to 30 minutes to cool and harden.
While it is still slightly warm and pliable, cut it into squares, then leave it to cool entirely until it is crusty on the outside and wonderfully chewy on the inside.
Notes
Seek out unsweetened desiccated coconut to avoid a cloying, sickly-sweet candy.
If you are forced to use standard sweetened American baking flakes, you must reduce the granulated sugar to 1 1/4 cups or the candy will fail to set. Pulse large flakes in a food processor a few times to mimic the fine texture of a traditional Jamaican box grater.
A pinch of natural beetroot powder is an excellent substitute for artificial dye.
Stir it into the final third of the coconut mixture to achieve the identical, earthy pink hue of the corner shop classic without altering the final flavor.
From Cook Jamaican in America.