Wild blueberry pancakes

We went to a little house in the woods in Sweden, and hardly saw any other people for a week. We did however find wild boar evidence and moose poo and tons of chanterelles, blueberries, wild raspberries, strawberries and lingonberries. Especially blueberries.

s and I had been getting into a good weekend pancake swing - the English kind, rolled up. I convinced him to try some thicker ones with wild blueberries in. We used this recipe, and they were great. This is our current favourite pancake recipe. I brought some blueberries back and froze them, we still have enough for one more round - then I will try with the frozen wild blueberries from the store.

(Makes about 10)

3/4 cups (c 175 ml) milk (used oat milk)

1/2 tbsp lemon juice

1 cup flour (or 1/4 cornstarch & 3/4 plain flour)

1 tsp baking powder

1 egg (note: I tried with flax egg - 1 tbsp ground flax seed mixed with 2.5 tbsp boiling water - when we ran out of eggs and they were also great)

1 tsp maple syrup (or sugar) (optional)

1/2 tbsp lemon zest

1/8 tsp salt

1/3 cup wild blueberries

Butter for cooking

Mix milk and lemon juice and let sit 5 min to curdle.

Mix flour, baking powder, salt and lemon zest in a medium bowl.

Beat eggs into the milk mixture, then add to the dry mixture gradually, beating in well. Mix in the blueberries with the final strokes.

Melt butter in a large frying pan over medium-high heat. Drop in batter about a 1/4 cup at a time - I could fit 3 in the pan at a time. Cook a few min on the first side, until there are bubbles and the edges are set, then flip and cook on the other side. Keep going, adding more butter when needed. Keep them warm in a low oven if relevant.

Eat with maple syrup. Or, if you have plenty of wild blueberries, try putting a handful in a small bowl, adding a little lemon zest and juice, and drops of sugar, flour, and water, and blasting for around 30-60 sec to make a delicious jam-syrup (this would be just as good with frozen blueberries). Or, if you are sage, slather with Nutella and jam and maybe some berries on top.

Bircher muesli

Tried making bircher muesli once, ages ago, didn’t float my boat at the time. But since I’ve gotten so into overnight oats recently and we had some apples, I thought it might be worth another roll…

Seems like there are lots of variations out there… I wanted one with minimal prep in the morning, so decided to go with adding the apple the night before along with all the other stuff - more or less this one: 

Mix overnight: 

1 small apple, grated

1/2 cup rolled oats

1 tbsp chia seeds

1 tbsp sunflower seeds 

2.5 tbsp raisins 

130 ml oat milk 

 

To serve in the morning:

Skyr

Berries

Maple syrup (optional)

Grate the apple into a biggish eating bowl. Add the oats, chia seeds, sunflower seeds, raisins and oat milk, mix, cover and put in the fridge overnight. Eat with skyr and berries and perhaps some maple syrup in the morning.

Batcat nachos

s found a kids comic book series in the library about a character called Batcat (half bat, half cat), by Meggie Ramm - and it really caught his imagination! I think when we first found it, there was only one book, but now there are three. The third one just came out, and it's all about food - Batcat loves to eat, and his roommate Al loves to cook. In the book, Al enters a cooking competition at the Nightfest harvest food festival, and everyone loves Al's entry, especially the griffin kids (and of course Batcat). 

Brilliantly, a recipe was included, so we gave it a whirl... s loves these nachos! And, amazingly, I like them too (I am not usually that into nachos). The genius is in the layers, and in the personalisation of the toppings - s likes his with tons of sour cream (or creme fraiche - we've not yet found sour cream in DK) and some lime, I like mine with toasted pumpkin seeds, skyr, avocado, chopped coriander, lime, and a little bit of hot sauce. Also brilliant is that once the butternut squash is prepped (nb I have been chopping into quite small dice and roasting at 200C for about 30-40 min) you can make as much or as little nachos as you like within about 15 min - so as long as you have all the ingredients including the squash ready to go - so it is perfect for a quick dinner or snack - only downside is that nachos don't really keep. 

Overnight chia oats

I got into a bit of a porridge phase over the winter, and when it started warming up felt like it was time to experiment with more alternative breakfasts, having been (happily enough) stuck in a muesli rut for years...

 

I ate some overnight oats that I bought when travelling, and realised these could be good. I'd tried making Bircher muesli ages ago, and at that time decided cold soaked oats weren't really my bag. But on reflection, maybe this had more to do with the sour-sweet-crunch of the grated apple. Also, it was a while ago, maybe I should try again. And I liked the idea of making a combined oat-chia situation, similar to this. Turns out I do like overnight oats! The basic combo was a hit from the start, so I haven't changed that much. Toppings are essential, and I have experimented with different combos, but keep coming back to this one.

 

(amounts for one portion) 

 

Overnight mix:

1/2 cup oats

1-2 tsp desiccated coconut

1 tsp hemp seeds (hulled)

1 tsp cacao nibs 

1 tbsp chia seeds

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

pinch of salt

2/3 cup oat milk 

Toppings:

1-2 tbsp frozen wild blueberries

big tbsp skyr

sprinkle of dried blueberries

sprinkle of chopped almonds 

sliced banana

swirl of almond butter

drizzle of maple syrup

The day before you want to eat them, put all the ingredients for the 'overnight mix' in a big jar or a bowl you can cover, mix well, and put in the fridge.

