Cinnamon Buns

Cinnamon Bun baking mood!

Every now and then I bake them 'fool proof' - in cupcake cases, that is, so they don't expand too much, collapse or explode.

Best when still warm, fresh from the oven!

Cinnamon buns (makes 12-14)

Dough
300 ml / 1 1/4 cup lukewarm milk
25 g fresh yeast (or 1 bag / 7 g fast action dried yeast)
100 ml / 1/2 cup sugar
½ tsp ground cardamom
1 egg
100 g melted butter
about 1 litre / 4 cups plain flour

Filling 
100 g butter
2 tbsp cinnamon
1 dl / 1/3 cup sugar

Glazing
1 egg

1. Dissolve yeast in warm milk.
2. Add sugar, cardamom and egg and mix well.
3. Start adding flour gradually.
4. After you have kneaded in about half of the flour, add melted butter.
5. Knead in more flour until your dough is not sticky any more but still soft. It is better to leave the dough a little too soft than make it too dense as the buns will be too dry and hard after baking.
6. Leave the dough to rise in a warm place until double in size, for about half an hour.
7. Roll your dough into a rectangle, about 0,5 cm thick.
8. Spread the butter on top and sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon.
9. Roll the dough into a cylinder and then cut it into 12 pieces. Place the buns in (large) cupcake cases.
10. Let the buns rise for about half an hour, then glaze with egg and sprinkle with pearl sugar.
11. Bake in the oven at 220C for 10-12 minutes.

Cake #186 - Pacman

Tuesday Humour Cake - Pacman.

I had been planning to bake this cake a while. The plan was to have The Husband's Pacman coffee mug in the picture, too, but he always forgot to bring it home from the office where he uses it, when I asked for it. And the times he did bring it home, I had already baked something else. The Husband finally suggested I could photograph his Pacman socks, instead, but... Oh, well.

The cake itself is a basic sponge, filled with whipped cream and raspberry jam and the icing is made of white chocolate and butter, with a few drops of yellow food colouring.

Cake #185 - Käsekuchen

Monday Mood Cake - Käsekuchen, German style cheesecake made of quark.

Quark is one of my favourite dairy products. In Ireland you can find it at least in Tesco and Dunnes Stores. It can be used the way you would use cream cheese or you can use it in batters or you can make delicious desserts of eat. Or it it plain with fruit and berries. It is nearly fat free if you are careful with your calories intake...

There are various recipes for this German style cheesecake, Käsekuchen. For this cake I used this recipe except I did not separate the eggs, nor did I put any berries into the filling.

I decorated the cake with fresh raspberries and piped milk chocolate. More raspberries to be served with and oh so good it was! 

Cake #183 - French Chocolate Cake

Saturday Surprise - French Chocolate Cake.

Continuing with my (not deliberate) French theme, after Tarte Tatin and Petites Madeleines, I made a French Chocolate Cake. French Mud Cake, I would say.

You can find the delicious recipe here.

Cake #182 - Petites Madeleines

Thursday Experiment - Madeleine Cakes, aka Petites Madeleines.

À la recherche du temps perdu. - In Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time book series they often enjoy Petites Madeleines. I saw Madeleine pans at TK Maxx and could not resist. Based on the delicacy of my first cakes, the pans will definitely be used every now and then!

There are various recipes for Madeleines - I wanted to start with lemony ones, and oh so good they were indeed!

This recipe I used is on BBC Good Food and it is by Michel Roux.

Cake #181 - Tarte Tatin

Wednesday Experiment - Tarte Tatin.

I bought a proper cast iron frying pan today and wanted to test it. Worked out nicely!

Tarte Tatin

Pastry

400 ml plain flour

200 g butter

200 ml icing sugar

3 egg yolks

Filling

5 big apples, I used Bramley cooking apples

50 ml lemon juice

150 ml sugar

100 g butter

1. Preheat the oven to 250 C/ 500 F.

2. Mix flour, cold butter and icing sugar until crumbs. 

3. Add egg yolks and mix well.

4. Form a ball of the dough, wrap it in clingfilm and put in the fridge for at least an hour.

5. Peel and cut the apples into slices and squeeze the lemon juice over.

6. Caramelise 100 ml of the sugar on a hot pan.

7. Place the apple slices on top of the caramelised sugar, sprinkle the rest of the sugar and the butter on top. 

8. Bake in the oven until the apples have softened a bit, about 10 minutes.

9. Take the pastry out of the fridge and roll into a circle of the size of your pan. 

10. Place the pastry on top of the apples and put back into the oven.

11. Turn the heat down to 220 C /425 F and bake until golden brown, about 15 minutes.

12. Let cool a few minutes.

13. Take a serving plate and carefully flip the cake pan and the plate so that the pan is on top, then lift off the pan. 

14. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream.

