Delfia Cake

December 20th 2018

Norwegian coconut butter

Since I have been married most years my Norwegian aunt made me a fridge cake for Christmas, known in Norway as Delfia kake. It is made from coconut butter, which was unavailable in the majority of supermarkets in the UK twenty-five years ago, now, of course, you can find it almost everywhere.  Tante Berit, my mother's only sibling died last year and left a big hole in our small family.  This year, with mamma here, we made Delfia kake and even though we did not speak of her, my aunt was not far from either of our thoughts.  I think I am going to rename this cake in our house Tante Berit's Cake.

Line a loaf tin with foil

This is a fabulously easy cake to make with children and needs no baking.  It is terribly sweet, so a little goes a very long way.


Tante Berit's Cake


You will need:  


250g dark chocolate
4 tablespoons strong coffee
250g coconut butter
2 eggs

Coconut butter

3 tablespoons sugar
Approximately half a pack of Rich Tea biscuits
100g marzipan
1 bag of sugar jelly sweets, the soft variety, Haribo or equivalent




♥  Line a loaf tin with foil.
♥  Melt the chocolate over low heat, adding the coffee.
♥  In a separate pan melt the coconut butter and then remove from the heat and COOL.  Do not omit to cool, this is very important.
♥  Whisk the eggs and sugar until they form a thick mixture, this will take several minutes.
♥  Add the chocolate to the thicken egg mixture and continue to whisk well.
♥  Add the coconut butter a little at a time, continually whisking.  Continue to whisk until the mixture has an even look to it.
♥  Layer the chocolate mixture alternately with biscuits, sliced marzipan and the jelly sweets, finishing with the chocolate. 
♥  Decorate the top with some jelly sweets.
♥  Place in the fridge to stiffen up and take out and slice thinly and have with a cup of tea or coffee.  ♥  Remember it is sweet!

Melt the chocolate and butter in separate pans

Whisk the eggs and sugar...

Until thick and creamy looking.

Add the melted chocolate,
I had let mine cool a bit too much!

Mix well

Adding the coconut butter gave
it an extra sheen of gloss

Norwegian jelly sweets
literally translate to 'sticky men' !!!

Layer the cake with the chocolate mixture and marzipan, biscuits and sweets.

Layering

Even more layering

Finally, decorate the top layer with jelly sweets

The finished cake after refrigerating

Slice thinly and not as thick
as the picture in this slice!

Perhaps a word of warning, however, if you are going to let the children eat this, I suggest a good run around outside after to burn off the sugar intake and avoid any of those sugar highs!  Enjoy x

An attractive looking cake
that goes down well with children.

♥  Are you ready for Christmas yet?  ♥

Advent

December 2nd 2018

Pepperkake Advent candles

I love the tradition of lighting a new candle each Sunday in Advent, the mad rush there's still so much to do, how will I fit it all in, oh, look there's another idea that's caught my imagination, have I time to squeeze that make in too? slow countdown to Christmas.  In an ideal world, there will be time to sit with a glass of something with loved ones and enjoy each others company but the reality is so often not that.  However, this season,  I am on a mission to slow down more.

The yearly coffee table centrepiece of the Advent candles have taken a different slant this year and I have used Elin's idea that she shared on her wonderful Norwegian baking blog and recreated my own Advent candle 'pepperkake' holder.  Hope you like it...

♥  TIP 1
Using the traditional pepperkake recipe which you can find HERE , it was relatively easy and quick to make.  The trick for me was to make sure I rolled out the rectangular base to the correct size for the plate I wanted to use, you can, of course, create a circular one if you wish, it's gingerbread house making on a very different level, no 3D sculpting and watching in disbelief as it all falls apart, oh yes, I have been that person and never again will I make a gingerbread house. Never; I'm shuddering just thinking about my epic fails on that score.