 

In the morning, take it out of the fridge, mix well again, and put in a bowl if not already in one. Sprinkle with frozen blueberries and let sit for maybe 10-30 min - so they defrost - can be expedited by a few seconds in the microwave if more haste is desired. When ready to eat, add a big dollop of skyr in the middle, sprinkle with dried blueberries, sliced banana and chopped almonds, swirl on almond butter and a drop of maple syrup, and it is ready to go.

 

Notes: 

* the frozen wild blueberries make delicious, colourful juice when they melt, so these are the best - better than fresh, or frozen cultivated ones.

* you can batch prep these - they are just as good after a day or two in the fridge - recently i have been making two jars at a time ready for weekend breakfasts, and sticking with muesli during the week (easier to transport). 

Salt baked root vegetables

We had a celeriac, some beets, some potatoes and some big carrots in the fridge, and Christmas was coming, and for some reason I started to think about salt baking…

I tried it once before, years ago, and it was kind of a disaster - I used a salty crust and it was a faff to make and put on/off… and then the veggies tasted wayyy too salty when done.

After a bit of googling I found a way simpler method (e.g. here), and was encouraged to give it another go. This route was so simple it felt worth trying even if the end result didn’t work out great…

Just make a thick layer of salt in the bottom of an oven proof pan or baking dish that is deep enough to fit your whole root veggies in, and has a lid (or you can cover with foil). Heat the oven to c 160C. Clean your veggies very well, trim if needed, then put them whole on top of the salt layer. I tried putting in some sprigs of fresh herbs eg rosemary, sage, thyme; and whole garlic cloves - around the veg, for extra flavour - and I recommend it… Then cover and bake for maybe 2 hours, turning and checking a couple of times to see if the veggies are tender and cooked. When they are tender, take the lid off, turn the heat up to about 210C, and bake for about another half hour to crisp them up a bit.

This time it worked great! The salt absorbs liquid to make the veggies really tender, and imparts some flavour but not overly salty. And whole veggies cooked this way, especially a big celeriac or so surrounded with herbs, actually makes a cool centrepiece for a vegetarian winter feast.

8th Birthday: Strawberry-Chocolate 'The Battle Cats' Tiered Cake

For s's 8th birthday, he requested this as his birthday cake. It is from a computer game called 'The Battle Cats'. He also dressed up as a Battle Cat for Halloween, and we made AI-generated trampolining Battle Cats for his birthday invitations (his birthday party was at a trampoline park, with all the boys from his class)...

I've never made a tiered cake before, so this is definitely a challenge! But at least it looks like an actual cake. And I'm hoping if I get the cat and dog figures right, it'll be a hit...  

I decided to make three tiers - odd numbers are always good, and this seemed like the minimum to make it look legit. Five seemed like a bit much for a first attempt... and would also have been way too much cake! It definitely has to involve two different types of cake (looks like strawberry and chocolate); and two different colours of icing (pink in the chocolate cake and white everywhere else). It looks like there is cream on top of each tier, but (1) I hate cream and (2) it wouldn't keep or travel at all - so I wondered about trying a cream cheese based icing instead, and putting some pink in some of it for the pink icing. The cat and dog shapes and the orange base cake will involve fondant (white, black and orange). And then there are the extras: a gold number 8, a red and gold bow, a gold bell, white candles, strawberries, and white mini meringues.

I only had one round springform cake tin (c. 21 cm in diameter), and I didn't really want to buy more. I also wanted this to be the bottom/biggest tier, as I didn't want to end up with tons of cake. I used foil and string to make a mini (8.5 cm diameter) cake tin from two crumpet rings stacked one on top of the other - for the top tier. And decided the middle tier should be c. 15 cm diameter to look right, and that I would bake it in my 21 cm diameter tin and then cut down to size. The bottom and top tiers are strawberry cake, and the middle tier is chocolate cake.

For the strawberry cake, I remembered that the mango cake I made for s's birthday last year was based on a strawberry cake recipe, and it worked quite well - so I used that one.

For the chocolate cake, my friend H who makes excellent cakes suggested this Ottolenghi cake. Initially I thought it sounded delicious for adults but perhaps a bad idea for kids as it is quite dark and had lots of coffee in it... but then had a double brainwave: (i) I could use decaf! and (2) the kids will already have plenty with the rest of the cake, perhaps I should just make what I like the sound of! Also, it looked like a good colour and texture.

For the icing, I started out with this cream cheese frosting recipe. 

 I made three online orders of specialist items in advance:

1) From a raw food shop: freeze-dried strawberry powder (for the strawberry cake and icing), freeze-dried strawberry slices (for the sliced strawberry decorations - winter strawberries are awful and fresh ones wouldn't have kept). 

2) From a Christmas shop: wide red and gold ribbon with wire in it (to make the bow), a little gold-coloured bell (I also bought some Christmas crackers for Christmastime!). 

3) From a baking shop: orange fondant (which turned out to be hard and no use), pack of 10 white birthday candles with white holders (used 8), a gold glittery number 8 candle, some cake dowels (to assuage my fear of tiers - I think robust plastic straws e.g. bubble tea straws or reusable plastic ones would also have been OK), some cake boards (needed 2, cut to size - for the top and middle tiers).

