Top 20 Most Popular Desserts in Guyana
Guyana is a beautiful tropical paradise in South America known for its lush rainforests and mighty rivers.
As a country with a deep-rooted history of British and Dutch influence, there is much more to this little slice of paradise.
The Guyanese population now consists of six ethnic groups: the Amerindians, the nation’s first inhabitants; the Africans, East Indians, Chinese, Portuguese, and Europeans. With this blend of influences, the culture is incredibly diverse – just one more thing that makes Guyana unique.
With all these global influences and the incredible quality of the local produce, you can bet the food is to die for!
Here we focus on 20 ‘to-die-for’ sweets and typical Guyanese desserts to indulge in whenever you visit and are in the mood for something to satisfy your sweet tooth.
Want to learn more about Guyanese food culture? Also, make sure to check our rankings of the best Guyanese foods!
1. Cassava Pone
Cassava pone is not a cake or a pudding. Instead, it’s a treat that falls somewhere in the middle. As the name suggests, cassava is the main ingredient.
Grated cassava is mixed with coconut, spices, milk, and sugar to create this decadent dessert. The mixture is baked until it turns a rich, dark golden color. The end product is a dense and moist crumbly cake with crunchy edges, with a unique and unforgettable texture and taste.
2. Fruit Cake
Almost every country has a take on fruit cake, but the Guyanese version is very different.
Popular around the Christmas season, Guyanese fruit cake does not use whole pieces of fruit or nuts. Instead, it uses bits of macerated fruit (raisins, currants, prunes, maraschino (cocktail) cherries). The fruit is soaked in red wine months before the cake is made, giving it enough time to soften and absorb the flavors thoroughly.
Unlike the thick, heavy fruit cake found in many other countries, Guyanese fruit cake is a moist, light, fluffy cake full of interesting little bits of soaked fruit to bite into.
To add a grown-up twist, some cooks add a finishing touch to their creations by pouring over some alcohol and leaving it to soak in. This gives it an added kick and preserves the cake, the fruit, and the nuts for an even longer shelf life.
3. Sugar Cake
If you’re in the mood for a flaky sugary treat, then a piece of sugar cake is just what you need! Sugar cake is hardly a cake; it is little squares of coconut mixed with spices and sugar.
The shredded coconut, spices, and sugar are reduced to a sticky consistency. They are molded into squares, or any shape you want, and left to cool and harden slightly.
The result is an irresistible combination of the sugar’s sweetness and the softened coconut’s irresistible nutty flavor, which still has a good bite to it.
Some recipes use natural cane sugar, which gives the sugar cake a natural brown color. Others use white sugar to decorate with food coloring to create a pretty, rainbow-colored, scrumptious treat.
4. Custard Block
Custard block is an irresistible frozen treat with cinnamon and nutmeg to wake your taste buds.
This dessert, perfect for a hot day, is made with evaporated milk, condensed milk, cinnamon, nutmeg, almond, vanilla essence, and, unsurprisingly, custard powder.
Custard block was the homemade ice cream of many locals back in the day. But it doesn’t have the creamy consistency of ice cream. It is more like a simple block of ice. However, custard takes longer to melt than water, so when it does, you’re left with a slushy, milky combination that is a treat to eat.
5. Peera
Peera is the Guyanese version of the Indian dessert peda. Guyanese peera is made from evaporated milk and sugar that is boiled down to a taffy-like consistency.
Taffy, in case you’ve yet to come across it, is a boiled candy usually made from sugar, molasses or corn syrup, butter, and sometimes vinegar and vanilla. It’s porous and glossy.
The secret to getting the best consistency for your peera is constantly stirring the mixture so it doesn’t burn. When cool enough to touch, the mixture is rolled into little balls. Popping one of these in your mouth and swirling it around releases the milky, sugary goodness as the slightly hard and chewy texture melts. Totally moreish!
6. Fudge
Guyanese fudge is similar to peera. However, fudge is made using milk, sugar, and butter, heated and mixed until it achieves a creamy consistency.
The mixture is then left to cool and cut into squares for a chunk of sweet, milky heaven. Some people also add nuts to elevate the treat even more. Just be warned – you won’t be able to stop at one piece!
7. Sweet Rice
Sweet rice, or Kheer as it is called locally, is a lusciously rich and thick rice pudding. The recipe calls for rice boiled and flavored with cinnamon, cardamom, and nutmeg. It is sweetened with condensed milk, which gives it the thick consistency that distinguishes this rice pudding from so many others.
This fragrant and decadent dessert can be eaten alone or with a puri (a deep-fried roti), which adds a whole other layer of flavor and texture.
8. Parsad
Parsad is a bread pudding-like dessert made and served mainly around Hindu festivities and celebrations. Ingredients include toasted flour, sugar, milk, and clarified butter, also known as ghee. Some recipes call for raisins and cherries.
