Category: Cakes/Cookies

Sponge loaf with egg whites

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On Monday I had the intentions of baking something to take to work the next day. But after cooking, eating and clearing up, I was too tired to. So instead I curled up in bed and watched the new The Big Bang Theory episode. I guess that put me in a good mood because around 9.30pm I bounced out of bed and into the kitchen to bake after all. I made a simple sponge loaf with egg whites, because I had lots in the fridge to use up. The sponge is quite plain so I wasn’t sure if my colleagues would enjoy it. Boy, was I wrong. It disappeared really quickly and I was asked for the recipe. Some time understated works.

The recipe is from the amazing Swedish cakes and cookies, but the Swedish version.

Sponge loaf with egg whites

100 g butter

6 egg whites (200 ml)

150 ml caster sugar

150 ml plain flour

50 ml potato or corn flour

1 ½ tsp baking powder

zest from ½ lemon

Put the oven on 175C. Melt the butter. Brush the inside of a loaf tin with butter and coat with breadcrumbs or flour. Beat the egg whites until very stiff peaks. Add the sugar.

Mix flour, potato or corn flour, baking powder and lemon zest in a separate bowl. Add the butter to the egg and sugar, and then add the flour mixture.

Pour the batter into the loaf tin and bake in a low oven for about 40 minutes.

Custard whip for cakes

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In Sweden you can buy a product called Vaniljvisp (vanilla whip) and it is like a vanilla custard that you whip with your electric whisk until it is nice and creamy. The homemade version of this (which of course is even more delicious) is what I served with the last dish on Sunday’s brunch; rhubarb cake.

This cake can be made with any fruit/berries you like, but I prefer it with rubarb. And make this whip with it, because it is loooovely. Unless you’re pregnant, or for other reasons can’t have raw eggs.

I found the recipe on a nice Swedish blog called Linneas skafferi.

Custard whip (uncooked), serves 6-8

3 egg yolks

3 tbsp icing sugar

1 tbsp vanilla sugar

300 ml whipping cream

Mix egg yolks, icing sugar and vanilla sugar. Whip this until fluffy with an electric whisk. In a seperate bowl, whip the cream fluffy (not too much). Pour this into the yolks and mix it all together until it is fluffy and nice. Serve immediately. It separates slightly when left standing, but just stir it and it comes together again. Keeps for a few days in the fridge.

Cake for dad

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After the dinner at Trinity, we came back to ours and had coffee and cake. I had made the cakes in the morning and just had to put filling in between, which was easily done with whipped cream, custard and blueberries. The recipe for this cake is from a Swedish blog called Kryddburken.

My dad is very much into his motorbikes so with a motorbike cake topper and silver candles (one for each decade) the cake looked a little bit manly I think. At least it was a great cake for daddy since he loves both meringues and sponges, and this is cake contains both.

Sponge and crispy meringue cake, serves 6

100 g softened butter

150 ml caster sugar

5 egg yolks

150 ml milk

200 ml plain flour

2 tsp baking powder

5 eggwhites

250 ml caster sugar

400 ml rice krispies

Cream butter and sugar together, add one egg yolk at the time. Add the milk while stirring. Add flour and baking powder. Cover two round baking trays in the same size, with baking parchment and divide the batter evenly between the two.

Whip the egg whites and half the sugar until stiff peaks appear. Add the rest of the sugar and whip for a few more minutes. Carefully fold the rice krispies into the meringue. Divide the mixture between the two trays. Bake for 40 min – 1 hour in 150C in the lower part of the oven. Leave to cool.

Fill the cake with custard, whipped cream and berries. I put the same on top of the cake. 

Key lime pie

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The evening when mum and dad arrived we of course cooked them dinner. Their flight was slightly delayed so while I went to meet them at Paddington, Christopher prepared dinner; the cider chicken in creamy sauce.

Mum and dad’s suitcases were full of gifts for us; Easter eggs, Swedish sweets (cars and chocolate), nice blue towels for the bathroom, venison mince and wild ducks. And a few things I had asked them to bring; Swedish hard cheese (gräddost), some spices and Heinz chilli sauce which is not sold in the UK.