♥  TIP 2
The other trick is to use a biscuit cutter large enough to create a hole to accommodate a tealight candle.  I actually used an old tea light casing to make the circular hole.  Then once baked and as soon as they are out of the oven, I reinserted the tealight and ensured whilst the biscuit was soft that I cut away any more to guarantee a good fit.  Leave it when the biscuit has cooled and the hearts will break, this must be done when the biscuit is warm  You have been warned.

I used an egg white icing to decorate and kept it like Elin did, very plain and simple.

I used 1 egg white and squeezed the juice of a lemon and enough sifted icing sugar to create a fairly thick icing, using also a couple of blobs on the underside of each heart to 'glue' them into position on the biscuit base.

If you are into elegant decor, this will not be your style, but if rustic works for you and homemade, then this will be a winner!

Decorated pepperkake Advent candle holder

1st Sunday in Advent

Advent pepperkae candle holder

♥  Now I'm going to sit back relax and smell the pepperkake  ♥

Edit 2019:  I had a bit of a dilemma with this advent holder as I came down one morning to this...

...the cats had nibbled it in the night!!!

Scandinavian baking 6 ~ Table stacking cookies

Bordstabelbakkels ~ Table stacking cookies
December 17th

Bordstabelbakkels

Today is the 3rd Sunday in Advent and we are only a week away from Christmas Eve.  I am so excited.  Today I bring you the 6th of the 7 cookies that I bake in the run-up to Christmas.  Have you baked any of the cookies yet or any of your own?  Do let me know please, would love to hear from you. 

Today's cookie is Bordstabelbakkels, literally translated as Table Stacking Cookies and if you look at the photographs, I think you can see this is a very apt name.

what sets these cookies apart from others is that you have the cookie base itself and then what we call the filling but actually makes the cookies have two different textures and taste.  I love these cookies but be warned the egg whites and icing sugar mix for the filling must be really stiff before you add the ground almonds otherwise the filling spreads more that is really desired when baking.  this happened to me this year but time was not on my side to make another batch to photograph for you, so excuse the very amateur look of these cookies, but they are still worth it, the taste is divine. 

You can see where the cookies get their name
from each rectangular cookie is stacked upon the other

You will need:

♥  1 egg
♥  1 tbsp double cream
♥  125 g sugar
♥  250 g plain flour
♥125 g butter at room temperature

For the filling:

♥  3 egg whites
♥  180 g icing sugar
♥  180 g ground almonds


1   Whisk together the egg cream and sugar.  

2  Add the sifted flour and butter and mix to form a dough.  

3  Place the dough in the fridge for a minimum of 2 hours.          

The filling was not stiff enough before
baking so has spread a little too much

4  Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celcius.  

5  Prepare two baking trays with greaseproof paper  

6  To make the filling, whisk the egg white until they form white peaks and carefully add the icing sugar.  

7  Gently stir in the ground almonds.  

8  Roll the dough to approximately a thickness of 2mm.  

9  Cut out the cookies so they form rectangles of about 2 x 8 cm.  Place each cookie on the prepared trays.   

Bordstabelbakkles ~ Table Stacking Cookies

10  Using a piping bag, preferably with a round nose hole pipe a line of the filling along the middle of each cookie. 

11  Bake in the oven for about 6 minutes or until they are golden.  

12  Cool on a wire rack.  

13 These cookies will keep for a couple of weeks if kept in an airtight container.

Bordstabelbakkels, the 6th cookie baked before Christmas, only one more to bake...

♥  Hope you are all enjoying the run-up to Christmas.

Last Five of 2016

December 23rd



I had a crazy notion back in September that wouldn't it be great to make my own cake toppers this year for the Christmas cake.  I mean I usually do make my own cake decorations but what I am alluding to would be in crochet.  A mad idea but I think it worked.  The husband is yet to see it, waiting till Christmas Eve to finally do the big reveal but I can imagine it will have something to do with eye rolling and muttering the words, "Of course you would, why wouldn't you..."