Cake #180 - Oscar Gala Dress

Monday Mood Cake - Oscar Gala in my mind. Cake inspired by dresses in last night's Oscar Gala.

Bake a Naughty Chocolate Fudge Cake , pipe some whipped cream on sides and on top and add colour by cutting a few pieces of fruit and place them nicely. There are days you badly need a cake like this. Whether you want to eat it after all, or not.

Cake #179 - Galatopita

Sunday Classic  - Galatopita, Greek Semolina Pancake, served with whipped cream, pistachio halva and physalis.

This traditional Greek pancake is very similar to the traditional Åland Island pancake both using semolina as the main ingredient!

You can find the recipe for Semolina here.

Check out this Åland Pancake recipe, too!

Cake #178 - Tie Dye Cake

Saturday Surprise Cake - Tie Dye Cake with shortbread base and almond and raspberry filling.

One night I was dreaming of a tie dye cake so I had to try out and make one...

Tie Dye Cake

250 g butter

125 ml granulated sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract or 2 tsp vanilla sugar

1 egg yolk

500 ml plain flour

Filling

1 egg white

120 g ground almonds

1 tbsp granulated sugar

200 g raspberry jam

Yellow Icing

500 ml icing sugar

3 tbsp lemon juice (add more if too thick)

some yellow food colour to get the shade you like

Tie Dye

100 ml icing sugar

a few drops of water

black food colour

1. Cream butter and sugar together.

2. Add egg yolk and vanilla extract and mix well.

3. Add flour and mix just enough so the batter is smooth.

4. Put the batter in the fridge to rest for ½-1 h.

5. Preheat the oven into 200 degrees C (390 F)

6. After the batter has rested, divide it into two balls. Roll both into 24 cm in diameter round cakes and place one in a cake pan lined with baking parchment.

7. Whip the egg white with sugar until stiff and carefully fold in the ground almond.

8. Spread the raspberry jam on top of the cake base and on top of that the egg white-almond mixture.

9. Carefully lift the other rolled layer on top of the first one.

10. Bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes.

11. Let cool completely, remove from the pan on a serving plate and then mix the icings.

12. First spread the yellow icing evenly on top of the cake, then pipe the black icing in circles  and by using a cocktail stick make the tie dye patterns.

13. Let set for a few moments before serving.

Cake #177 - Funfetti Cake

Friends First Friday Cake - Funfetti Cake (except where did all the colourful sprinkles disappear??)

For the school mid-term break giving us all a much needed break from the daily routines!

You can find the recipe here. Add plenty of sprinkles and try to find really colourful ones for them to show well...

Cake #176 - Chinese Cat

Thursday Cat Theme Cat - Chinese Cat.

Happy Chinese New Year!

The cake is a sponge filled with vanilla and raspberry and covered with red icing. My daughter made the Chinese cat of sugar paste and finalised it with shimmer spray and food colours.

Cake #184 - Dobos Torta

Sunday Classic - Dobos Torta.

A traditional Hungarian multi-layer (7 in this) cake filled with chocolate buttercream and topped with caramel.

This a Dobos Torta made simple. You can find more original and time-consuming recipes, I found this effortless and quicker, and therefore matching with my baking philosophy.

Dobos Torta

Base
6 eggs
150 ml granulated sugar
300 ml plain flour
75 g butter
1 tsp baking powder

Buttercream Filling
50 ml milk
150 ml granulated sugar
100 g dark chocolate
200 g butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla sugar

For caramelised sugar on top
150 ml granulated sugar

1. Preheat the oven to 200C.
2. Grease and flour 7 cake pans, 22cm in diameter or simply use baking parchment on trays to bake 7 round cakes.
3. Beat eggs and sugar until white and fluffy.
4. Melt butter.
5. Add butter and flour mixed with baking powder to the egg mix.
6. Pour batter into pans or spread on baking sheets. You can draw circles on the backside of the baking parchments to get equally sized cakes.
7. Bake in the oven for about 10-12 minutes and let cool.
8. For the buttercream, melt sugar and chocolate in milk and mix well. Let cool and mix in vanilla sugar and soft butter.
9. For the caramelised sugar, melt sugar in a pan and spread quickly on one of the cake bases. Cut it in 8 slices if you like.
10. Compile the cake by spreading buttercream on one layer and placing a new layer on top and repeat that until all layers are in place. Last, place the slices with caramelised sugar on top.
11. Let the cake set in the fridge for an hour or more before serving.

