Coconut, Rum and Lime Cake

The flavors of a tropical summer holiday in a cake. Need I say more?

The cake is a dense but fluffy with lots of texture from the shredded coconut.  Although it seems fiddly to do a cake, syrup and frosting, it is actually easy to make. You can eliminate the frosting but do cover the cake in the lime syrup because it creates a more intense lime flavor.

Cake:

225 grams butter, at room temperature
2.5 dl sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
zest of 3 limes
3 eggs
4 dl flour
2.5 dl dried flaked coconut + 3 tablespoons for pan
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teapoon salt
2 tablespoons rum

Lime Syrup
juice of 3.5 limes
1/2 dl sugar

Frosting
100 grams butter, at room temperature
100 grams cream cheese
3 dl powdered sugar
2 teaspoons rum
zest of one lime, plus juice of half a lime

Zest 4 limes and squeeze the juice.  Set aside 1/4 of the lime zest for the frosting and a tablespoon of the lime juice.

Turn on the oven to 175C (325F).   Prepare your cake pan by rubbing it with butter.  Throw in 3 tablespoons of shredded coconut and shake the pan so that the coconut evenly covers the bottom and side.  This will both help the cake from sticking to the pan and create a nice crust.  Set aside pan.

In a large mixing bowl, mix the butter, sugar, vanilla, and rum together until light and fluffy.  Add in the lime zest, flour, salt, and baking powder. Beat carefully until all the dry ingredients have been incorporated but do not overmix. Add in the coconut and stir until it is evenly distributed through batter.  Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake in the oven from 35 to 45 minutes. The cake will be brown and top and a toothpick will come out clean when it is done.

While the cake is baking, make the lime syrup.  Take the juice of 3.5 limes and add 1/2 dl sugar into a small pot.  Put on the stove and bring the lime juice to boiling.  Take the pot off the stove and set it aside to cool.

When the cake is out of the oven, take a fork or toothpick and poke holes all over the top.  Spoon over the lime syrup, trying to cover the cake evenly.  Set the cake aside to cool.

When the cake is cool, make the frosting.  Whip the cream cheese and butter together in a bowl.  Add in about a third of the powdered sugar, the rum, and about half of the lime juice.  Whip together and add in the rest of the sugar.   The frosting should lighten in color and get very fluffy.  If you wish the frosting to be stiff (if you want to pipe it onto the cake and have it hold its shape), then you will need to add more sugar.  I like it looser and I just spoon it on top of the cake.  Adjust the lime juice and to your liking, remembering that the more liquid you add, the looser the consistency of the frosting.

Unmold the cake and put it on a serving plate.  Smooth the frosting over the top of the cake only, letting the sides of the cake show.

Store leftover cake in the refrigerator.

Falkenberg Cakes (Falkenbergare)

There is an amazing bakery called Stålbloms down near my summer house on the west coast of Sweden.  All of their cakes are gorgeous and delicious.  Their Princess Cake is divine. They make the best Semlor that I have ever tasted, a cardamom flavored bun that is filled with marzipan and whipped cream and only served during the Spring.  It always amazes me that this bakery, in a little town in the countryside, rivals the best bakeries in Stockholm.

While all of their cakes are memorable, there is one that I dream about. It is an unassuming plain little cake topped with a glaze and sprinkling of candied orange peel.  Even if I am tempted by one of the more glorious looking cakes to eat for my fika, which I love to take in their pretty garden, I buy one of these to take home with me and eat slowly while gazing out at the sea.
They call these cakes Falkenbergare, after the name of the town Falkenberg, where Stålbloms was founded.  These cakes are sticky and dense, almost custardy.  They are rich but not cloying.  The combination of almond and orange is delectable.  I have googled the name of this cake several times and I have kept an eye out for these cakes at every bakery that I visit.  But I have never found a mention of them on the internet or seen them at any other bakery.

