South Africa is a go-to destination for foodies from around the globe. Offering a mix of traditional dishes blended with modern flair and international trends; you’ll find a country rich with gastronomic delights. Apart from loving cooking meat and vegetables over an open wood fire outdoors, South Africans love nothing better than a sweet and mouth-watering treat.

As a nation we’re certainly not conservative when it comes to cooking, but there are a few traditional dessert recipes that remain firm favourites with locals and visitors alike. The list of indulgent sugar laden delights is endless, but we’ve highlighted what seems to be a the most popular. Expect at least one of the below sweets to be served at high tea at your choice of guest house, hotel or lodge.

Here are the 4 South African desserts worth a mouthful or two : 

1. Melktert

Directly translated from Afrikaans, Melktert means milk tart. This is such a popular dessert that there’s even a National Milk Tart Day! This creamy dessert has a sweet, pastry crust with a centre made from milk, flour and eggs. It has quite a high ratio of milk and is quite similar to the Portuguese tartlet Pastéis de nata but has more milk than eggs. It is loaded with cinnamon on top to finish off this very more-ish dessert. The best place for Melktart? That’s entirely up to you, but we recommend the small country towns and farm stalls in South Africa for top quality melkterts.

Try the Mount Nelson in Cape Town for high tea and local cuisine.

2. Koeksisters

Koeksisters (pronounced cook sisters) are strips of fried dough braided together and drenched in honey or syrup. There are many ways to make these sticky delights. There traditional Cape Malay way is to fry the dough into balls and smother them in coconut. These are often called “bollas” by locals. Koeksisters can be bought in most supermarket chains, restaurants, cafes and just about anywhere. It is speculated that the origin of koeksisters is is Malay and Indonesian.

Try Biesmiellah in Cape Town’s colourful and historical Bo Kaap for bollas and koeksisters.

3. Malva pudding

Malva pudding is similar to sticky toffee pudding but without the sticky toffee dressing. It is a spongy, moist cake with apricot jam and a caramelised texture. It’s made from plenty of butter, syrup and other variants. Traditionally, it is served with some kind of creamy sauce or custard and ice-cream.

Head to the Saxon Hotel in Johannesburg for your fill of Malva pudding.

4. Peppermint crisp fridge tart

Peppermint crisp is a popular chocolate bar in South Africa. Hollow candied spears of mint are cocooned in chocolate and often children will drink milk through the chocolate bar – an old school past time! The peppermint crisp fridge tart uses this chocolate as a base for this pudding. Crispy biscuits are used as the base, the rest of the dessert has piles of cream, peppermint crips bars and tins of caramel.