Cake #3 - Boston Cake - Traditional Finnish Cinnamon Bun Cake

My theme for Sundays during my 365 Cakes / 365 Days challenge is classic or traditional cakes. Those cakes may be known world-wide or just locally somewhere. I will definitely make all true classics but I am also willing to try something new and extraordinary as long as I am able to get all ingredients needed and they are reasonably priced - no beluga caviar -topped cheesecakes expected (if such a cake happens to be traditional somewhere)! The cakes may be fancy or they may simple. They may be tied to the season like traditional cakes often are, for example, harvesting - or there may be religious symbolism with them, for example, Ramadan or Greek Goddesses. 

For my first Sunday cake I chose Boston Cake, a traditional Finnish Cinnamon Bun Cake the taste of  which is something very traditional and homey for me. Even as a child I used to bake lots of pulla - sometimes 100 cinnamon buns during one baking 'session'. What comes to Boston Cake, I have no clue where the name comes from - I tried to google it but gave up after an hour as I really didn't find any relevant information. Boston Cake seems to have appeared in the Finnish coffee tables after the war, in 1950's and the fillings can vary -  it may be jam, for example - but the most traditional one is this one with cinnamon-sugar-butter -filling. I decorated my cake with icing - more traditional would have been chopped almonds or simply pearl sugar. The latter I have never seen in the Irish supermarkets - have you?

Boston Cake

3 dl / 1 1/4 cup lukewarm milk

25 g fresh yeast (or 1 bag / 7 g fast action dried yeast)

0,5 dl / 1/4 cup sugar

½ tsp ground cardamom

1 egg

100 g melted butter

about 9-10 dl / 4 cups plain flour

Filling

100 g butter

2 tbsp cinnamon

1 dl / 1/3 cup sugar

Glazing

1 egg

Icing

1,5 dl / ½ cup icing sugar

1 tbsp water

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/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. Line a springform pan ( Ø 28 cm) with baking paper. My favourite way to do this is to wet a piece of baking paper and crumple it into a ball to get rid of the excess water and make it softer so it is easier to line the form.

8. Roll your dough into a rectangle, about 0,5 cm / 1/4" thick.
9. Spread the butter on top and sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon.

10. Roll the dough into a cylinder and then cut it into slices of about 5 cm / 2" long.
11. Place the slices in the pan, side by side but not too tightly to leave some room to rise.
12. Let the cake rise for about half an hour.
13. Preheat the oven to 200C / 390F.
14. Glaze your cake with egg and bake in the oven for about 30-40 minutes.

15. Let the cake cool completely - it is easy to remove the cake from the pan either by removing the sides of the springform or just carefully lifting the baking paper together with the cake.
16. Drizzle or pipe the icing on top of your cake and enjoy fresh (or freeze on the day of baking).

Pull out one bun at a time....

...or cut into wedges.  -There are no right or wrong ways to eat the cake!