I am not sharing the patterns now at such a late stage in December but if you wish for the patterns let me know.

It all began with the humble mini snowflake

And it wouldn't be a Scandinavian Christmas
without a Nisse now would it?

Ta dah!

I stuck the Nisse on with extra icing so the
wool was not in actual contact with the real cake itself

I realised that I was short on a present so the current Messy bun trend was spot on for me to make one of the quickest gifts I have ever ever made.  Have a spare hour?  Then you too can make that last minute gift for someone who has long hair, fun and genius don't you think?

Do you know how hard it is to take a photo of
the front and back of yourself at the same side, this was
attempt about 15, you're lucky you got anything!

In the dark this was the best shot I could get, but you
get the idea of a messy bun hat now don't you?

For instructions and how to make click on the link:  Messy Bun Hat


For me one of the great joys in my life is the month of Advent when we bake and cook so much in the kitchen.  At the beginning of December my son asked, "You are going to make all those biscuits and things this year aren't you?"  That warmed my heart and makes it all the more worth while.  One of his favourites are:  Almond cookies  He loves anything to do with almonds, but I am sure you could substitute this for any nut you prefer.

Almond cookies

Another bake but not counted as one of the 7 cookies makes of Advent were these rather delicious honey bombs, the best way to describe them is a cross between the texture of bread and ginger bread, spread them with lashings of butter and accompanied by a cup of tea, you won't go far wrong:  Afternoon Scandinavian Treat

And finally I leave you with what has become a tradition for us now over the past few years, our annual trip to see the lights in London and partake in a sing a long in the very splendid Albert Hall: Christmas in London

Christmas sing a long Albert Hall

Joining in with Amy  for the last time in 2016, thank you for hosting Amy, sending love xxx

♥  Wishing you all a very very jolly Christmas wherever you are and thanking you from the bottom of my heart for your readership and your very valued comments   ♥

Rye and Orange Cookies Christmas Cookies 7

December 22nd

A shot of me taking the photo for the blog

Today I share with you the last of the seven cookies baked during Advent in our house this year.  Today's cookies make the house smell so Christmassy with the addition of orange zest. This dough Cookie 7 needs no kneading or resting so is uber quick and a great one to make with the little people too. Again the recipe comes from the talented Dane, Trine Hahnemann



You will need:

♥  50 g butter
♥  125 g rye flakes
♥  250 g caster sugar

Adding in the sugar, the texture is wonderful

♥  2 eggs, lightly beaten
♥  2 tbsp plain flour
♥  2 tsp baking powder
♥  2 tsp finely grated orange zest
♥  pinch salt

NOTE: If you cannot get hold of rye flakes then use a muesli flake base, it often has some rye flakes in it too. It will taste as good just may have a slightly different texture, but that is OK

Method:

1  Melt butter and mix with rye flakes.
2  Stir in the sugar, beaten eggs in the same bowl.
3  In a separate bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, zest and salt.

After adding in the eggs,
it's very gloopy looking

4  Stir the flour mix into the rye mix.
5  Using 2 teaspoons drop small mounds onto a lined baking tray spacing each well apart, these cookies spread. (I suggest a heaped teaspoon worth, not any more, see below photographs)
6  Bake in oven at 180 degrees for approximately 10  minutes.
7  Allow to cool a little first on the baking trays before transferring them, you may need a palette knife to ease them away.
8  When cold store in an air tight container, they can last for up to 3 weeks if you can resist nibbling away at them.

Although not mixed together, I added
this photo to show you how much zest I added

This was equivalent to 1 tablespoon of mixture, this is TOO MUCH

This was equivalent to a heaped teaspoon of mixture, JUST RIGHT

Left: baked teaspoon cookie ~ good size
Right: baked tablespoon cookie ~ way too big
Match box for size comparison

As long as you did not add to much mixture to your mounds for baking the cookies should have come out a great size and add a completely different texture and appearance to the usual Christmas cookies that are on offer at this time of year.

