Recipe
🍰 DESSERT
Nkate Cake
A crunchy peanut brittle bound in dark caramel, a popular Ghanaian street sweet sold in cut slabs.
Ghanaian · easy · serves 12
prep 10 min · cook 15 min
~325 cal · 10g protein · 32g carbs · 20g fat · 3g fiber · 27g sugars · 3g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Nkate cake, from the Twi word for peanut, is a Ghanaian street snack, a simple peanut brittle that vendors sell in glossy slabs from glass cases and roadside tables. Crunchy, sweet, and nutty, it is cheap, energising, and everywhere.
It is made from just two ingredients: roasted peanuts and sugar. The sugar is melted to a deep amber caramel, the peanuts stirred through, and the whole thing pressed flat and cut into rectangles while still warm. As it cools it sets hard and glassy around the nuts. Simple and satisfying, it is the taste of a Ghanaian childhood and a favourite treat handed out for a few coins.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian, vegan and gluten-, dairy-, egg- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 12
2 cups roasted peanuts
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 pinch salt
Instructions
1
Warm the roasted peanuts so they do not cool the caramel.
2
Melt the sugar in a dry pan over medium heat until it turns to a deep amber caramel.
✎ Chef’s note
Watch the caramel closely and pull it off the moment it is deep amber; a shade too far and it turns bitter.
3
Stir the warm peanuts and salt into the caramel quickly to coat.
4
Tip onto an oiled surface, press flat, and cut into rectangles while still warm.
Ghanaian street-sweet tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Greater Accra. Kenkey takes days rather than minutes. Corn dough is left to sour, half of it is then cooked into a stiff paste and worked back through the raw half, and the balls are wrapped in corn husks and boiled for hours, which builds the sharpness that stands up to grilled tilapia and shito.
🗺️
Ghana. Ghana's fermented staples are not interchangeable. Banku is corn dough with cassava dough worked into it, kenkey is corn dough alone, wrapped in husks or leaves and steamed, and Ga kenkey is noticeably more sour than the Fante version. Shito, the black chilli condiment set beside them, carries dried fish and shrimp as well as heat.
🌍
Africa. Africa's fifty-four nations hold cuisines as different as Morocco's slow-cooked tagines and South Africa's open-fire braai, yet shared threads run through them: ancient grains like millet, sorghum, and teff; stews thickened with groundnut, okra, or palm; and fiery condiments from Tunisian harissa to Ethiopian berbere. Staple starches, fufu, injera, ugali, couscous, anchor communal meals often eaten by hand from a shared dish, where hospitality is a point of honor.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Ghana
Nkatenkwan (Groundnut Soup)A silky, gingery peanut soup simmered with chicken and chilies, eaten with soft rice balls.
Red RedBlack-eyed peas stewed in red palm oil beside caramelized fried plantains, named twice for its two shades of red.
Hausa Koko and KooseA spiced fermented millet porridge with koose, crisp black-eyed pea fritters, Ghana's classic Ghanaian breakfast.
Browse all Ghana recipes →
Good to know
Storing it: Keep chilled and covered, and enjoy within 2 to 3 days.
Make it a Ghana meal
Red RedDinner
AsaanaDrink
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Frequently asked questions
What is Nkate Cake?
A crunchy peanut brittle bound in dark caramel, a popular Ghanaian street sweet sold in cut slabs.
Where does Nkate Cake come from?
Nkate Cake is a Ghanaian dish from Greater Accra, Ghana.
Can Nkate Cake be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Nkate Cake recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Nkate Cake safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Nkate Cake take to make?
About 25 minutes total (10 minutes prep, 15 minutes cooking), serving 12.
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