Sponge Cake

This simple sponge cake is delicious on its own but can easily be flavored with vanilla or lemon, and just as easily be turned into a Victoria sponge or used as the base for a cake. To make a Victoria sponge simply slice the cake in half, so you have a top and bottom, and fill it with any jam that you like and let stand for a while so that the jam can soak in a bit.


200g butter or margarine, room temperature
2dl flour
2dl sugar
4 eggs
1tsp baking powder


Place all the ingredients in a large bowl.

Beat everything together using an electric whisk until creamy.

Pour into a greased or non-stick cake tin.

Bake in the oven at 180ºC for 15-25min until it is a light golden brown.

Let it cool off on a wire rack.

Serve slices of it plain with tea or coffee or with some fresh berries and whipped cream.


Enjoy!

Radio Cake

This cake gets it's name because it looks like the speaker of an antique radio when you slice it.
It's not even really a cake it's closer to being a huge sliceable candy bar.

250g coconut fat (also called coconut butter)
2 eggs
2 1/2dl icing sugar
1dl cocoa powder
ca. 100g of round or oblong biscuits (Marie biscuits are ideal but anything with a similar vanilla flavor works)

Clad  a oblong bread tin with baking paper.

Melt the coconut fat on low heat, it must not boil.

Let it cool off thoroughly or the batter might spoil.

Beat the eggs and sugar until it's really fluffy.

Add the cocoa powder and pour in the coconut fat in a steady fine stream.

Mix thoroughly.

Spread a layer of the chocolate batter at the bottom of the bread tin and then a layer of biscuits.

Continue alternating between the batter and biscuits and finish with a layer of the batter.

Keep it in the fridge so that the batter sets, preferably over night.

Take it out just before serving and cut it into slices.


Enjoy!

White Chocolate Cake

This recipe was quite difficult to translate because of one ingredient, quark. This is quite a common dairy product in Europe but is very difficult to find in the USA. I've decided that mascarpone or cream cheese would work quite adequately but will result in a richer cake.

100g white chocolate
100g butter
2dl sugar
150g mascarpone or cream cheese (quark if you can find it)
2 1/2dl flour
juice and zest from half a lemon
2tsb vanilla sugar
1tsb baking powder
1/2tsb salt

Grease and breadcrumb a cake tin with removable edges.

Melt the chocolate and the butter separately.

Mix the sugar and mascarpone until it is an even batter.

Add the melted chocolate and the butter and stir thoroughly.

Stir in the lemon zest and juice.

Mix together all the dry ingredients and add them to the batter a little at a time.

Pour the batter into the cake tin and bake for 25 minutes at 200ºC.

Serve with whipped cream and/or fresh strawberries.


Enjoy!

Caramel Cake

This cake is very tasty and not very heavy, so it works quite well even after a big dinner. It traditionally has arrak punsch in the almond base but that is difficult to get outside of Sweden but you can replace it with rum or skip the alcohol altogether.

Base
300 g almond paste
1-2tbl arrak punsch (optional)
3 eggs

Caramel
1 1/2dl cream
1/2dl sugar
1/2dl light syrup (golden syrup)

Take a baking tin with removable edges and clad the bottom with baking paper and butter the sides.

Grate the almond paste finely in a bowl and add the arrak punsch or rum.

Add one egg at a time and mix carefully between each one.

Pour the mixture into the tin and bake it for 30 min at 175ºC.

Let the cake cool off.

Whilst the cake is baking make the caramel.

Mix the cream, sugar and syrup in a wide, thick bottomed sauce pan.

Boil until the caramel thickens, stirring often.

Don't boil it for to long but just enough so that you can create "streets" in the caramel when you drag a spoon along the bottom of the pan, which allows you to temporarily see the bottom of the pan.

Let it cool off a little bit then spread it over the cake.

Is favorably served cold.


Enjoy!

Swedish Chocolate Cake (Kladdkaka)

I thought I would start with a quick and easy one with a slight twist, it's done in the microwave.

175 grams of butter
3 eggs
3dl of sugar
2dl of ordinary flour
4tbl of cocoa powder
1tbl vanilla sugar or 1/4tbl vanilla extract if you can't find the sugar


Melt the butter.

Whip the eggs and sugar white and fluffy but still slightly runny.

Mix the flour, cocoa and vanilla sugar until evenly mixed. If you are using liquid vanilla extract add that when mixing everything together.

Stir the melted butter in to the sugar and egg mixture.

Stir the dry ingredients (and vanilla extract) into the mixture until it's an even batter.



At this stage you can run amok and add all kinds of extras, such as nuts, chocolate chips, chunks of digestive biscuits or anything you can come up with.

Pour the batter into a tin that can take being in the microwave, a silicone cake tin works best.

Nuke it on full blast for 6-8 minutes depending on how gooey you want it.

If you don't have a microwave oven with a spinning tray turn it around after half the time to get an even bake.

Usually served with a dollop of whipped cream and works well both hot and cold.


This cake works very well for beginners because it's not a very sensitive recipe at all and even if you eat it raw or cook it as hard as biscotti it will taste fantastic.


Enjoy!