Then I also did a big Føtex (our nearest big grocery store) shop that included: black fondant, white fondant, orange food colouring, unsalted butter, mini meringues, and the rest of the cake ingredients.

Also in advance of starting to bake, I improvised a base board - I used a round wooden board that was just the right size (approx. 24 cm diameter), and then used four blobs of sticky tack and four Lego pieces to make little cylindrical feet about a centimetre high. This felt like an optional extra at the time, but actually was probably essential as the board was strong enough to carry the cake (which was quite heavy when done); and the feet allowed me to pick it up easily. It also made it look more like the pic! I

I made the cake over 1 1/2 days (nb it also took most of a day before that to work out everything I needed from Føtex and do the grocery shopping). On Day 1, I made the strawberry cakes and baked them in the morning; then took a lunch break, then made the chocolate cake and the icings in the afternoon. On Day 2, I assembled the cake and made the decorations (the cat and dog characters, and the bow).

For the strawberry cake (bottom and top layers):

Make sure all the ingredients are at room temperature before you begin.

10 oz / 283.5 g plain flour 

1 oz freeze dried strawberry powder  

1 ½ tsp baking powder 

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda 

8 oz unsalted butter, room temp

½ tsp salt 

10 oz granulated sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract 

zest of 1 lemon

1 tsp strawberry extract (did not have - used 1 tsp strawberry-lime juice instead)

6 egg whites, room temp (I bought the pre-separated egg whites for the first time for this, and was glad)

8 oz milk, room temp (used oat milk)

2 oz vegetable oil 

1 drop pink food colouring 

1 drop red food colouring

For the chocolate cake (middle layer):

8.8 oz / 250 g unsalted butter, room temp, cut into 1 cm cubes, plus extra for greasing

7 oz / 200 g dark (70%) chocolate, chopped into 2 cm pieces

1 tsp instant coffee (I used decaf), dissolved in 350 ml boiling water

8.8 oz / 250 g granulated sugar

2 large eggs, room temp, lightly beaten

1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

8.5 oz / 240 g self-raising flour (used plain flour, including 3 generous tsp baking powder)

1 oz / 30 g cocoa powder

pinch of salt 

For the icing:

8 oz / 227 g 1 cup cream cheese, room temp

4 oz / 114 g / 1/2 cup salted butter, room temp

1 tsp (5 ml) vanilla extract

12.7 oz / 360 g / 3 cups icing sugar, sifted*

freeze dried strawberry powder

 

*I ended up using more. 

 

For the decoration and assembly:

1 pack black fondant icing

1 pack white fondant icing

1 pack orange fondant icing (nb the orange fondant icing I bought was bad so I coloured some white fondant with orange gel food colouring instead)

freeze-dried strawberry slices

white mini meringues

8 white birthday candles with white holders 

1 number '8' gold glittery birthday candle

Wide red and gold wired ribbon for the bow

Little gold-coloured bell

1 robust base board (the assembled cake was quite heavy) - used a round wooden chopping board with improvised feet - see explanation above.

2 cardboard cake boards (for the middle and top layers) - I drew circles on rectangular boards using the trimmed cake sizes and a compass, then cut down to size - slightly small is good, then they are easier to hide - I also cut a c. 1 cm diameter circular (ish) hole in the middle of each one so I could poke a dowel down the middle for max stability when assembled.

9 cake dowels (these are basically thick plastic straws - bubble tea straws seem to be recommended) - 4 for the bottom layer, 4 for the middle layer, and one longer, more robust one to go all the way down the middle.

To make the strawberry cake: Make sure all ingredients are at room temperature. Prepare your cake tins by greasing and lining with baking paper. I used one 21 cm round springform tin (bottom layer), and one improvised 8.5 cm tin (top layer). Place an oven rack in the middle position and heat the oven to 350ºF/176ºC. Put the butter in a large bowl and beat until smooth and shiny. Gradually sprinkle in the sugar, and beat until the mixture is fluffy and almost white. Add the egg whites approx. two at a time, beating in between. Whisk the flour, strawberry powder, baking powder, bicarb, salt, and lemon zest in a medium bowl. Combine the milk, oil, vanilla extract, strawberry extract (or juice) and food colouring in a separate medium bowl. Add about a third of the dry ingredients to butter mixture, followed immediately by about a third of the milk mixture, then mix until almost incorporated. Repeat two more times. When the batter appears blended, stop and scrape the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Divide the batter between the prepared tins so that it comes up to the same height in both. Smooth the tops with a rubber spatula. Bake cakes until they feel firm in the centre and a skewer comes out clean or with just a few crumbs on it - about 35-40 min for the big cake (or a little bit longer), and about 22 min for the small cake (or a little longer). Transfer tins to a wire rack and let cool for 10 min. Invert cakes onto the rack and pop cakes out of tins. Cool completely before assembling and icing. When completely cool, keep covered in a chiller until ready to assemble.  

To make the chocolate cake:

Heat oven to 170°C/150°C fan-forced. Grease the same 21 cm round springform pan as used for the strawberry cake with butter, and line with baking paper.

