Recipe
🍰 DESSERT
Benne Cakes
Toasted sesame seeds set in crisp caramel, a simple, ancient West African sweet from Sierra Leone.
Sierra Leonean · easy · serves 12
prep 10 min · cook 15 min
~238 cal · 5g protein · 24g carbs · 15g fat · 4g fiber · 17g sugars · 2g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Benne is the West African word for sesame, and benne cakes are one of the oldest sweets of the region, a simple candy of toasted sesame seeds bound in caramelized sugar. Sierra Leone shares this treat with its neighbors, and it traveled with enslaved West Africans to the American South, where benne wafers became a Charleston tradition, a small, sweet thread of connection across the Atlantic.
Making them is elemental: sesame seeds are toasted until golden and nutty, then folded into sugar cooked to a caramel and dropped in little mounds to set hard and crisp. The result is crunchy, deeply toasty, and just sweet enough, the flavor of the sesame carrying the whole thing. Sold by street vendors and made at home, benne cakes are a humble, enduring pleasure.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian, vegan and gluten-, dairy-, egg-, nut- 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
1.5 cups sesame seeds (benne)
1 cup sugar
2 tbsp water
1 pinch of salt
Instructions
1
Toast the sesame seeds in a dry pan over medium heat, stirring, until golden and fragrant, then tip them out.
✎ Chef’s note
Watch them closely; sesame goes from golden to burnt in seconds.
2
Cook the sugar with the water and salt in a heavy pan, without stirring, until it melts and turns amber.
3
Stir the toasted seeds into the caramel quickly and evenly.
4
Drop small spoonfuls onto oiled parchment and flatten slightly.
✎ Chef’s note
Work fast; the caramel sets hard as it cools, so shape the mounds while it is still fluid.
5
Let them cool completely until hard and crisp before serving.
✎ Chef’s note
Benniseed is mandai in Sierra Leone, grown mostly in the wetter northern provinces, intercropped with rice. Sweets are only one of its lives: toasted and ground, then mixed with rice flour and water, it becomes benni mix, a nourishing food for small children; boiled, fermented in closed jute sacks and then smoked, it becomes ogirie, one of the commonest seasonings in the country and a great deal more pungent than these cakes.
Sierra Leonean street tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Freetown. Cassava leaf here is distinct from its neighbours: groundnut paste goes in alongside the palm oil, which makes it thicker and richer. The same dish runs across the region under other names, plasas or palava sauce nearby and saka saka or pondu in the Congos, so it is a national dish rather than an invention.
🗺️
Sierra Leone. Cassava leaf is Sierra Leone's national dish but not its invention: the same preparation runs across the region as plasas, palava sauce, saka saka and pondu. What marks the local version is groundnut paste going in alongside the palm oil, and leaves pounded fine enough that the stew turns almost smooth.
🌍
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 Sierra Leone
Cassava Leaf StewFinely pounded cassava leaves slow-cooked with palm oil, beef, and smoked fish over rice.
Sierra Leonean Fry FryA plate of assorted fried things with a peppery gravy to dip them in, the Freetown street breakfast.
Krain KrainChopped jute leaves stewed with red palm oil and smoked fish into a savory green sauce, served over rice.
Browse all Sierra Leone recipes →
Good to know
Storing it: Keep chilled and covered, and enjoy within 2 to 3 days.
Make it a Sierra Leone meal
Cassava Leaf StewDinner
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Frequently asked questions
What is Benne Cakes?
Toasted sesame seeds set in crisp caramel, a simple, ancient West African sweet from Sierra Leone.
Where does Benne Cakes come from?
Benne Cakes is a Sierra Leonean dish from Freetown, Sierra Leone.
Can Benne Cakes be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Benne Cakes 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 Benne Cakes 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 Benne Cakes take to make?
About 25 minutes total (10 minutes prep, 15 minutes cooking), serving 12.
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