This summer, I was excited to notice that they had a cookbook for sale.  I eagerly looked through it to see if they had published a recipe for my beloved cake...and YES!  So, now I can have these wonderful cakes any time I like, and so can you.  Here is the recipe, slightly modified from the original:

Makes about 15 cakes

Cake:
250 grams butter at room temperature
500 grams marzipan (mandelmassa)*
1 tablespoon potato flour or cornstarch
5 eggs

Glaze:
About 4 dl powdered sugar
Zest of one orange
Juice of about half an orange
Candied orange peel, to garnish


Preheat the oven to 190C (375F). Butter a muffin pan or other small cake forms. Grate the marzipan to make it easier to incorporate into the butter. Put the marzipan and butter into a large bowl and mix with an electric mixer until it is well mixed and creamy.

Add in the potato flour (or cornstarch) and the eggs, one at a time, mixing until each egg is well incorporated. The batter will become lighter and fluffy with each additional egg, but still be very thick.

Divide the cake batter into the muffin tin or forms, filling each form almost full. Bake in the oven for 12 to 15 minutes until browned on top and a toothpick comes out clean.  Take the cakes out of the oven and let cool.



While the cakes bake, you can make the glaze.  Put the powdered sugar in a bowl with the orange zest.  Add in some orange juice, a few drops at a time and stir until the glaze feels thick enough to spread easily but not so thin as to be drippy.

When the cakes are cool, unmold them and top each cake with a spoonful of the glaze and spread the glaze around the top.  Sprinkle some candied orange peel on top of each cake.  Eat reflectively and slowly, preferably while staring out at the sea.


* This cake calls for a marzipan that is 50/50 sugar and almonds.  In Sweden, this mixture is called mandelmassa or almond paste.  Marzipan in Sweden is more sugar than almonds about 60/40.

Apple and Blackberry Cake

Autum has decidedly arrived here in Stockholm.  I love these cold crisp days, particularly when the sun is out as it has been this past week.  This last weekend, Oscar and I went over to Farfar's house and picked the last of his blackberries and filled a basket with glorious red apples.

The Swedes use the word mysig to describe the feeling of coming into a warm house, after a fresh day outdoors, curling up on the sofa in front of a warm fire. Clearly a cake enhances the mysig feeling!

This is a homely cake with a rich buttery crumb, covered in spiced apples interspersed with a tart spurt from the blackberries. The edges are a bit browned and crispy, while the inside is tender. The batter is a cinch to whip up.  The only fiddly bit is peeling and cutting the apples and arranging them neatly over the batter.  You can certainly make this cake with only apples, which I do often.  It would also taste lovely with pears and raspberries.

About 8 to 9 slices

8 tablespoons butter (225 grams), at room temperature

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 cup flour

1 ½ teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 to 3 apples, preferably of a sour cooking variety

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon cardamom

1/3 cup golden granulated sugar

1 cup blackberries

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190C).  Generously butter an 8 inch square baking dish. In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar together until fluffy.  Add the eggs and beat until well incorporated.  Add the flour, baking powder, salt

and vanilla.  Beat until all ingredients are mixed in.  The batter will very thick. Spread the batter into the baking dish, making sure that the corners are filled.

Peel the apples, slice into

quarters and take out the cores.  Slice each apple quarter into three or four slices, depending on how large your apple is.  Put the apple pieces into a bowl and add the cinnamon, cardamom and golden sugar.  Mix so that each

slice of apple is coated.

Press the apple slices into the cake batter in an overlapping patter in 3 to 4 rows.  Sprinkle the blackberries over the top.   If the blackberries are very sour, you can sprinkle a tablespoon more golden sugar on top of them. Bake for about 45 minutes, until the cake is golden brown, darker at the edges and a knife pressed into the batter comes out clean.  Serve warm or at room temperature. Gild the lily with a dollop of whipped cream or a drizzle of custard sauce.

P.S. Sorry about the terrible format!  The editor on blogspot seems to get worse and worse.