Rye and Orange Cookies

♥   I hope you have enjoyed seeing the 7 cookies I have baked this year, do let me know if you have made any of them or any from past years.  ♥

Afternoon Scandinavian treat

December 21st

Last year I came across Trine Hahnemann's Honey Bombs and was adamant that they needed to be made again for this Christmas.  These are quick to make and keep in an air tight container for about 2 weeks.  In fact they are so simple to make with very few ingredients with short easy to follow instructions.They are somewhere between a bread and gingerbread consistency and are wonderful sliced in half with a smidgen of butter and a cup of tea.  Take a minute out of these hectic days bake yourself some and then sit down and enjoy, I dare you!

Trine suggests you bake them in mini tart tines 8-9 cm in diameter.  I tried that and normal cake tine sizes.  both work equally as well but I must agree with her that the mini tart tines were better in appearance and size.  But don't go out especially to buy them, use what you have I say.

Honey Bombs

Add the candied peel last.

You will need: (makes about 16)    

♥  150 g honey
♥  150 g soft brown sugar
♥  150 g butter
♥  4 eggs
♥  400 g plain flour
♥  2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

Spoon mixture into tins so they are 1 cm deep

♥  4 tsp ground cinnamon
♥  3 tsp ground cloves
♥  200 g candied peel


Method:

1  On a low heat melt the honey, sugar and butter.  Set aside to cool a little.
2  Once cooled add the 4 beaten eggs in gradually.
3  Sift the flour, bicarbonate and spices together and mix well.  Add to the honey mixture.
4  Add the mix peel.
5  Spoon the mixture into greased tins so that they are about 1 cm deep.
6  Bake for 20 mins at 180 degrees and cool on a wire rack.


These are great straight from the oven or toasted with lashings of butter and a good cup of tea.

A jar full of honey bombs all ready for afternoon treats

Enjoy and take a breather if you can 

♥   Take some time out of the hustle and bustle if you can   ♥

A Christmassy Five

December 16th

We are now down to single figures before the big day and I am in my element.  This time of year brings extra work and I know that can be stressful and tiring but really for me, it's just the best time of the year.  The twinkly lights that you see everywhere light up what would otherwise for me be such a dark depressing time of year that just the lights lift my spirits without even all the other goodies. Over the past week I have continued to bake, entertain, shop, wrap and decorate as well as trying to live the day to day life.  I'm sure I'm in good company with you all, want to take a peak?



Slippers for Christmas

I have been making these slippers for years, a pattern passed down to me from Mamma.  Pop over to the post and see how to make the slippers and how to Christmas pimp them too!  Christmas slippers

St Lucia Day

This week saw the annual feast of St Lucia and I shared a classic saffron bun recipe with everyone. Eat and enjoy, this is a perfect bake for those who do not like to over indulge in the very sweet cookies around at this time of year.  St Lucia

Scandinavian Mulled Wine

The Scandinavian version of mulled I must confess to loving it,  much more than the mulled wine we are served here in the UK.  I share 3 different recipes with you on this post.  Gløgg

Let's hide the packaging!

Alcohol is expensive in Norway and the cheapest way to buy wine is by the box.  Siting a box on the dinner table is not so attractive and the Scandi's came up with a clever way of covering it up.  On this post I share with you my pattern for a knitted wine box cover.  Wine box cover



A taste of something different

Mostly in Norway Christmas cookies have some form of spice added to them from ground cardamon to cloves  and many in between.  so when i can across this cookie from Norway, I had to give it a try. Great for those not a spiced cookie lover Finger Cream Cookies

Joining in with  Amy sharing a Christmas Five with you all.  Apologies for not commenting on your blogs last week, I will endevour to rectify that and will be coming around for this week too, I love seeing what you have to share.

♥   Enjoying the days of Advent   ♥