Place the butter, chocolate and hot coffee in a large heatproof bowl and mix well until everything is melted, combined and smooth. Whisk in sugar by hand until dissolved. Add eggs and vanilla extract and whisk again until thoroughly combined and smooth. Sift flour, cocoa powder and a pinch of salt together into a medium bowl, then whisk into the melted chocolate mixture until smooth. Batter will be liquid, but don’t think you’ve missed something; this is how it should be.

Pour batter into the prepared tin, tapping the base of the tin to remove air bubbles, and bake for 50-60 min, until cake is cooked and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean or with just a few dry crumbs attached. The top will form a crust and crack a little, but don’t worry, this is expected. Leave the cake to cool on a wire rack for 20 min before removing from tin, then set aside on wire rack until completely cool. 

When completely cool, keep covered in a chiller until ready to assemble. 

To make the icing:

Beat the softened cream cheese and butter together until creamy and well blended, with no lumps. 

Add the vanilla. Then add one cup of icing sugar at a time, beating gently at first, until each addition is completely incorporated. Scrape down the sides of the bowl to incorporate it all. Then beat hard to combine. 

At this point I realised that it was way less firm than normal buttercream, looked up a normal buttercream recipe and realised what it needed was a lot more icing sugar...

Split the mixture - most of it should stay white (for sandwiching the strawberry cake and making the white cream-looking stuff, but a bit should be pink for sandwiching the chocolate cake. To the white mix, I added about one more cup of icing sugar to make a sufficiently firm texture. To the pink mix, I added some freeze dried strawberry powder, a few drops pink food colouring, and some icing sugar, until it reached a similar texture to the white icing.

Store in the fridge until ready to assemble. 

To assemble and decorate:  

Trim all three cakes so that they are flat on top and about the same height. Trim around the edge of the top one so you can see the contents. Trim the middle (chocolate) one until it is a circle approx. 15 cm diameter. Cut the bottom cake horizontally through the middle and sandwich with white icing. Cut the chocolate cake horizontally through the middle and sandwich with pink icing. Cut the top cake horizontally through the middle twice, and sandwich with white icing.

Smear some icing on the base board and then stick the big cake on it. Put some icing around the edges to help stick on the fondant around the outside. Roll out the orange fondant to about 2 mm thick, and wrap it as neatly and smoothly around the base cake as you can, trimming as needed.. I need to work on smooth fondant application!

Push 4 cake dowels into the cake within the area where the next layer will sit, then trim them so their height is just below the top of the cake. Cover the top of the bottom tier with a generous layer of white icing, so it looks a bit like the cream in the pic.

Put some icing on the medium sized cake board, then stick down the middle (chocolate) cake. Place it carefully in the centre of the bottom tier. Push 4 cake dowels into the cake within the area where the next tier will sit, then trim them so their height is just below the top of the cake. Cover the top of the middle tier with a generous layer of white icing, so it looks a bit like the cream in the pic.

Put the top cake on its cake board, sticking it down with icing as for the other two. Place it carefully in the centre of the middle tier. Push a long cake dowel down the middle of all the tiers until it hits the bottom board, then trim. Cover the top of the top tier with a generous layer of white icing, so it looks a bit like the cream in the pic.

Now make the cat and dog figures. I waited until now so I could see how big they needed to be to fit properly on the assembled cake. Roll out white fondant on a clean surface until c. 2 mm thick, then cut out the shapes with a sharp knife. Make their features with black fondant and press into place. Apply the shapes to the cake in the right places, using icing as glue. 

Make the bow with the wired ribbon and tie it around the stalk of the '8' candle along with the bell, to look like the picture.

Stick the bow+8 assembly in place on top, then put white mini meringues, freeze dried strawberry slices, and white candles in place around the cake to resemble the picture.

For transport, I found a transparent plastic storage box with a flat, separate lid. I put the cake on the lid, taped on a cushion out of bubble wrap to keep it in place, then covered with the box and taped that in place with gaffa tape. It worked - the cake survived the journey to the trampoline park in good shape!

Notes: If making the strawberry cake again, put more food colouring in - the batter was nice and pink, but after baking the cake wasn’t pink enough. I need to work out how to apply fondant so it comes out nice and smooth (I think a crumb coat and a flat-edged tool?). The chocolate cake was yum and I kind of want to try the whole Ottolenghi recipe with ganache and all. Probably the most delicious part of the whole cake was the improvised strawberry icing! The kids did not like the chocolate cake but the strawberry cake went down quite well (despite the cake looking a mess once sliced). I am not sure whether all the boards and dowels were necessary, but the cake did survive two rounds of birthday singing and transport beautifully, and it would have been a mega bummer if it didn’t after all that work…

Best Date Balls Ever!

I have tried many variations on date balls, always seeking one that is easy and reasonably light / light on the blender (don't have a powerful one), doesn't involve any cooking, and uses only things that are not too expensive or fancy and we usually have in stock... and never quite found it...

I bought a pack of dates not long ago, maybe I was thinking about making date square? I hadn't done much with them... Then I noticed there was a recipe for date balls on the side and decided to give it a whirl... 

Perhaps this is the date ball recipe I have been looking for!

