Cool Runnings Boat Cruises – Sweet Potato Pudding or Pone

When we were pickney they were saying on the road to Ocho Rios, remember the pone? So then your writer had to explain to the visitors to the Cool Runnings Boat Cruises blog post what pone is and why it is so important to anyone born or brought up in Jamaica.

So, what is pone? We remember a sticky, moist, sweet cake that tasted of all the holidays rolled into one bite. And, it was made of sweet potato. Yes, sweet potato and if you wanted you could even drizzle some sugary treacle over the top or even better condensed milk poured straight from the can.

So, how do we make Sweet Potato Pone? Well, we discussed this when sitting in a quiet corner of the beach looking over the sparkling Caribbean Sea. We dug our toes into the warm, white sand and thought. We also know that pone or pudding can also be made with yam or cornmeal. It is an excellent eggless and milk-less cake. It travels well, which is why it may be served up on a day out, or at a picnic.

Excellent photo of sweet potatoes by Lliez via Wikimedia https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ipomoea_batatas_006.JPG

Potato Pudding – Pone Recipe

Cool Runnings Boat Cruises can tell you right from the start that you will need around two to five pounds of sweet potatoes depending on how large you want your cake to be. You will also need flour, ginger, nutmeg, vanilla, grated coconut, raisins, butter and vanilla.

Don’t worry we have not given you the exact amounts here because we have given you a few links to recipes below. So you can chose.

You will be mixing all the ingredients in a pan, keep back the coconut milk and the butter, add more coconut or evaporated milk. Pour into a greased baking pan and cook until a knife put in the centre comes out clean if your pone is cooked.

Chef Ricardo, you will find a YouTube link below, will remind you to put your pudding or pone in the middle of your oven. He also advises grating your sweet potato BY HAND. Yup. But he also suggests adding rum to the recipe, so you could maybe take a sip just to keep your strength up for the grating by hand part.