Cake #175 - Date, Honey and Cinnamon Cake

Wednesday Natural Ingredient / Healthy Cake - Date, Honey and Cinnamon Cake.

Date, Honey and Cinnamon Cake

225g self-raising flour
2 tsp ground cinnamon
175g soft butter
100g brown sugar
3 tbsp honey
2 large eggs
200 ml buttermilk
100g stoned dates

1. Preheat the oven to 175C.
2. Grease and flour a 2-litre bundt cake pan.
3. Measure all ingredients into a mixing bowl and beat until well blended.
4. Pour into the pan and level the top.
5. Bake for 50-60 minutes until a stick comes out clean
6. Let cool before removing from pan and cut into thick slices.
7. Enjoy plain or with vanilla ice cream.

Cake #174 - Giant Shrove Bun

Small bun and large coffee or large bun and small coffee...?

Tuesday Humour Cake - Giant Shrove Bun with Marzipan, Strawberry Jam and Whipped Cream.

Happy Shrove Tuesday!

Shrove Buns (makes 1 giant bun or 12 small buns)

Dough
300 ml  lukewarm milk
25 g fresh yeast (or 1 bag / 7 g fast action dried yeast)
100 ml sugar
½ tsp ground cardamom
1 egg
100 g melted butter
about 1 litre plain flour

1 egg for glazing
almond flakes or pearl sugar

Filling
whipped cream
marzipan
raspberry/strawberry jam

1. Dissolve yeast in warm milk.
2. Add sugar, cardamom and egg and mix well.
3. Start adding flour gradually.
4. After you have kneaded in about half of the flour, add melted butter.
5. Knead in more flour until your dough is not sticky any more but still soft. It is better to leave the dough a little too soft than make it too dense as the buns will be too dry and hard after baking.
6. Leave the dough to rise in a warm place until double in size, for about half an hour.
7. Make one giant bun or 12 small, equally sized buns.
8. Let rise for half an hour.
9. Preheat the oven to 175C for a giant bun or 225C for small buns.
10. Glaze with egg, sprinkle wih almond flakes or pearl sugar and bake in the oven for about 30 minutes/giant bun or 15 minutes/small buns.
11. Let cool completely before filling with marzipan, jam and whipped cream.

Cake #173 - Avocado and Lime Cheesecake

Monday Mood Cake - Avocado and Lime Cheesecake.

Spring!! Sunshine!

Avocado and Lime Cheesecake

Crust:
150g Digestive cookies, crumbed
75g butter, melted

Filling:
3 avocados, mashed
300g  cream cheese 
150 ml granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla sugar
8 gelatine leaves
juice of 2 limes
3 egg whites
green food colouring

1. Mix the digestive cookie crumbs and melted butter.  Press the mixture into the bottom of a spring form cake pan, base covered with baking parchment. Let the crust cool and rest in the fridge while you make the filling.
2. Soak the gelatine leaves in cold water for 5 minutes.
3. Mix the cream cheese, sugar and vanilla sugar.
4. Heat up the lime juice and melt the soaked gelatine leaves in the hot juice and pour the smooth liquid into the cheese mixture. Mix well.
5. Beat the egg whites until stiff and fold them very gently into the cheese mixture trying to keep it ‘airy’.
6. Divide the cheese mixture equally into three bowls.
7. Take the first bowl and add half of the mashed avocado and mix well.
8. Take the second bowl and add the other half of the mashed avocado and a few drops of green food colouring and mix well.
9. Pour the darker green filling on the crust and spread evenly.
10. Spread the lighter green filling on the darker layer very carefully and evenly.
11. Last, spread the white filling on top very carefully and evenly.
12. Chill the cake in the fridge for at least four hours until firm.
7. Remove the firm cake from the pan very, very carefully on a serving plate and decorate it with grated lime zest, small avocado cubes or green sprinkles.
8. Enjoy!

Cake #172 - Lemon Drizzle Cake

Sunday Classic Cake - Lemon Drizzle Cake.

