Caribbean Pone

A spicy, mouthwatering pudding like baked dessert made from cassava, sweet potato and pumpkins.




Are you ready to dive into this kinda pudding but not a cake goodness?

A few posts back I mentioned that in the Caribbean we used ground provision for a lot of things. If you are wondering what "ground provision" is I gave some explanation in the pigeon peas soup post.

We eat provision as a side, include it in our soups or make dishes with them being the main ingredient.

Pone is one of those dishes that we use it as a the main ingredient. It is made from either a variety of ground provisions (Cassava (yuca), sweet potato and even corn) or a mixture of them.

This is a popular Caribbean baked treat.

What is pone?

Do you ever hear the name of something and wonder how they came up with that name? Who decided that a root vegetable baked in coconut milk with some spices should be a "pone"?

And that is basically what pone is. It's a baked pudding dish that can be made out, of most popularly, cassava, pumpkin, coconut, corn and a mixture of them combined.

I think pone really became popular in Trinidad and Tobago first, then has garnered its own popularity in the other islands over time.




But the reason for the name does not matter. Honestly, I don't think it will deter me from eating this.

I can't even say it's a cake or not, it's definitely closer to a pudding but with so much more flavor. You get the taste of the cassava and coconut then a shot of spices at the end.

How to make pone

Traditionally the process of making pone included grating everything down before putting it to bake.

The coconut needs to be husked, cut up (or broken open), separated from the shell then grated. Just like how we make our coconut milk.

All the main ingredients cassava, sweet potato, coconut, need to be grated. Then we combine that with all the amazing spices.

The spices are what makes the flavor stand out. Cinnamon, nutmeg, black pepper for a little spice. And when baking the smell transforms your house.

Tips and Tricks

Initially, and some people would still say it is what must be done, the ground provisions were grated using a manual grater.

The process was long.

But now using a food processor or a blender makes things much easier.

You can also use packaged desiccated coconut as a replacement for fresh nut that you have to cut and grate.

Storage and reheating

The shelf life on pone is about 2 days maximum. It spoils quickly.

The best thing to do is to put it in the fridge a day after making. It is best to wrap the pone in cling wrap then place the wrapped pone in a zip loc bag and put it in the fridge.

Some people like to eat it cold, and with some ice cream. So you can just slice away.

You can also warm it up in the the toaster over or just bring it to room temperature if you prefer.




I really can go through a lot of slices of this.

You hear cries of "Oh gosh, put the pone away before I eat it all", "Please give some of that pone away", "Who decided to make pone when I'm trying to lose weight" while everybody is taking one more "small" slice."

It really is one of those things where you just can't stop eating it because it's so delicious.



Another great Caribbean dish that I hope you will definitely try.





Try some out some of my other Caribbean desserts:

• Caribbean Fruit Cake 
• Coconut drops
• Coconut sweet bread
• Cheese paste sandwich
• Gizzada

Thanks so much for stopping by and reading my posts. It is much appreciated. Please, if you can like, share, yum and/or pin this, especially if you enjoyed it.