For dessert I had prepared a Key Lime Pie the day before, after a Hummingbird Bakery recipe. It was lovely and fresh! Only change I made was to halve the recipe, as there were only four of us. There were still half a pie left which I brought to work the next day. They liked it so much they’ve asked me to make more. 🙂

Key Lime Pie (halved recipe),  serves 6

250 g digestives

100 g melted butter

4 egg yolks

1 can (397 g) condensed milk

2,5 limes, juice and zest

2 dl whipping cream

Crumble the biscuits and mix with the melted butter. Press into a pie dish evenly, either using your hands or the back of a spoon. Pre-bake the case for 20 minutes in 175C. Leave to cool.

Lower the temperature to 150C. Mix egg yolks, condensed milk, zest and juice in a bowl. it thickens naturally. Pour it into the pie crust and bake for about 40 minutes until the filling has set. Leave to cool and refridgerate for a few hours. Whip the cream and spread it on top of the pie just before serving. Decorate with some more lime zest.

Chocolate muffins with muscovado and dulche de leche

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I had some dulche de leche left over after making the cake. About 100 ml or so, and since I dislike throwing away food, I thought it was best to use it up. I made some chocolate muffins and added a dollop pf dulche de leche to the bottom of the case. They were really scrumptious and disappeared quickly when I took them to work. 🙂

The recipe is related to this one, but the texture is completely different because of the muscovado sugar. I think the other recipe works better as a whole cake, whereas this batter I would only use for muffins.

Chocolate muffins with muscovado and dulche de leche, makes 12

100 ml dulche de leche

100 ml caster sugar

200 ml light muscovado sugar

150 ml plain flour

2 tsp vanilla sugar

3 tbsp cocao

150 g melted salted butter (or unsalted + 1/2 tsp salt)

2 eggs

Put cake cases in a muffin tray. Place 1 tsp of dulche the leche in the bottom of each case. Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl. Add the melted butter and eggs. Mix and pour into muffin cases, fill only to 3/4. Bake for 20 mins or until they just set, in 175C. 

Glutenfree chocolate cake with dulche de leche and chocolate frosting

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On Saturday we were invited to Christopher’s school friend Ben for dinner to casually celebrate his birthday. Ben has coeliac disease and since I can sympathise with that (tried the diet for for three months because my doctor suspected I would become coeliac too, which I didn’t) I always try to bake something for him to take home if he is coming around for dinner. And this is the second year in a row I’ve made him a birthday cake.

Although glutenfree the cake is moist and lovely, and so delicious with the dulche de leche and chocolate frosting. The recipe for the frosting is courtesy of the Hummingbird Bakery, and fabulous. The cake was large, and we were eight people sharing it, although most people helped themselves to a second serving, but I think with a more modest crowd the cake would serve 10-12 people. There was one small piece left and I suspect Ben ate it for breakfast the next day.

Glutenfree chocolate cake with dulche de leche and chocolate frosting, serves 10-12

For two cakes :

600 ml caster sugar

500 ml glutenfree flour (I used one from Doves Farm, which is a mixture of rice, potato, tapioca, maize and buckwheat) 

6 tbsp cocoa

4 tsp vanilla sugar

4 tsp baking powder

200 g melted butter

4 eggs

300 ml boiling water

Dulche de leche:

1 jar sweetened concensed milk

Chocolate frosting:

300 g icing sugar

100 g softened butter

40 g cocoa

40 ml whole milk

Remove any labels from the condensed milk tin. Place in a pan and cover with boiling water. Let it boil for 2 1/2 hours, covered with water the whole time, just top up with some from the kettle.  Remove the tin and leave to cool. 

Mix the dry ingredients for the cake. Add eggs, butter and water. Incorporate. Pour into two buttered and floured tins (Ø ca 23 cm). Bake in a low oven, 175 C for 45 mins. Leave to cool.

Mix butter, cocao and icing suger in a Kitchen Aid or with an electric whisk. Add the milk spoonful by spoonful. When it is all incorporated, beat on high speed for 5 mins.

Spread the cooled dulche de leche onto one of the sponges. Spread out half (or a little less than half) of the frosting on top of the dulche de leche. Place the second sponge on top and spread the rest of the frosting on top. (Cover the sides as well if you’d like). Decorate with chocolate strands.