Lemon Drizzle Cake is one of the most fool-proof cakes to bake. Lemon is always a sophisticated choice for a cake and for me, personally, it even beats a chocolate cake.

For a fool-proof cake, use this recipe.

Valentine's Day - Avocado Pound Cake

Valentine's Day, Cake #170 - Avocado Pound Cake with Lemon Icing, Physalis and Blueberries.

Valentine's Day baking does not need to be all pink and hearts, it can be an ordinary cake made more festive.

Avocado Pound Cake

400 ml plain flour
100 ml medium cornmeal
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
50 g butter, softened
400 ml sugar
4 ripe mashed avocados
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
100 ml buttermilk

Icing
300 ml icing sugar
a few drops of lemon juice
a few drops of yellow food colouring (optional)

Berries and fruit of your choice

1. Preheat oven to 175 C.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cornmeal, salt, baking powder, and baking soda. Set aside.
3. In another bowl beat butter and sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy. Add avocado and beat until mixed.
4. Add eggs and vanilla and beat well.
5. Add half of the flour mixture, then the buttermilk and the remaining flour mixture.
6. Pour the batter into a greased and floured 1 kg loaf tin and bake in the oven for about 45 minutes. Let cool in tin for 20 minutes before inverting onto a wire rack. Let cool completely.
7. Make icing and spread on the cake.
8. Decorate with berries or fruit of your choice.

Valentine's Day - Lemon Meringue Cake goes Valentine

Valentine's Day 2015, Cake #171 - Valentine's Lemon Meringue Cake.

I love this Mary Berry Lemon Meringue Pie recipe. To make it go Valentine, I added a few drops of red food colouring into the filling to make it pink. When spreading the meringue on top of the filling, I placed a heart-shaped cookie cutter on the filling and spread the meringue around. After baking the meringue, I carefully removed the cookie cutter hoping that the sides would not collapse... and they did not! Just before serving I decorated the cake with red heart sprinkles.

Grandpa Alex's Peanut Butter Cookies

Peanut Butter Cookies (makes 6 dozen)

250 g butter
250 ml brown sugar
250 ml granulated sugar
2 eggs
250 ml smooth peanut butter
750 ml plain flour
2 tsp baking soda
½ ts salt

1. Cream butter and both sugars together.
2. Beat in eggs.
3. Mix in peanut butter.
4. Stir in flour, baking soda and salt.
5. Let batter rest in fridge for half an hour.
6. Preheat the oven to 190 C.
7. Shape the batter into small balls. Place them on a baking tray lined with baking paper and press with fork. Leave room for expansion (see *tip below). Dip fork in flour as needed to prevent stickiness.
8. Bake cookies in the oven for 10-12 minutes.

For peanut butter chocolate chip cookies, add 300 ml chocolate chips.

*Tip: Bake a test cookie to see how much it expands and see if you are happy with the texture. If the cookie expands too much, add some more flour to the batter. Usually the amount of flour in the recipe is perfect but as different flour brands may act differently, it is worth while baking a test cookie.

Valentine's Day - Red Velvet Cupcakes

Valentine's Day 2015, Cake #169 - Giant Red Velvet Cupcake and Small Red Velvet Cupcakes with Vanilla Buttercream and Dark Chocolate and Strawberry Hearts.

Red Velvet Cupcakes 
makes 12 cupcakes and 1 giant cupcake ( Ø 15cm)

350 g self-raising flour
250 g granulated sugar
300 g soft butter
4 eggs
2 tbsp drinking chocolate
2 tbsp dark cocoa powder
100 ml water
2 tbsp red food colouring

1. Pre-heat the oven to 175C.
2. Beat butter and sugar until creamy.
3. Beat in eggs.
4. Mix together all dry ingredients and add to the batter together with water and food colouring. 
5. Spoon half of the batter into a greased and floured Ø 15 cm cake pan and divide the other half equally into 12 paper cups placed in a muffin tin.
6. Bake the cupcakes for about 20 minutes and the giant cupcake about 30 minutes.

7. Let cool before icing and decorating the cakes.

Chocolate Hearts
Melt 100 g dark chocolate and pipe hearts on a silicone mat. Let set in the fridge for at least 15 minutes.

Strawberry Hearts
Cut strawberries in half and using a heart-shaped cookie cutter, cut out hearts. You need either huge strawberries or a tiny cookie cutter! I was lucky to have both.

