Good Enough to Eat - A Saudi Camel Beauty Pageant

Spot the camel among my pre lunch party detritus...

Two weeks ago I hosted a ma’salama lunch to say goodbye to a friend who was departing Saudi. There were twelve of us as well as four or five children. Because we’d all been part of a quilting and craft group, I decided to plan some kind of Saudi themed craft activity. I remembered Christmas Day and the good family fun we'd had racing Kiwis. These were small wind-up toys, which on the count of three, we let loose to race down the coffee table. That was the plan. What we learned was that small wind up toys tend towards circulatory rather than forward movement. Progression was haphazard with more than one Kiwi leaping over the edge of the table. It was total chaos and heaps of fun, as was testified by the squeals of laughter from the smallest member of our family.

What I need I thought, is racing camels, and proceeded to scout around likely places. Diera Souk. Toys R Us. And my favourite 7 riyal shop. No luck.

Spotted at Diera: close but not close enough. 

Plan B was a Saudi Camel Beauty Pageant. (Yes, such events really do take place in this country.) My husband, being of an enterprising disposition and the proud owner of a 3D printer, created the perfect cookie cutter, and then I proceeded to bake the biscuits. My plan was that we’d all decorate the plain camels with a range of different coloured royal icing. Ours would be an edible and somewhat downsized Saudi Camel Beauty parade.

Pinterest, faithful and reliable as ever, came up with ideas, which I duly printed off to motivate and inspire. I even managed to find an array of food colouring in a local mall, and the day before made the requisite royal icing.

Almost all ready... 

The children who were first to arrive, decorated posters advertising our contest and then we stuck these to the wall above the competition table. Decorating took place between lunch courses giving our judge plenty of time to make her decision. 

After we'd finished the children took over.  

The winner was chosen, a task, our judge told us, that was made all the more difficult because of the high standard of the entries. (Heard those words before, have we?)

It was fun, but more than that, even without the decoration the small cookies were delicious. I used a gingerbread recipe, the same that I'd used at Christmas for small trees, and one that I’m sure I’ll use again. It was easy to make, and easy to roll out. In short, it was a winner! So here’s the recipe.

Gingerbread Biscuits

175g/6oz brown sugar

85g/3 oz golden syrup

100g/4oz salted butter

350g/12oz plain flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tbsp ginger

1 egg, beaten

Place sugar, golden syrup and butter in a saucepan. Bring to simmer, then bubble for 1 – 2 minutes. Keep stirring until everything is well combined. Put to one side and let cool.

Sieve flour, baking soda and spices into a large bowl. Add the warm syrup mixture and the egg. Stir to combine. Wrap the dough in cling film and place in the fridge for about half an hour.

Heat oven to 180C/350F. Using the chilled dough, roll out to the required thickness. Bake for 10 - 12 minutes, then let cool before storing in an airtight tin. And a word of advice here, if your cut out camels are too thin, you may lose a few legs and heads. Mine was, and I did.

And now that the camel contest is over, I’m thinking what next? Perhaps a gingerbread menagerie on a Noah’s Ark theme for a little someone’s upcoming third birthday party. Could be a plan.