Blackberry cake with lime

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After all the nibbles on Saturday it was nice to finish the meal with something sweet. I made this blackberry cake with a nice hint of lime. The recipe is from a Swedish recipe site called Tasteline. As usual I have made a few small changes to the original recipe, but only a few. =)

To make this cake extra delicious, served it with lightly whipped cream with a dash of vanilla sugar and a splash of elderflower liquer! Yum!

Blackberry cake with lime, serves 8

150 g softened butter

300 ml caster sugar

2 eggs

300 ml plain flour

1 tbsp vanilla sugar

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 lime, the juice

150 g fresh blackberries

1/2 lime, the zest

Put the oven on 150C. Grease a pie dish. Mix butter, sugar and eggs. Add the flour, baking powder and lime juice. Spread out the batter in the dish. Add the berries. Sprinkle the zest on top. Bake for 40 mins.

Cake balls

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I have seen cake balls in a few different blogs, among others the great Flickan & kakorna, and wanted to give it a try myself.

When I made the love yummies the other day I can out of icing sugar and couldn’t ice the whole cake, so I used the left over cake to make cake balls. You just crumble it and mix it with frosting, roll into balls and dip them in chocolate. Easy peasy, and the result is delicious!

I like them fridge cold the best, they are pretty rich as they are and at room temperature it is a bit too much.

Cake balls, makes 15

1/3 oven tray cake

150-200 g frosting (I used Betty Crocker’s vanilla)

200 g milk chocolate

sprinkles

Crumble the cake into a bowl. I thought is was easiest to do this by hand. Mix in the frosting. Roll into balls. Melt chocolate in a bain marie, put sprinkles on top. Leave to set in the fridge.

Kärleksmums or Love yummies

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These cakes are a classic in Sweden and you find the recipe in the great cookbook Swedish cakes and cookies. The name means love yummies, but I have no idea why they have aquired this name. But they are yummy and a lighter subsitute to a brownie. The sponge is moist and the frosting nice and sweet, but it is not dense at all. Just light, fluffy and wonderful!

And if you like me, don’t like coconut in cakes, I promise you that these are still nice. This is the one thing I eat with desiccated coconut on top!

Kärleksmums / Love yummies, 1 oven tray

150 g butter

2 eggs

300 ml caster sugar

2 tsp vanilla sugar

1 tbsp sieved cocoa

450 ml plain flour

2 tsp baking powder

150 ml milk

Frosting:

75 g butter

1 tbsp sieved cocoa

(1-2 tbsp cold coffee) – I omitted this

350 ml icing sugar

desiccated coconut

Melt the butter and leave to cool. Beat eggs and sugar until white and fluffy. Add the dry ingredients, milk and butter in batches to the egg mixture. Incorporate it and pour the batter into a large oven tray, greased and breaded (with breadcrumbs). Bake in a low oven for 15 minutes on 175C.  Meanwhile, melt the butter for the frosting, and add the other ingredients while stirring. Spread the frosting onto the cake and sprinkle coconut on top. Cut into squares and serve.

Almond meringue tarte

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I found this recipe in a cookbook from the 70s among my mother’s cookbooks, and the recipe is from a restaurant only 15 minutes drive from where my parents live. They mostly do weddings and other functions there now, but the 70s was it’s hay day.

This is a truly delicious dessert. It is subtle but lovely in it’s flavour and just the perfect ending to any meal. All it needs is a little bit of lightly whipped cream on the side.

In the original recipe there should be flaked almonds on top, an although I love almonds I don’t like the flakes. They usually go soft when in contact with a creamy sauce, so I thought it was best to leave them out, but do use them if you prefer.

Almond meringue tarte (gluten free), serves 8

150 g ground almonds

5 egg whites

200 g icing sugar

(100 ml roasted flaked almonds)

Beat the egg whites to a hard foam. Fold in the icing sugar and then incorporate the ground almonds. Pour into a buttered dish and bake in 175-200C until golden.

The sauce:

3 egg yolks

200 ml double cream

150 ml caster sugar

1,5 tbsp butter

Whisk together the ingredients in a heavy sauce pan. Let simmer for 5 minutes to thicken. Leave to cool a little. Pour over the meringue and sprinkle the almond flakes on top. Serve with some lightly whipped cream.