Mom's Cheesecake

When I was in college, my best friend and I would sometimes take my scooter and ride to a little restaurant next to the beach in Aptos.  There, we would ask for one slice of cheesecake, to go.  We would take our shared treat and eat it out on the beach, savoring each precious morsel.  We couldn’t afford to each have a slice of the cake, never mind actually go to the restaurant and have a meal.  But we could, every now and then, eat a slice of that cake, slowly, thoughtfully and with great relish.

However, as good as that cheesecake was, my mother’s cheesecake is, in my view, the best one there is.  It is distinctly not in the style of NewYork cheesecake, so thick, dense, and rich.  It is instead, light and fluffy with just a hint of spice, in the buttery graham cracker crust. Dinstincly moreish.  I made this cheese cake again, not so long ago, wondering if the childhood memory of the cake was better than the actual cake.  Nope, the cheesecake was even better than I remembered!

Crust

1 cup (2.5 dl) graham cracker crumbs (or digestive biscuits—about 7 biscuits)

1/4 cup melted butter (60 grams)

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

Put the graham crackers or digestive biscuits in a food processor and whizz until the crumbs are fine and evenly sized.  If you don’t have a food processor, you can put the crackers in a bag and whack it with a rolling pin. Add in the melted butter, sugar and spices and mix until well combined. Pat mixture over the bottom of a 9 inch spring form pan, up about 1 inch to the sides of the pan.

Filling

4 eggs

1 cup sugar

1 cup sour cream*

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 tbsp flour

¼ tsp salt

1 pound cream cheese (450 grams)

Set the oven at 325 degrees F (165 C).

Take out two large bowls Separate 4 eggs, putting the whites in one bowl and the yolks in another. Beat egg whites until stiff with 1/4 cup sugar.  Set aside.

In the other bowl, beat egg yolks until thick and foamy, a few minutes.  You will see the yolks lighten in color and become thick. 

Add 1 cup sour cream and 1 teaspoon vanilla.  Beat in 3/4 cup sugar, 2 tbsp flour, and 1/4 tsp salt.  Stir in bit by bit, 1 pound cream cheese.  Beat until smooth.  Fold in  a third of the eggs whites and mix well to lighten the mixture.  Carefully, fold in the remaining egg whites, mixing just enough to combine the mixture but no more.  There can be a few lumps of egg white in the batter.

Pour the cream cheese mixture into pan and use a spatula to make sure the batter fills the pan evenly and smooth the batter on top.  Bake about 1 hour until firm to the touch in the center and golden brown.  The cake will be puffed up and may have cracks in it.  When the cake cools, it will deflate. Cool and then chill in the refrigerator.  Run a sharp knife around the edge of the cake before taking off the rim. It tastes great both at room temperature and chilled.

If you must, you could put some lemon zest into the filling.  You could also spread a thin layer of sweetened sourcream over the cake once it has cooled. Some fresh berries will taste wonderful with this cake.

*You can substitue yogurt for the sourcream.  If the yogurt is a thin yogurt, then add an extra tablespoon of flour.

 

Sticky Almond Cakes with Jam

These lovely little sticky cakes are one of my favorites for afternoon tea or fika. They are easy to make, with the only fiddly bit being to grate the almond paste.  Grating almond paste is a trick that I have learned here in Sweden, which makes it easier to incorporate the paste into a batter. The Swedes love almonds and use almond paste in all sorts of baked goods.

Almond paste is a mixture of ground almonds and sugar, usually in
a 50/50 mixture.  It is very similar to marzipan, but marzipan normally has a higher percentage of sugar, about 75%.  These ratios are very dependent on the country you live in, and the proportions can actually be reversed.  So, it is important to read the labels to know what you are getting.  This recipe uses an almond paste with a 50/50 ratio.  You can use whatever you can get at your store and just adjust the sugar levels in the recipe.  Almond paste generally comes in sausage shaped packets, and can be very soft or hard, depending on how long it has been stored.  That is why this recipe recommends grating it.  If the paste is very soft or you make your own, you can omit this step.

