Cake #106 - Finlandia

Finlandia to celebrate Finland's 97th Independence Day on 6 December, 2014.

In Finland, one of the most important Independence Day traditions is the President's reception. Every year he invites there about 2000 people - not only politicians or diplomats but celebrities (ice hockey players, poets, musicians...) and ordinary people from all over Finland, too, whom he has met during the past year. Those not invited can watch the reception on TV - yes, watching the President and his wife shaking hands for a couple of hours, and then finally dancing in the crowded hall in the presidential palace.

As an expat Finn, I did watch the whole spectacle. While enjoying my Independence day cake and trying to spot celebrities.

Only in the after-party sang one of my favourite Finnish artists Jarkko Ahola this beautiful Finlandia Hymn in Finnish. Beautiful.

***

My Independence Day cake was another Ombre Cake. No blueberries in this one either. I filled it with mashed cranberries and caramel sauce - a wonderful sour and sweet combination.

Cake #105 - Rudolph Meets Cat

Thursday Cat Theme Cake - Rudolph Meets Cat.

My elder son (16) came home the other day and told me they will have a bake sale in their school. How nice. In the bake sale they will have a raffle. How exciting. The main prize in the raffle will be a fancy cake. How cool. And it is me who will bake the cake. How...how... how... interesting.

Ho-ho-ho, let's bake!

I wanted to play it safe so I used my old Ombre Cake recipe. No blueberries this time, though, but raspberry jam and caramel sauce in the filling. My daughter (12) made the little sugar paste figures - Rudolph, cat, presents and Christmas tree - on top of the cake and The Husband got me a cardboard cake box from Decobake. All sorted out.

What was the most amazing, my son told me about the cake 36 hours before it needed to be ready so I had lots of time. Absent-minded as my son sometimes may be, I wouldn't have been surprised that he would have remembered to tell me the night before the bake sale.

Afterwards I was told that it was one of the teachers who had won my cake. None of my son's teachers, though. What a pity. The postman just brought my son's Christmas report and I am just wondering would his maths grade have been better if his maths teacher had won the cake. Never mind. Maybe the teacher would have been on a diet or disliked raspberry jam and the maths grade had been even worse.

Cake #104 - Lingonberry Cheesecake

Wednesday Natural Ingredient / Healthy Cake - Lingonberry Cheesecake.

Time to defrost the freezer and make an inventory. Any forgotten frozen lunches for The Husband? Any cinnamon buns to be enjoyed with  coffee today? Any ice cream for me? 

Our freezer is very small so in no time I am able to go through what is in it and what we can eat during the next few days to get some space for Christmas goodies. I am happy to find a hidden pack of Finnish rye bread in a very back corner but it is running out soon, unfortunately. 

Finally, no ice cream but I find half a bag of half-forgotten lingonberries. Just enough to make a cheesecake with coffee as there were no cinnamon buns after all. I know who ate them but I do not mind as I know they were eaten with pleasure. AndI can always bake more!

Lingonberry Cheesecake

Base
2 large eggs
100 ml granulated sugar
200 ml self-raising flour
50 g butter, melted
25 ml cream

Filling
150 g Cream Cheese
3 eggs
50 ml cream
100 ml granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
150 g lingonberries

1. Preheat oven to 175C / 350F and grease and flour a Ø 20 cm cake pan.

2. Beat eggs and sugar until white and fluffy.

3. Fold in flour together with melted butter and cream.

4. Pour into pan and bake in the oven for 15  minutes.

5. Mix together all ingredients for the filling and pour on the cake base.

6. Put the cake back in the oven and bake another 15-20 minutes until the filling is set.

Cake #103 - Confused Santa

Tuesday Humour Cake - Confused Santa.

I am not a great fan of cake pans with a specific shape like this Santa as I find them quite limiting - a Santa is a Santa is a Santa - but when I saw this pan at TK Maxx and it was only 5.99€ (and I do not have any Christmassy cake pans) I thought I would buy it and see if it is of any use. More than once, that is.

And I did come up with something at least.

Like all dull people know there is no one and only Santa in the world so I get the freedom to dress the Santa different ways - like wearing boxer shorts with pink hearts. Be aware - you never know where the inspiration for the next Santa cake will come from. 

Oh, if you happen to wonder where the inspiration for this Santa came from, it is just imagination. It is.