150 g / 5.3 oz dates (normal ones, pitted - not medjool), coarsely chopped

100 ml plant milk (used oat)

80 g / 2.8 oz oats

50 g / 1.76 oz desiccated coconut

20 g / 0.7 oz cocoa powder 

additional cocoa powder, desiccated coconut, or freeze-dried fruit powder for rolling

 

Blend dates and plant milk until smooth. Scrape into a medium bowl.

 

Blend oats slightly to break them up, then add to the date mixture along with the coconut and cocoa. Stir well together. 

 

Make balls of a size you like, and roll in something - e.g. cocoa powder, orange zest, desiccated coconut, freeze-dried fruit powder, sesame seeds...

 

 

I did some rolled in freeze-dried strawberry powder (left over from s's birthday cake) - which were a big hit with s; and also some rolled in cocoa powder and some in desiccated coconut. All were good, the strawberry powder was the best.

 

I'd be curious to play with adding ground spices e.g. cinnamon, ginger, cayenne; and also with using nuts/seeds - e.g. sesame seeds; walnuts. I have some blackcurrant powder which was a spontaneous purchase when I bought the strawberry powder - might be good with that as well... Lots of space for variations! 

 

Possibly slightly less plant milk would have been good. Might also be good to figure out a quick n dirty cup measuring version as my scales are in ounces and the amounts are awkward. Apart from that, I really liked this recipe!

 

Edit: I have made these a few times now, as s actually really loved the version with strawberry powder on the outside. The next time I did a mix of blackcurrant and strawberry powder (although the favourite is still strawberry, the blackcurrant powder is not as nice...). Still keen to try a version with a lot of spices and maybe some sesame seeds (toasted? instead of the coconut?). Always seem to be a hit! 

 

The mixture is quite sticky so I rolled them with nitrile gloves on the last time, which I think was a good idea. 

Mandarin and hazelnut cake

For my birthday, S wanted to make me a cake. He asked for a suggestion. I asked my friend H, who is an excellent baker and shares many food interests with me. Specifically, I asked her for something easy, delicious, and that I had not tried before.

 

She suggested this one, S made it, and it ticked all the boxes. Not only that, it also felt very seasonal, with the oranges and hazelnuts - and was easy to transport, and kept well! And was perfect for a morning cake when I took a bit to work for work birthday celebration on the next workday after my birthday, which was a bit of a ghost ship day and I wanted to leave before lunch - I took some skyr to go with it and it had a lovely Christmas-brunch vibe for the few people I scraped together.

 

I would definitely make this again. I'd be tempted to try some variations as well - H suggested using ground almonds instead of hazelnuts; we have plenty of walnuts; how about swapping out the ginger for cardamom (inspired by this)? Lemons instead of oranges?

Note: S says he used cup measurements for everything except the hazelnuts - but then he would have been using US cups (240 ml = 1 cup) instead of AU cups (250 ml = 1 cup). So his version may have been slightly unique.

For the cake:
3 organic mandarins (about 95 g each), washed, unpeeled
4 eggs
270 g sugar (1 1/4 AU cups)

90 g melted butter
400 g hazelnut meal (ground hazelnuts)
75 g plain flour (1/2 AU cup)

2 tsp finely grated ginger
⅓ tsp baking powder

pinch of salt 

For the syrup:
220 g sugar (1 AU cup)

125 ml mandarin juice (1/2 AU cup)

1 tbsp julienne ginger
4 mandarins, peeled and thickly sliced crossways
Juice of ½ lemon

Heat oven to 160C and butter and flour a 12cm x 20cm loaf tin (he used our standard sized loaf tin). Place mandarins in a saucepan, cover with plenty of water, bring to the boil and cook until soft (20-25 min). 

 

Drain, cool and chop (discard seeds), then purée in a blender or food processor.

 

Whisk eggs and sugar until pale and fluffy (3-4 min in an electric mixer, which would be ideal if we had one). Fold in mandarin purée and butter, then fold in hazelnut meal, flour, ginger, baking powder and a pinch of salt. Spoon into prepared tin, smooth top and bake until golden brown and a skewer inserted withdraws clean (1-1¼ hours). Turn out onto a wire rack to cool.

 

For mandarin and ginger syrup, combine sugar, mandarin juice and 125 ml water in a saucepan over medium-high heat and bring to the boil, stirring to dissolve sugar, then add the ginger and simmer until translucent and a light syrup forms (6-8 min). Stir in mandarin slices and lemon juice, remove from heat and leave to cool.

 

Serve cake with mandarin and ginger syrup spooned on top. We did this per slice, and I think this was good, as the cake could have gone a bit soggy when stored if you did the whole thing at once - also this way you could have as much or as little syrup as you wanted, and try it without the syrup (almost as good!). I also really liked it with some skyr or greek yoghurt.

 

Cake will keep stored in an airtight container for 3 days - or longer in the fridge. Store the syrup separately.

Risengrød + Risalamande

When I asked s what he would like to have for Christmas dinner, he said risengrød (rice pudding). He's had it as school lunch a few times. It always sells out if they have it as one of the two options! They serve it with cinnamon sugar and butter on top, but it is served as their main course.