The flour is toasted in the clarified butter, giving the parsad a kind of nutty flavor until it forms a brown paste. Warm milk is added to the brown paste and stirred well until it creates a fluffy, smooth pudding. Parsad will delight your taste buds with its buttery taste and smooth texture.
9. Sirnee
Sirnee is a smooth, sweet pudding similar to parsad, but there are slight differences in the preparation and ingredients. Unlike parsad, sirnee includes eggs, which give it a lighter and fluffier texture.
Both parsad and sirnee are what other cultures would term halwa. Halwa, is an umbrella term that describes different types of semi-solid sweets made from flour, nuts, or grains.
And to make it even tastier and richer than parsad, sirnee includes various spices, sweeteners, raisins, and nuts. You’ll find it served as a staple dessert at Muslim celebrations.
10. Mithai
Mithai can be enjoyed in one of two ways: crunchy or soft. Both are equally delicious, and both use the same ingredients: flour, butter, coconut, sugar, spices, and milk are combined to form the dough.
The dough is rolled out and cut into triangular shapes for soft mithai or long, thin strips for crunchy mithai, and then fried until golden brown. The crunchy mithai dough takes a little longer to fry than the soft version. The fried dough is then dusted with a generous coating of crystalized sugar for an exceptionally delicious dessert.
11. Baked Custard
Baked custard is a silky-smooth, luxurious dessert that can be served at room temperature or chilled.
Depending on the method used to cook the custard, it will either be creamy with a thin layer of crust on the top or creamy with a thick crust on the top and browned on the bottom and sides.
No matter the cooking process, the baked custard is a tasty blend of milk (evaporated and condensed), eggs, vanilla extract, and nutmeg. Creamy and delicious!
12. Vermicelli
Vermicelli is made with long, thin noodles that resemble spaghetti. The noodles are toasted to enhance flavor and then boiled in milk with sugar and those lovely Guyanese spices.
Vermicelli is enjoyed as a creamy pudding or, as an alternative, cooked a little longer until it becomes semi-solid. In that case, it’s served in sweet squares. Either way, it’s hard to resist!
13. Cheese Pie
Guyanese cheese pies are thought to have originated as a variation on the famous Portuguese Egg Tart, pastel de nata. They are also influenced by the British fondness for custards baked in pastry.
Cheese pies are like little quiches that can be enjoyed anytime. These savory treats have a slightly-sweetened flaky pastry crust filled with delicious cheese and egg custard.
14. Conkie
Conkie (pronounced Kankee by the locals) has many variations, but the Guyanese version is simple and delightful.
This sweet dish will tantalize your taste buds with the taste of pumpkin, coconut, sugar, and warm spices steamed in a banana leaf.
15. Salara
Salara is also locally known as ‘red cake’ due to the color of the sweet and fragrant coconut mixture.
Salara is a bread recipe. Shredded coconut is cooked with warm spices to give it a vibrant red color, then stuffed and rolled into soft, sweet bread and baked until brown.
It is enjoyed anytime and makes a great snack and a dessert.
16. Fat Top
Fat Top is yet another Guyanese dessert based on coconut’s irresistible flavor. The base of the thick cornmeal cake is topped with a creamy coconut milk layer to create a decadent and delicious dessert!
17. Coconut Buns
What many people love about coconut buns is that they’re a rich but not too sweet dessert.
They’re made from (you guessed it!) shredded coconut, flour, eggs, and sugar, topped with either raisins or cherries for an added hint of natural sweetness.
18. Hot Cross Buns
The famous hot cross buns are a must-have treat in Guyana and worldwide during Easter. The cross can be made with a knife, from a mix of flour and water, or with a sprinkling of icing sugar.
Guyanese hot cross buns are soft, they are spicy, and they are delicious. The Guyanese variations deserve the “hot” moniker as that is the preferred way to enjoy them – toasted and a little crunchy on the outside.
19. Bread and Butter Pudding
Guyana was once a British colony, and bread and butter pudding is one of the British desserts adapted over time to give it a local twist many people love.
Guyanese bread and butter pudding is slightly different due to the addition of fragrant spices. However, slices of bread are still buttered, soaked in a rich egg custard, and baked.
It can be topped with raisins and thrown into the oven, which results in a slightly mushy center with browned and crunchy edges for a contrast of taste and texture.
20. Rum Cake
Guyanese rum cake, also called black cake, is filled with spices and rum-soaked fruit. It is a rich, dense, and moist dessert cake that’s a perennial favorite at weddings or during Christmas.
Although this dessert list may be shorter than some other countries, the Guyanese desserts featured here reflect this fascinating nation’s rich history and diverse cultural influences.
They all combine fresh ingredients such as local coconut and a variety of the region’s fragrant spices that will satisfy your sweet tooth and give you a true taste of the Caribbean.
Have we included all your favorite Guyanese desserts? Let us know in the comments below, and share your suggestions with our community! We love to hear from you!
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