Cake #102 - Lime and Poppy Seed Cake

Monday Mood Cake - Lime and Poppy Seed Cake.

Poppy seeds reflect the dozens (hundreds and thousands) things I want and plan to do by Christmas. Better not even try to count them. Just take reasonable-sized bites one at a time and remember there is only one Lime.

This turned out a very refreshing cake indeed! Effortless recipe and affordable ingredients, especially when you buy (bulk) poppy seeds in oriental shops and avoid over-prized top-brand ones. 

You can find the recipe for this cake here. I used limes instead of lemons.

Cake #101 - Spicy Advent Cake

Sunday Traditional Cake - Spicy Advent Cake aka Revamped Spicy Christmas Cake.

With this cake I am again back to my favourite warm spices - ground cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom, ginger and cloves. 

Traditionally this cake is baked in a bundt cake pan and served plain, but this time I have made it round and decorated it with Physalis peruviana - which I have always found a fascinating fruit. It is beautiful and it is versatile as it goes well with both sweet and savoury cakes and dishes.

I find the various names for the fruit and etymology behind the names fascinating, too. Physalis, Cape gooseberry, goldenberry and ground cherry are the ones I had heard before. But there is more. In Finnish the fruit, for some reason, is very often called and sold as Ananaskirsikka which translates to Pineapple Cherry. The fruit has definitely nothing to do with pineapples (well, as much as pineapples have with pines and apples, I guess) but I can easily refer to cases where people have found the taste similar to pineapple.

As a non-native English speaker I sometimes end up in funny situations if I do not know some term in English and then I hastily try to translate something from Finnish - or try to use other languages I know as a source. Or even when I know but I just cannot get it. Like simply trying to find the logic why grape and grapefruit mean two totally different things. Grapes are berries but then they are defined to be fruit, too. Could not either of them just be renamed to avoid confusion? Not that I would ever have tried to make a glass of juice by juicing just one grape, or decorate a cake with 40 grapefruits. But there is always a risk those things could happen!

Spicy Advent Cake

Sponge
3 eggs
150 ml granulated sugar
150 ml (dark) syrup
150 g butter, melted
450 ml plain flour
1,5 tsp bread soda
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp ground ginger
½ tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp ground cardamom
150 ml fresh cream

1. Preheat oven to 175C / 350F and grease and flour a Ø 20 cm cake pan.

2. Beat eggs and sugar until white and fluffy.

3. Fold in flour, spices and bread soda together with melted butter, syrup and cream.

4. Pour into pan and bake in the oven for about 40 minutes.

5. Let the sponge cool a little before removing from pan.

6. Spread icing on top and decorate with physalis (or other decorations of your choice).

Icing

150 g cream cheese
100 g soft butter
300 g icing sugar
2 tsp cinnamon

Beat all ingredients together but do not over mix as the icing will get too runny. (should this happen, add more icing sugar and place in fridge to set for an hour before spreading on cake)

Cake #100 - Sandwich Cake

Savoury Saturday Cake - Scandinavian Style Sandwich Cake with Smoked Salmon and Prawns.

Cake #100. Already. How time flies when you enjoy what you do.

I have never had a project plan for any of my 365 Cakes / 365 Days cakes. Thoughts and ideas, yes, but each and every cake have developed in my head usually during the very day I have made them. Sometimes it has been an ingredient I have based my choice of cake on, sometimes it has been a more or less brilliant idea or inspiration - or just pure perspiration. 

And I am letting the fun continue like this. During this cold season I do not even expect much perspiration.

***

A sandwich cake is a very Finnish (or Scandinavian) thing. At least it used to be. No party is / used to be a good party without a pompous sandwich cake - whether it is a fishy one or a meaty one.

Making a sandwich cake is not really baking (unless you bake the bread yourself) so unfortunately I do not have a recipe for this as such. I just compiled the cake of slices of toast (both white and brown, crust removed), spread cream cheese mixed with chopped pickled cucumber and smoked salmon on the bread, piled the slices into the shape of a cake, and then topped it with cream cheese. After all, it is mainly about the decorations which on this cake were smoked salmon, prawns, cherry tomatoes and fresh dill. I could have used ham instead of salmon and prawns. I could have used olives and liver pate in the filling. It is important, though, that the filling is at least a little moist.

What comes to a sandwich cake, all choices are yours. Just do not think it is complicated - it is like making your favourite sandwich triple-sized and decorating it festively.