 

This actually perfectly coincided with one of my own Christmas food wishes, which was to make risalamande (literally: rice with almonds), my style. It is a mixture of rice pudding and whipped cream and toasted slivered almonds, served cold with cherry sauce as Christmas dessert. It is definitely my favourite Danish Christmas food that I have found so far - but I hate cream, so the best ones I have had were plant-based. So my idea was to make my own version and experiment with what to add to the cold rice pudding to make a good taste / texture - perhaps greek yoghurt, perhaps plant milk or coconut milk, or a mixture of those. I had even already bought the pudding rice...

 

I looked at the recipes for risengrød and risalamande on the back of the packet of pudding rice, and realized that the Danish version of rice pudding is actually unsweetened - just pudding rice, salt, water and milk. So then I thought perhaps we could eat it like we do pancakes on pancake date - have a savoury round then a sweet round, and just have the plain rice pudding as the main thing (like a risotto), with lots of optional toppings / mix-ins for both rounds.

 

For the savoury round, I slow-roasted some cherry tomatoes, idea being that these and some grated cheese could be a good combo. We also had some surprisingly successful salt-baked root vegetables, so we didn't eat much of this in the end.

 

For the sweet round, we mixed up the risengrød and risalamande combos - so we had skyr (usually have this in the fridge, don't usually have greek yoghurt), toasted slivered almonds, cherry sauce (bought in a little tetrapak - easy but I am sure you could make a nicer one with real cherries!), and cinnamon sugar.

 

For the risengrød:

200 ml pudding rice 

250 ml boiling water

1/2 - 1 tsp salt (to taste)

1 litre milk

 

For risalamande, my way: 

Skyr (I think Greek yoghurt might be preferable but haven't tried it yet)

Slivered almonds, toasted (I used 100 g total to make about 3 portions of risalamande)

cinnamon sugar

cherry sauce 

To make risengrød, put the rice in a big saucepan, add the boiling water and simmer for 2 min. Add the milk, bring to a boil, and simmer gently for approx. 35-40 min, stirring frequently. Add salt to taste. Let cool completely if using for risalamande - or reheat as needed.

To make risalamande, take a good amount of risengrød, mix with about 2/3 the volume of skyr or greek yoghurt, lots of toasted slivered almonds, and a bit of cinnamon sugar to taste. Chill for at least an hour, and serve cold with cherry sauce and cinnamon sugar.

Giant bubble stuff

 My stepmother has been making brilliant giant bubbles with all the kids and introduced s to them last year. They are so fun for all ages! And seemed surprisingly easy. So I thought we could try them at home…

She buys a powder from the internet and it works amazing. But I am not sure I can import that powder to Denmark easily. And I had some xanthan gum from vintage gf baking, and thought we could try some experiments…

We experimented with a few things, in the end this recipe is the best so far so I’m sticking with it. If the xanthan gum supplies run out perhaps I’ll start experimenting again (or buy the powder from the internet!). The powder is definitely better, but this works pretty good.

For one bubble wand:
2 lengths of dowel - approximately 1 cm thick and 40cm long
2 eyelet screws
Cotton string

Washer (or 5 kr piece)

For the bubble mixture:
1 tsp xanthan gum
2 tbsp glycerin
3 cups warm water
1/2 cup washing up liquid
1/2 tsp baking powder

To make the bubble mixture, first mix the xanthan gum and glycerin in a tub until smooth. Add the warm water gradually, beating. It’ll thicken. Add the washing up liquid. Mix in baking powder. Leave for at least 24 hours before use - longer if possible.

To make the wand, take two equal length pieces of dowel and drill holes in the ends big enough to put the eyelet screws in. Put in the eyelet screws. Tie the string so there is one shorter piece and one longer piece that has the washer on it, so it makes an approximately equilateral triangle when you hold it up. We tried a few different strings and some were very tangly - you want quite a thick one - we ended up using old strings from hoodie hoods.

Amaranth granola

At Easter, we met a bunch of Germans in a house by a lake in northern Germany. Three boys who went to school together, and their partners, and their sons - one each, aged 5-7. One partner was missing though - the Swedish opera singer had to stay in Berlin to do Wagner. But she provided us with lots of goodies, including a jar of delicious granola based on popped amaranth. Which made me realize it could be time to mix up my granola game - I've been making variations on the same recipe using oats since forever - I love it, but this one was good too! Granola is great in general - simple and tasty and good to eat alone or sprinkled on top of almost anything... I asked L for her recipe but she wasn't sure if she had one, so I used this one for guidance/inspiration.

I was feeling lazy and tried to order the amaranth already popped. But when it arrived it turned out it was just the seeds. So first thing I had to do was try and pop it (I looked to here for help)... which actually, it turned out, was quite fun - the seeds are tiny (only about a mm diameter), but they pop just like popcorn! So cute...

