Prinsesstårta

About a month ago I had this great idea to just make my very own Swedish princess cake. So I ordered marzipan online and did just that. I ended up following Mary's recipe, because it seemed the same as many swedish recipes, while eliminating the chance that I would go wrong because of a translating error. Plus I like measuring ingredients by weight instead of volume.

I did not dye my marzipan green. Sometimes extra work for pure aesthetics​ is worth it, but not this time. I also did not make a rose for the top of the cake.

I did use blueberry jam (that I bought and did not make). I seem to remember that the cakes in Sweden with white marzipan were blueberry flavored. So I can almost justify my lack of green, but then can I call it a princesstårta? Probably not.

Anyhow. This cake turned out to be so delicious! While very time consuming, I am so glad I made it.   Plus, making the custard required six egg yolks, leaving me with six egg whites. How convenient :)

Cake!

Here is a thing that frequently happens in my home. I'm in the mood for baking a tasty treat, but I am not in the mood to run to the store to buy any ingredients. I'd rather spend thirty minutes scouring the internet looking for a recipe for which I have all of the ingredients.

On the day that I am writing about, I happened to be interested in making a lemon pound cake. I had two lemons, and also lemon juice in a bottle, so I was perfectly set on that front. What I did not have was very much butter or milk, and no yogurt or half and half or anything like that. Then I remembered that you can make a cake with olive oil. The best recipe I could find was this vegan cake recipe. I didn't have maple syrup but I had honey, which I thought could be a reasonable substitute.

Plus, here's a thing, I like the idea of eating a variety of foods. I'm not a vegan, but sometimes I like to eat foods that happen to be vegan. Vegan dessert. That means it is automatically healthy, right?

Anyhow. Getting distracted. I was glad that this recipe worked for the foods that I had in my house.

I tasted the batter and it was strongly olive oil flavored and not delicious. But once it was baked!

This cake was SO good! I ate the entire thing in less than an hour. In my defense I only made half a recipe (which is why it is so thin).

Allowing myself to get distracted again. Looking at this photo makes me realize that this cake was basically as thin as a pancake, which makes me wonder if you can make a cake in a pan on the stove? Like a real cake, in a pan, not a pancake.

And I've had this post written and waiting for that photo to be uploaded for-basically-ever. And today happens to be Mystery Ingredient Monday - Lemons. And I don't blog unless I can link-up. Apparently(:

Baking a cake!

I guess I have this cake thing going on now? I don't actually do a lot of cake-baking (yet), but I just feel really into cakes these days. After Greg's defense, I decided I needed to bake him a cake, even though he isn't really a huge cake fan. But he is a huge coffee fan, so I decided to make a coffee cake. And by that I mean a real cake, with a coffee flavor, not like the kind of cake that is intended to be eaten for breakfast with coffee.

I ended up going with this Smitten Kitchen recipe, because that is one of my favorite recipe sources. What really sold me was at the end where she suggests a cappuccino chiffon cake variation. No fudge frosting for us! We want whipped cream! It is how the Swedes would do it!

This was one of the more complicated things I've made, but the effort was totally worth it. It was incredibly delicious, and very strongly coffee flavored. I highly recommend this cake!

belated quick takes

- 1 -

This week I didn't write any quick takes ahead of time. I also just spent 24 hours not opening my computer. Super crazy, but awfully nice.

- 2 -

Now I am in Colorado. We arrived in time for a tasty breakfast yesterday from this hipster place.

- 3 -

Contra dancing 'at altitude' is super intense. Doing a hambo when you haven't acclimated to this altitude is sort of insane. Greg and I had probably one of our best hambos ever, but it totally wiped me out.



I stole this photo from Malory. I'm in there. Where's Waldo? Can you see me?

- 4 -

Malory is a super great host and made us a delicious dinner. Her two dogs are not super great hosts though. Apparently they just don't like it when two strangers come into their home and expect to be friends? Wallace was easy enough to win over. Play with him for two seconds, and he is convinced you are on his side.

Argyle is a different story. I just woke up, but he hasn't seen me yet. I'm pretty sure he will bark at me for five minutes because he's forgotten that there were other people in his house.