You can make your own paste by grinding almonds in a food processor until it is a fine flour and mixing it with confectioners sugar, in the desired proportion.  If you wanted marzipan to, for example, make figurines with, you can add a bit of egg white to bind the mixture together.  For this recipe, the egg white will not be necessary.

You can use any kind of jam that you like. I have used a lovely rhubarb raspberry jam which contrasts nicely with the almonds.

Makes 12 cakes

200 grams almond paste (mandelmassa)

200 grams sugar  (2 dl)

200 grams butter, at room temperature

3 eggs

75 grams flour (1.5 dl)

1/8 tsp baking powder

1 tsp vanilla

About 4 teaspoons jam

50 grams flaked almonds

Prepare a muffin tin for 12 muffins by buttering generously or insert paper muffin forms.  Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius.

Almond paste and butter

Grate the almond paste into a large bowl. Making sure the butter is quite soft, mix into the almond paste.  If the butter is not soft enough, you can use a pastry cutter or mixer to work it together.  Add the sugar and

After adding the eggs

beat until fluffy.  Add in the eggs, one at a time and beat until well combined.  Add the flour, baking powder and vanilla, and mix in well.  The mixture will be quite thick, almost like a soft cookie dough.

Ready for the oven

Divide the dough evenly among the 12 muffin forms, smoothing the tops with a spoon or your fingers.  Each cake form should be almost full. Put a small blob of jam in the middle of each muffin, less than half a teaspoon per each cake.  Do not give into the temptation to put more jam in.  The jam will sink through the cake batter and if you put more in, you will just get a sticky mess.  Sprinkle each cake liberally with the flaked almonds.

Bake for 15 to 18 minutes, until the outside of each cake is golden brown and the almonds are beginning to color.  Test the cake with a wooden pick or knife.  It should be a bit sticky but not gloppy when the cakes are done.

If you are not using muffin paper, then let the cakes cool for about 15 minutes, and then turn them out onto a board while they are still warm.  The cakes are quite sticky, and the jam sometimes sticks to the bottom of the tin, especially if you have put too much jam in.

Chocolate Kahlua Bundt Cake

Another rainy day here in Sweden....what we need is cake to perk up the spirits!  I seem to be in a Bundt cake phase  The shape makes even the most simplest cake more festive.  And there is no need to do anything fiddly like frosting, because the cakes look great with a simple glaze or just a dusting of powdered sugar.  This recipe is made easier by melting the butter with the cocoa on the stovetop. Without having to cream the butter, you don't even have to take out your mixer.  Just do it by hand with a whisk.

I have taken a classic chocolate Bundt cake recipe and enriched it with Kahlua, a coffee liquer. The coffee flavor justs adds  depth to the chocolate flavor, without taking over.  If you don't have Kahlua, you can substitute some strongly brewed coffee, or even a heaping teaspoon of instant espresso powder mixed with water.

To gild the lily, I have dusted the buttered bundt pan with dried coconut.  It helps the cake release from the pan smoothly, makes a pretty pattern on the cake, and gives some extra flavor.  If you don't like coconut, you can dust with cocoa powder instead.

The cake has a light, moist texture, with a medium chocolate flavor. Eat it as is, with a glass of milk.  Or serve with whipped cream and some berries for a more elegant dessert.

Serves 10
(using a 10 to 12 cup Bundt pan)

226 grams (1 cup) butter

28 grams (1/3 cup) cocoa powder
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup water
256 grams ( 2 cups) flour
325 grams (1 3/4 cups) sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup Kahlua or other coffee liquer
2 eggs
1/2 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla
a handful of dried coconut

Heat your oven to 180C (350F). In a small pot, put in the butter, cocoa powder, salt and water.  Put it over a medium heat, letting the butter melt, stirring occasionally.

While the cocoa mixture is heating, take out a large bowl and put in the flour, sugar and baking soda.  Stir with a whisk to mix.