2 cups puffed amaranth (I think I popped about 10-12 tbsp of seeds to get this much - but do a bit too much, it should store OK)

1/4 cup roughly chopped walnuts (or use pecans)

2 tbsp pumpkin seeds

2 tsp ground cinnamon

3 tsp cocoa powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp ground vanilla

3 tbsp coconut oil 

1/4 cup maple syrup

First pop the amaranth. You could do this in advance and keep until needed. Heat a big high-sided metal pot (dry) until pretty hot, then put in one tbsp of amaranth seeds, give it a few seconds, shaking it a bit, until it all pops - then tip out into a big bowl. If it doesn't pop and burns instead, the pan isn't hot enough - discard, let it heat up a bit more, then try again until you hit the right temperature. Keep going, 1-2 tbsp at a time (should not be more than a single layer in the pan), until you have enough. Let cool before putting in a storage jar or going right ahead to make the granola.

When ready to make granola, heat oven to 180C and line a big baking tray with baking paper.

Mix dry stuff (excluding the dried fruit) in a big bowl. In a separate bowl, warm the coconut oil gently until it is liquid (if it is not already), then mix with the maple syrup. Add wet to dry and mix well. Spread out evenly on the baking tray, transfer to the oven, and bake for c. 15 min (try less next time) until lightly toasted. Remove from the oven and let cool 20-30 min before putting in a storage jar.

 

I love this stuff, a really interesting taste / texture. Maybe a bit too much salt and syrup - could reduce next time. Also maybe a tiny bit too long in the oven - try 12 min next time. Also wasn't very clumpy - consider adding some psyllium husk next time?

Now I am wondering what else I can use popped amaranth for! Also, what else can I pop - quinoa, perhaps?

S birthday: Mango + macadamia BvB cake

  

S's birthday came around. He requested mango and nuts. Little s wanted to make it a Dortmund (BvB) cake. Soooo another go at a mango cake it is. And I decided to go with macadamias for the nuts.

I was fairly happy with my last mango cake. But it wasn't really mango-y enough, and was slightly faff-y, and also used only egg whites. I'd thought putting in mango puree might make things too dense, but this recipe looked quite promising and I decided to give it another chance...

(I baked the cake in one 9 inch cake tin, it was a bit huge, ended up cutting into three layers... a half amount would have been enough I think)

For the cake:

 

1 cup / 240 ml mango puree

1/2 cup / 118 ml oat milk

3/4 cup / 177 ml veg oil

2 tbsp lemon juice

3/4 tsp vanilla powder

1 1/4 cup / 250 g / 8 oz sugar

1 1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1 tsp salt

3 cups / 375 g / 13.2 oz plain flour

 

For the icing:

230 g / 8 oz cream cheese (used 1 whole pack philadelphia)

113 g / 4 oz unsalted butter

3 cups / 390g / 12 oz icing sugar

1 cup / 4 oz freeze dried mango powder 

pinch salt

yellow food colouring

a few drops oat milk

 

For the rest:

1 pack roasted salted macadamia nuts, chopped

1 small pack black fondant

paper template for making the BvB logo (print twice, once to get the circle and overall design, once for the letters and numbers)

To make the cake: 

Grease and line cake tin. Heat oven to 350F / 180C.

Mix dry in a large bowl with a fork. Mix wet in a separate bowl. Add wet to dry and mix until just combined. Put in cake tin and then into oven. Turn down to 325F / 163C and bake until springy and a skewer comes out clean. Checked after 40 min, think it ultimately took about 55 min. Will be faster if using more than one tin (or making a half amount). Cool in tin for 10 min or so until sufficiently cooled to turn out, then let cool completely on a cooling rack.

 

To make the icing, beat the butter and cream cheese together until light and fluffy, then add the sugar and mango powder and beat until well mixed, adding the salt and colour partway through, and some milk if needed.

 

To assemble the cake, slice the cooled cake horizontally into three layers. Put the bottom layer on plate or base and add a layer of icing, then chopped macadamias, then the next layer of cake. Add another layer of cake, then icing, then macadamias, then the next layer of cake. Ice all over the top and sides with the rest of the icing.

 

Cut the shapes of the outer circle, letters and numbers for the BvB logo, then place them gently on top.

 

 

It was reasonably simple and effective! I managed to get the colours right. The circle was a bit difficult to handle (slightly floppy/stretchy)... We'd considered trying modelling chocolate to make the logo pieces, perhaps that would have worked better - more rigid - but would we have needed moulds?

The cake part was really good - I think the best mango cake yet! Easy and quick, and actually tasted like mango. Sliced well and not too dense. I'd make this one again. The icing wasn't perfect, think I'm going off the freeze dried mango. But it was fine. And I somehow eyeballed just the right amount for the cake this time. And I really liked the macadamias in there. 

 

 

7th birthday: Mango Peashooter Cake

s turned 7! Gosh, almost not a little kid any more. His birthday fell on a Sunday, so we asked him what he would most like to do that day... He said he wanted to play with his friends, so we ended up inviting the 12 boys from his school class over for a party! It was all about gaming this year - purchased lots of gaming themed paper cups, plates, decorations etc. Even managed a Plants (vs Zombies) themed garden treasure hunt... And s requested a Peashooter (from PvZ) for his birthday cake... And mango (again). Yet another challenge!