In all fairness, Greg managed to make friends with Argyle. But I'm sure he will get barked at when he is first spotted this morning as well.

- 5 -

Today is cake baking day! Malory is making Alli's wedding cakes and they are going to be amazing!

- 6 -

Sodium lauryl sulfate strikes again!



Seriously, I need to get this stuff out of my life. Ruining my orange juice!

- 7 -

I haven't been doing a lot of reading lately (aside from work-related reading, that is). I've slowly but surely gotten myself into Walden, and I'm convinced there is no better book to read while trying to make decisions about what 'stuff' that has been sitting in your apartment, unused for nine months, is really worth keeping. I've donated tons of clothing to the thrift store, and I don't think I'm finished yet.

We do have plenty of things that we will need to put in storage, but I'm doing the best I can to minimize it. Not bad, not bad.

----- The End -----

And Jen has more!

Wednesday takes

I missed quick takes last week. So here I go, with five quick takes on a Wednesday.

- 1 -

Saw this on pinterest.

Does that mean a meeting with cake is a party? If so, my colleagues love to party.

- 2 -

There is now a giant egg filled with easter candy in the office kitchen. Let me clarify that there is a giant egg filled with Swedish easter candy. Because apparently it is different.

That little white egg-shaped one? I spit that one out.

- 3 -

I am getting really excited for bike-riding season! For Swedes, no season is Not bike-riding season, but for me, I'll wait for the ice to melt. There is noticeable progress every day though. Not too much longer now.

- 4 -

A few days ago when I was still sick, my nose was SO sore from abundant tissue-using. And I got this really smart plan to put neosporin on my nose. It worked like a charm. Made my nose feel so much better than any lotion ever did.

- 5 -

Luckily I am feeling nearly 100% healthy now. I went from walking at least 30 km per week to not ever leaving the couch for several days while I was so sick. My legs weren't too happy with the change, and they were pretty achy, but now I am back to walking and my legs feel normal again. I bet you are so glad I included that info here.

Christmas Cake!!

Before Greg left I wanted to make sure he had tried the most delicious cake there is to find in Sweden. I had been tasting many different princess cakes since I've arrived here, and there was one from a specific bakery that was exponentially more delicious than the others. So this morning, our first task was to go to that bakery and get a princess cake!

Unfortunately they didn't have any original princess cakes, but they did have this beautiful Christmas cake, which is essentially the same type of cake (just red marzipan instead of green).



And of course it is delicious and probably will not last until Christmas.

7QT

Once again linking up with the quick takers, despite the fact that I really don't have anything of substance to write about.

- 1 -

In Sweden, there is a law saying the royal family must be protestants.

- 2 -

At lunch, one of my co-workers started getting crafty with a doritos bag, which turned into lunchtime-Christmas-crafting-time. I made this.

It is very Swedish. And it is like an ornament that you can hang on your Christmas tree. It is like a woven heart basket thing, but you just glue a handle to the top and you are good to go.

- 3 -

There will be cake for fika this afternoon, homemade by a different co-worker who is starting her maternity leave.

- 4 -

And that reminded me of how Greg is leaving soon and has yet to have the best princess cake that I've had in Sweden so far. Princess cake is this amazing thing, which is 90% cream and 10% cake. It also has green marzipan on the top. Looks like this:

Usually they taste quite good, but there was one day when I had one that was completely exceptional. So I wrote down the name of the bakery, and tomorrow we will go there with the hopes of being able to buy a Christmas princess cake.

- 5 -

Tacos for dinner tonight! It's the Swedish way!

- 6 -

I invented this outfit today. Some days just require tomato pants. I blame my lack of focus (on work, I'm not trying to comment on the clarity of the photo) on it being the last day of work before Christmas vacation. Also, it seems that storing a lot of things in my pocket takes away from the fashionability of my clothing.

- 7 -

Every time I wash my hands I think of this guy. I keep waiting for the day when someone sends an email to the entire office saying something like, "Will the person who keeps shaking water all over the bathroom please stop doing that!?" And then I'll have to respond and apologize and say, "but it is this guy's fault!" And then once they watch the video they will all do the shake too!

Cake Balls!