Vanilla Icing

150 g butter

300 g icing sugar

1-2 tbsp cream 

1 tsp vanilla extract

1. Beat butter and icing sugar in a bowl until soft and creamy. 

2. Add vanilla extract and then cream drop by drop to make sure the mixture does not become too loose.

Valentine's Day - Chocolate Cake with Rum and Raisin Fudge

Valentine's Day 2015, Cake #168 - Chocolate Cake with Rum and Raisin Fudge.

On the plate, instead of a cake, I was supposed to place cute little rum and raisin fudge hearts in cute little paper cups. I made the fudge in the morning but for some reason it just didn't set during eight hours at all. It did not even freeze - except the raisins. Luckily the mixture looked like it could work out as cake covering - and it did! On a chocolate cake which was supposed to be something else than chocolate cake covered with rum and raisin fudge... 

Oh, well. Win-win. The chocolate cake covered with rum and raisin fudge tasted heavenly. 

So, hopefully better luck next time with f-u-d-g-e in cute little papercups.

Rum and Raisin Fudge Cake Covering

100 g raisins, chopped

2 tsp rum essence

500 ml double cream

450 g demerara sugar

150 g butter

150 g white chocolate

2 tsp red food colouring

1. Sprinkle the rum essence on the chopped raisins and let set while you cook the fudge.

2. Mix together cream, sugar and butter and boil on medium heat until the mixture thickens, about 15 minutes.

3. Remove from heat, add chocolate and food colouring and mix well.

4. Fold in the raisins and put the fudge cake covering in the fridge to set while you bake the cake.

Chocolate Sponge
175g self-raising flour
2 tbsp cocoa powder
1 tsp soda
150g caster sugar
2 large eggs
150 ml sunflower oil
150 ml milk
2 tbsp syrup

1. Preheat the oven to 180 C/ 350 F and grease and flour a Ø 24 cm round cake pan.

2. Sieve flour, cocoa and soda into a bowl. Add sugar and mix well.
3. Make a well in the centre and add syrup, eggs, oil and milk. Beat well until smooth.
4. Spoon the mixture into the pan and bake for 35-40 minutes until risen and firm to the touch. Remove from oven and leave to cool completely before spreading the fudge.

Valentine's Day - Yogurt and Raspberry Heart

Valentine's Day 2015, Cake #167 - Yogurt and Raspberry Heart (pulla - sweet bun cake).

Valentine's Day. In most languages I know, the day is called Valentine's Day or Saint Valentine's Day referring to a saint called Valentinus and being associated with romantic love. 

For some reason in Finland the day is called Ystävänpäivä - Friend's Day, and in Sweden Alla Hjärtans Dag - All Hearts' Day. Why, that is an interesting question. Is it easier for a Finn to say their partner that you are my best friend rather than saying I love you in a romantic way? And do the Swedes want to spread equality also this way - to, via and through all hearts?

One stereotype or another, let your Valentine or Friend or Foe or anybody with a heart - and especially anybody without one -  feel loved this Valentine's Day. If you cannot find words or dare say any, bake a cake!

***

Yogurt and Raspberry Heart
Dough
300 ml  lukewarm milk
25 g fresh yeast (or 1 bag / 7 g fast action dried yeast)
100 ml sugar
½ tsp ground cardamom
1 egg
100 g melted butter
about 1 litre plain flour

Filling
100 ml natural yogurt
50 ml raspberry jam
50 ml granulated sugar
½ tsp vanilla extract

1 egg for glazing

icing sugar, red food colouring and sprinkles for decorating the cake

1. Dissolve yeast in warm milk.
2. Add sugar, cardamom and egg and mix well.
3. Start adding flour gradually.
4. After you have kneaded in about half of the flour, add melted butter.
5. Knead in more flour until your dough is not sticky any more but still soft. It is better to leave the dough a little too soft than make it too dense as the cake will be too dry and hard after baking.
6. Leave the dough to rise in a warm place until double in size, for about half an hour.
7. Roll your dough into a rectangle, about 0,5 cm thick.

8. Cut hearts with a cookie cutter - or cookie cutters of different size.
9. Grease a heart-shaped cake pan and place one layer of hearts in the pan.
10. Mix together all ingredients for the filling and spoon half of the filling on the hearts. Then place another layer of hearts on top and spoon the rest of the filling on them and finally a third layer of hearts. 
11. Let rise for about 20 minutes and glaze with egg before baking.
12. Bake in the oven at 200 C for about half an hour.
13. Let the cake cool before removing from pan and decorating with icing and sprinkles.