Once the butter has melted, stir the cocoa mixture until it is well combined.  Pour the cocoa mixture into the flour mixture, stirring well to combine.  Add the Kahlua and the two eggs and beat with the whisk until it is well combined.  Finally, add the sour cream and vanilla and beat until a smooth batter forms.

Butter your Bundt pan very well, making sure to get all the creases. Throw in a handful of dried coconut and shake it around the pan, making sure that the bottom and sides of the pan are well covered with an even coat.  Shake the pan and toss out any excess coconut.

Fill the pan with the batter, and bake 40 to 50 minutes until a tester comes out clean.  Let the cake cool for about 15 minutes, and then invert it onto a serving dish.

Lemon Bundt Cake for Swedish Midsummer

The Swedes love their strawberries.  And with good reason; Swedish strawberries are delicious.  They are only available in the summer and are sweet with strawberry flavor, totally unlike the industrial grown strawberries that you can get in every grocery store.  At our summer house in the countryside, we have a strawberry grower five minutes up the road.  You can go to his little stand and grab freshly picked berries, or you can even pick them yourself.  They have to be eaten the same day, or maybe you could hold out until the next day.  But after that, they will go bad because they are picked at the perfect ripeness. This is not usually a problem, as my kids attack them as soon as I get home with them.

Swedes especially love stawberries at midsummer.  Because it is early in the season, the strawberries are double the cost that they would be later in the summer, but that does not deter the Swedes as they line up at strawberry stands by the road.  Lack of sun does not deter the Swedes either, as they indulge in their traditional ritual of decorating the midsummer pole with flowers, and it is a good thing too, since a rainy midsummer celebration is par for the course.

The traditional summer cake is a light airy thing made of layers of sponge cake, whipped cream and strawberries.  It is a fine cake but this year, I felt like something a little bit different.  So, I have made a classic American lemon Bundt cake.  Drizzled with lemon syrup and served with strawberries and whipped cream, you can almost taste the sunshine that the weather is failing to bring!

Serves 10 to 12
(using 12 to 15 cup Bundt pan)

For the cake

226 grams (1 cup) butter
300 grams (2 1/2 cups) sugar
6 eggs
1 teaspoon salt
384 grams ( 3 cups) flour
1  teaspoon baking soda
1 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla
zest and juice from 2 lemons
a handful of dried coconut to dust the pan

For the syrup
zest and juice from 1 lemon
50 grams (1/2 cup) sugar

Turn on the oven to 180C (350F).  Prepare your Bundt pan by buttering it very carefully, making sure to get butter in all the creases.  Throw in a handful of dried coconut and shake it around the bank, getting an even layer. Shake out any excess. The coating helps the cake from sticking to the pan and I like to use something that will help the flavor of the cake. If you do not like coconut, you can use dried breadcrumbs, finely chopped almonds or other nuts, or just plain flour.

In a large bowl, cream the butter until it is light and fluffy.  This is easier to do if your butter is at room temperature, but if it isn't, just keep beating it and it will warm up as you are working.  Add the sugar and beat thoroughly.  Add the eggs, one at a time, beating very well until incorporated.  The eggs should make the mixture become light and airy.

Add half the flour, the baking soda and salt, vanilla, and the lemon juice and zest.  Beat until just incorporated.  Then add the rest of the flour and the sour cream.  Again, beat until just incorporated but no more.  You don't want to beat out the air and lightness that you incorporated when beating the eggs.

Pour into your prepared cake pan.  Put in the oven and bake for 45 to 55 minutes, until a knife comes out clean.

While the cake is baking, prepare the syrup.  Put the lemon juice, zest and sugar into a little pan.  Heat on the stove until the sugar is melted.  Set aside.

When the cake is finished, take a fork or wooden skewer and poke holes in the top.  Spoon 3/4 of the syrup over the cake, trying to avoid getting it down the sides of the pan.  Wait about 15 minutes and let the cake cool down a bit.  Then put your serving plate over the cake pan and flip over the cake and the plate together.  Spoon the rest of the syrup over the top of the cake and let it cool.

Serve with whipped cream and strawberries if it is midsummer!