Cake Zine: Forbidden Fruit

Fruit: the fuss-free, no-bake, dripping-down-your-arms dessert. No utensils needed.

For Volume 7, Cake Zine tackles the subject of forbidden fruit, what they call “nature’s most illicit offerings: snow-skin durian mooncakes that mellow out the potent fruit’s punch, custardy guava nicuatole that celebrates the once-banned Mexican delicacy, gooey tonka bean butter cakes worth smuggling the still-banned bean across borders, pomegranate icebox cake that calls upon Persephone’s favorite (and fatal) underworld snack, and strawberry atole cake that honors the fieldworkers who labor in brutal conditions to bring everyone’s favorite berry to the table.”

I got to illustrate a hilarious essay by Osama Shehzad about the desi myth I’d never heard of but that most desi men did grow up hearing (and fearing): sour fruits are forbidden for boys. (Unaffected by this myth, I happily grew up eating all the Rita Imli, imli chutney, falsa with kaala namak (black salt), pomegranates, and all other khataas that fruits had to offer. For this drawing assignment, it was interesting to imagine the forbiddenness and terror that sour fruits inspired in guys.)