Cake inspired by Ikea paper napkin...? 

Valentine's Day Coming Up!

 The Cat Hairy Baker's Valentine's Day Specials 8-14 February. Stay tuned!

Also on Facebook and Instagram.

Cakes #165 and #166 - Friday Cakes

#165 Friends First Friday Cake - Raspberry and Lemon Cake - to celebrate spring which according to the Celtic calendar started 1 February. And it really feels like spring!

#166 Nutella and Cinnamon Cake - Another World Nutella Day Cake.

Lemony Peach Cake by Donna Hay is one of my all-time favourites. Now I used raspberries instead of peaches and it worked out great! Yogurt gives the cake a gooey texture and yogurt is also great to go with the cake together with some fresh (or like in this case, frozen) berries.

The recipe for Nutella and Cinnamon Cake I bumped into at BBC Good Food Facebook page on the World Nutella Day right after baking my Nutella Brownie Cake. I wanted to try the recipe but had to leave it to the day after. Worth trying. Worth waiting!

Both turned out to be the perfect Friday Cakes when watching a movie with the family. After enjoying some pizza The Husband made for his Friday 'cake'. Some evenings are just made for munching, especially when it is all home-made. 

Cake #163 - Nutella Brownie Cake

World Nutella Day 5 February. Sure a reason to bake something with Nutella!

Nutella Brownie Cake
175 g dark chocolate
175 g butter
250 g golden caster sugar
pinch of salt
3 large eggs
120 g plain flour
2 tsp vanilla extract
4 tbsp Nutella

1. Pre-heat n to 180C and line a 20cm x 20cm square cake tin with baking paper.
2. Melt the chocolate and butter and stir until smooth.
3. Add sugar and salt and beat eggs and vanilla into the mixture.
4. Sift in the flour and then stir in Nutella.
5. Scrape the mixture into the tin and bake for 20-25 minutes.
6. Allow cool before removing from tin.
7. Serve with ice cream.

Happy World Nutella Day!

Cake #162 - Profiterole Cake

Wednesday Natural Ingredient / Healthy Cake - Profiterole Cake with Fresh Blueberries, Raspberries and Whipped Cream.

I am not sure if profiterole cake would be the correct name for this cake as it is not made of several profiteroles but rather of profiterole batter piped on a baking tray to shape two round cakes and then the filling is put in-between the two cakes.

***

I made this choux pastry double and then piped it into two equal sized round cakes on baking paper on a baking tray. The cakes I baked at 200C for about 25 minutes. After the cakes had cooled down I removed them from the trays, whipped 200 ml fresh cream to fill the cake together with fresh raspberries and blueberries and on top sprinkled some icing sugar.

Excellent dessert cake which was enjoyed by the family on one go. Oops. Well, seven people to be exact so the slices were actually tiny.

Cake #161 - Banana, Coconut and Sesame Seed Cake

Monday Mood Cake - Banana, Coconut and Sesame Seed Upside Down Cake.

It was a day to turn some jars upside down and feel if there is any serious baking power left after baking five batches of cinnamon buns the day before.

Baking is a lot about feelings. One day you feel like having pulla, the other day you feel like trying some recipe with sesame seeds in it. On the other hand, you may have overripe bananas in the house and you need to use them whether you feel like using them or not (unless you feel the bin is a choice). And then you feel the kids may have deserved some ice cream so you bake something to go with ice cream. You may feel satisfied after baking or you may not. You may feel like eating what you have made or you may leave it for later. Sometimes you feel the batter is better than the actual cake.

The main thing is that you can feel the joy!

The recipe for this cake is from here. - Instead of sprinkling the sesame seeds on top - the bottom after baking, that is, I would mix them in the batter the next time to feel them equally in the cake. As eating is feeling, too. And feeling is eating.

Cinnamon Buns and Shrove Buns

Pulla, anyone? Cinnamon buns or maybe Shrove buns with marzipan?

Sometimes you get into the mood for pulla and then there is only one medicine - you have to bake them!

The other day I set myself a mission to bake the perfect cinnamon bun and it was way harder than I expected. Until now, I have mainly baked my cinnamon buns in paper cups where they keep their shape and all excess butter stays inside the cup. This time I wanted to make the real, proper ones with no cheating. After baking 5 batches (about 60 buns, that was), I was able to find nine (yes, 9) buns with which I was just about happy with. A good start, eh?