I recently learned the joy of cake pops. The ones I made were delicious, but they left me wanting. The inspiration came from eating a cake pop at a popular coffee establishment. And that cake pop was more delicious than the ones I made, somehow. So I went searching for a new recipe to try, and I came across this gem.

If you clicked on that link, you'll see that the author has a particular love of cake batter flavored things. If you didn't already know, cake batter ice cream is the only kind I ever get when I encounter a Cold Stone Creamery. Actually, while I'm on the topic, it is the Cake Batter Remix that is my choice, except that I don't get the fudge, but instead get caramel sauce. So it is cake batter ice cream, with brownie chunks, and caramel sauce, and sprinkles. And it is so delicious.

I just checked and it is 57.62 miles to the nearest Cold Stone...

Anyhow, so I made the recipe above, except that I wouldn't really justify it by calling them truffles (because in my mind a truffle is a fancy complicated thing). These babies are just cake balls (like a cake pop, but no stick).

Also, I didn't have white chocolate in the house, so we went to the little store in town, which is nothing more than an advanced gas station. The only white chocolate was in the form of Cookies and Cream candy bars. Hence the cookie bits in my cake balls.

And oh were these delicious. Normally it is hard for a dessert to be sweet enough for me. With these, I could eat two and feel quite sated with the sweetness. Normally, I can't keep dessert in my house without eating it all in two days, but these were sweet enough to be self-regulating.

I should mention that these didn't really have the cake batter taste I was hoping for, even though they were incredibly delicious. 

Also, I'll never make cake pops again. The stick is just too much of a hassle, both in preparation and in storage.

Cakepops

Even the name sounds totally ridiculous. Cakepops are one of those things that I just could not understand. They have a very large presence on pinterest. And they look very nice in all the pictures. But at the same time they just look kind of ridiculous. And why did they just have to become so popular. And who invented the name cakepop?

Well, the other day I went to a well-known coffee shop, and there was a cakepop just sitting on a plate. Greg ordered 'that thing on the stick' for me, and that was when my view totally changed.

Cakepops are delicious!

They are way more delicious than regular cake. Or cupcakes. Or any other variation on cake.

So I had to make them! I followed the instructions that came with that pinterest pin with the beautiful pictures. The first one just plopped right down the stick, like this.

Making cakepops was kind of a frustratingly particular task. And yet, the outcome was worth the pain. After making about 30 duds I managed to make some that were somewhat presentable.

I even made a special one with a star (see it in the photo!) for Julie! And I didn't take a photo, but after these I ran into the backyard and got four blueberries and stuck them on the top of cakepops.

Oh cakepops... what a strangely magnificent invention.

Killer Ponies!

I had a lovely weekend on Chincoteague. On friday night I managed to go to sleep at 9pm. I was in a room in the main house because Jim and Jean had already rented the apartment before I asked them for it. It worked out really nicely though, and I had my own area which was good. They really are amazing people, and it was nice to be around some others for the weekend. They cooked dinner for me friday night, delicious pasta and shrimp. I also got to have dinner with them on saturday, which was wildly delicious, including some magical chocolate cake, which I will try to duplicate sometime.

Saturday morning the weather was quite nice, so I went for a run. A 2.7 mile run actually. Which is my new longest ever, actually. When I got back I took a bath in this cool old fashioned bathtub, which was also quite nice. The rest of the day it rained, so I was glad I got out when I did. On the plus side, the rainy dreary weather made it the perfect day to watch a lot of gilmore girls and also get some reading done.

Sunday was a beautiful day. I got up at a reasonable hour and did some birding with Jim and Jean. They get quite an assortment of shore-type birds right in their backyard (not really surprising). I saw no less than a cormorant, a bald eagle, two varieties of egrets, and a kingfisher. What can I say, a girl loves to make her mother proud. Then I went to church with the locals. In the afternoon I borrowed a sweet bike from Jim and Jean and rode out to the refuge. I finally hunted down those elusive wild ponies I've been hearing so much about. It was a shining moment for me and the blue beach cruiser. Unfortunately I have no pictures, because I did not bring my camera, because I'm a free spirit like that. I'll try to take some pictures next weekend.