Cake #110 - If Santa Was Irish

Tuesday Humour Cake - If Santa Was Irish.

With his red beard (and nose), holding a pint of stout and wearing a few shamrocks as accessories he would definitely be a funny guy bringing loads of pressies to you and yours!

Personally, I still believe the one and only Santa comes from Lapland, Finland.

Cake #109 - Sticky Ginger Cake

Monday Mood Cake - Sticky Ginger Cake.

Looking for Christmas mood with a fierce pain in my tooth - so I wanted to bake a cake with some fierce ginger in it!

You can find the recipe for this cake here. After baking I garnished the cake with some fresh ginger, dark syrup and icing sugar.

A very rich cake and easy to make. Definitely one must-bake-again cake!!

Cake #108 - Licorice Toffee Cake

Sunday Classic Cake - Licorice Toffee Cake.

To be exact, the cake may not be a classic one but the Hopeatoffee Licorice Toffee it is made of, is a classic in Finland, since the 1960's.

Licorice Toffee Cake

Sponge
100 g Hopeatoffee or other licorice toffee sweets
200 g butter
4 eggs
200 ml granulated sugar
2 tsp vanilla sugar
400 ml plain flour
100 ml cocoa powder
2 tsp baking powder
100 ml milk

Icing
100 g Hopeatoffee or other licorice toffee sweets
150 ml fresh cream
300 ml icing sugar

1. Melt the toffee sweets and butter in a pan on low heat and mix well.
2. Beat eggs and sugar until white and fluffy.
3. Mix together all dry ingredients and fold them into the egg and sugar mix together with licorice and butter and cold milk.
4. Grease and flour a Ø 24 cm cake pan and pour the batter in it.
5. Bake in 175 C / 350 F about 45-50 minutes.
6. Let cool.
7. For the icing, place the toffee sweets and cream into a pan. Mix on low heat until the sweets melt. Let cool and then sieve in icing sugar.
8. Spread icing on the cake and let the cake set for a couple of hours in a cool place. Garnish with licorice toffee pieces.

Cake #107 - Smoked Salmon Cake

Savoury Saturday Cake - Smoked Salmon Cake with Mozzarella, Olives and Cherry Tomatoes.

Smoked Salmon Cake with Mozzarella, Olives and Cherry Tomatoes

Base
150 g butter
300 ml plain flour
2 tbsp water

Filling
150 g smoked salmon, chopped
10-15 black olives, chopped
10 cherry tomatoes, chopped into half
150 g fresh Mozzarella, chopped
3 eggs
200 g creme fraiche
½ tsp salt
1 tsp dried basil
1 tsp dried oregano

Fresh basil to garnish

1. Mix butter and flour until course crumbs.
2. Add water gradually until batter is soft but not too 'wet'.
3. Spread batter onto the base and sides of a Ø 20 cm spring form pan.
4. Mix all ingredients together for the filling and pour on the cake base.
5. Bake in 175 C / 350 F for 35-40 minutes.
6. Garnish with fresh basil leaves.

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.