But even the ugliest ones tasted perfect. The ones which looked like viking ships and the ones which looked like crippled snails. Oh, and the ones shaped like the horns of Dorset sheep. Yummy yummy pulla!

And then I also made a batch of Shrove buns. A bit early - the Shrove Tuesday is not until 17 February. I just happened to find a package of marzipan in the cupboard and baking the basic round buns felt like an easy and rewarding job after all the misshapen cinnamon buns.

Cinnamon buns (makes 12-14)
300 ml  lukewarm milk
25 g fresh yeast (or 1 bag / 7 g fast action dried yeast)
100 ml sugar
½ tsp ground cardamom
1 egg
100 g melted butter
about 1 litre plain flour

Filling
100 g butter
2 tbsp cinnamon
100 ml sugar

Glazing
1 egg
pearl sugar

1. Dissolve yeast in warm milk.
2. Add sugar, cardamom and egg and mix well.
3. Start adding flour gradually.
4. After you have kneaded in about half of the flour, add melted butter.
5. Knead in more flour until your dough is not sticky any more but still soft. It is better to leave the dough a little too soft than make it too dense as the buns will be too dry and hard after baking.
6. Leave the dough to rise in a warm place until double in size, for about half an hour.
7. Roll your dough into a rectangle, about 0,5 cm thick.
8. Spread the butter on top and sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon.
9. Roll the dough into a cylinder and then cut it into triangles. Turn the triangles so that the sharp side faces up and then press it down with your finger.
10. Let the buns rise for about half an hour, then glaze with egg and sprinkle with pearl sugar.
11. Bake in the oven at 225C for 10-12 minutes.

Shrove Buns

Make the dough as above. When risen, knead it on a floured surface and cut into 12 pieces and roll them into balls. Let the buns rise, glaze them with egg and sprinkle with pearl sugar or almond flakes. Bake in the oven at 225C for 10-12 minutes.

After the buns have cooled, cut them in half and fill with marzipan or jam and whipped cream.

Cake #160 - Runeberg Torte and Cake #164 Runeberg Cake

Cake #160 Runeberg Tortes
Cake #164 Runeberg Cakes

J.L. Runeberg, the national poet of Finland was born 5 February, 1804. His wife used to bake these little tortes which later were named after him. The tortes are popular in Finland around Runeberg's birthday and are made by every bakery in the country and sold nationwide. And each and every Finn certainly has an opinion which bakery makes the best tortes!

As an expat Finn I have to bake my own Runeberg Tortes and they are not that bad either. I prefer mine with almond essence unlike my family so always need to bake two batches, one with almond essence and another without.

You can use the same recipe for making one or two bigger cakes instead of small tortes if you do not have suitable tins. I was lucky to find these nearly perfect tins in TK Maxx a while ago:

Runeberg Tortes or Cakes (makes 12 tortes or 2 small cakes)
Batter
200 g butter
100 ml brown sugar
100 ml granulated sugar
2 eggs
100 g ground almonds
200 ml finely ground dry breadcrumbs
300 ml plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
200 ml milk
(2 tsp almond essence or rum essence)

raspberry jam
icing sugar, a few drops of water

1. Pre-heat the oven to 200C and grease and flour 12 muffin tins (or use paper cups) or 2 Ø 20 cm cake pans.
2. Cream together butter and sugar.
3. Add eggs and almond essence.
4. Mix together all dry ingredients and add them to the batter together with the milk.
5. Spoon the batter evenly in the muffin tins and bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes).
6. Let cool and decorate with raspberry jam and icing.
7. If the tortes feel dry you can moisten them with sugary water flavoured with almond or rum essence).

Cake #159 - Spinach Pancake

Savoury Saturday Cake - Spinach Pancake, served with crayfish tails, capers, rocket, creme fraiche and lemon.

I am a spinach fan! Fresh baby spinach in salads, cooked spinach in soups or, like here, in an oven pancake. In a stir-fry, in Fish Florentine... And nowadays in smoothies and home-made juices as well as my daughters are making those daily.

Spinach Pancake
150 g fresh spinach, cooked and blended
4 eggs
400 ml milk
300 ml plain flour
½ tsp salt

1. Pre-heat the oven to 200 C and grease a Ø 30 cm springform pan.
2. Mix all ingredients together and pour into pan.
3. Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes.
4. Serve warm - plain or with prawns, ham, poached egg... Goes well for brunch or lunch as such or for appetizer like we enjoyed it.