Ever since s was big enough to make a birthday cake request, he has requested mango cake. So I have had a little bit of practice. But haven't been completely happy with my mango cake results so far. Last year's cake was nice and mango-y, but rather too dense. It might have been due to the baking powder being a bit old, or maybe I didn't beat enough air into the mix... or maybe it was just the recipe, with no eggs and mango puree. Last year I didn't really need to sculpt, so the texture and composition of the cake could be all about taste...But this year I wanted to sculpt, and hoped to find a cake with a better texture for sculpting / in general. I decided freeze dried mango powder was a key ingredient, purchased some, and then started hunting far and wide for the right recipe. I consulted our departmental cake whiz at work - who also happens to be Filipino (according to the East Asians at work, the Philippines is the source of the best mangoes in the world - I want to try!), and he agreed about the freeze dried mango powder and made some helpful suggestions... But it was not easy to find a recipe with mango powder in the actual cake! Nevertheless, buoyed by the moral support, and widening my search to include other freeze dried fruit powders, I found a few options... I was seriously considering this one when I noticed the author - Liz from 'Is It Cake?'! s and I love watching that show - and she was memorably brilliant - and it was the first time I noticed a cake recipe specifically saying it was good for carving! I was sold.

The only downside of that recipe was that it used egg whites but not yolks (which I thought might have the upside of making it less dense). So I needed to find something to do with the yolks. I decided to crack open a big can of mango puree and try out a mango curd. I wasn't sure if I'd find a place for it in the cake (in the end I didn't) - and I am not sure if I love it, the eggs and butter kind of distract from the mango intensity. But still, it was a pretty good use of egg yolks. The recipe for the curd is here.

I wanted to use fondant for the outside, and figured I'd need a mango buttercream (with more freeze dried mango powder) for sticking and layering. Thought it might be smart to follow a recipe - went with this one.

For the cake:

10 oz plain flour 

1 oz freeze dried mango powder 

1 ½ tsp baking powder 

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda 

8 oz unsalted butter, room temp 

½ tsp salt 

10 oz granulated sugar 

½ tsp vanilla powder

zest of 1 lime 

6 egg whites, room temp 

8 oz milk, room temp 

2 oz vegetable oil 

2 drops yellow food colouring 

1 drop red food colouring 

 

For the buttercream:

 

1 cup (226 g / 8 oz) unsalted butter, room temp

3/4 cup (18 g / 0.9 oz) freeze-dried mango powder (use less!)

3 tbsp (45 ml) milk, room temp

3 cups (360 g / 12.7 oz) icing sugar 

pinch of salt  

 

For the decoration:

 

2 packs of green fondant icing, one a bit lighter / brighter than the other

1 pack white fondant icing

black gel food colouring (or black fondant) 

white shimmer powder for highlights (optional)

don't forget candles!

To make the cake:

 

(Notes: All ingredients must be at room temperature. I baked this in one 8 inch round springform cake tin and one loaf tin, and it worked out being about right as a starting point to make the shape and size of cake I wanted.)

Heat the oven to 350ºF/176ºC. Grease and line the cake tins.

Beat the butter in a medium bowl until smooth and shiny. Gradually sprinkle in the sugar and beat until the mixture is fluffy and almost white. Beat the egg whites in a separate bowl (I wasn't sure whether to do this, so I beat them until loose peaks - really didn't want a super dense cake again!). Add the egg whites approximately two at a time, beating to mix in between. 

Whisk the flour, mango powder, baking powder, bicarb, salt, vanilla and lime zest in a medium bowl. Combine the milk, oil, and food colourings in a separate bowl. Add about a third of the dry ingredients to the butter mixture, followed immediately by about a third of the milk mixture, and mix until ingredients are almost incorporated into the batter. Repeat this process 2 more times, until the batter appears blended. Divide the batter between the prepared pans, aiming for a similar batter height in each. Smooth the tops. 

Bake cakes until they feel firm in the centre and a skewer comes out clean, about 35-40 min. Transfer tins to a wire rack and let cool for 10 min. Invert cakes onto the rack and pop cakes out of tins. Cool completely before assembling and icing.

To make the buttercream: 

Beat the butter until creamy and light in colour. Add milk and mango powder and beat until fully combined. Add the icing sugar one cup at a time and mix. Add pinch of salt and mix until well combined.

To assemble:

(Notes: To make a base for the cake, I covered a large flat bamboo chopping board with silver foil. I decided to go for a semi-3D shape - a lying-down peashooter - since a fully 3D standing-up one seemed like a bit tooo much of a challenge. I couldn't bring myself to buy both black and white fondant just for a few little bits, so I bought white and mixed a bit of it with a LOT of black gel food colouring to make some black.)

Cut the cooled cakes into the peashooter shape and put together. I got most of its head out of the round cake, and made the rest of it by cutting and shaping the remaining pieces of that one and the loaf cake. Use the buttercream as a glue to layer up the cake where needed. 

When the shape looks right, cover the cake in buttercream and smooth it out as much as possible.

Roll out the fondant icing (if it sticks to your surface, roll it on/between clingfilm). When it is the right thickness (c. 2 mm?) and size, lift it gently over your cake and smooth it into place. I used a lighter green for the head of the peashooter, and a darker green for its stalk and leaves - using one piece to cover the head, one to cover the base leaves and stalk, and one to cover the leaf at the back of the head. Press all around the base and bring together as smoothly as possible.

Roll a few extra pieces of green fondant into long sausage shapes to make the parts linking the leaves and head; and to make the outline of its shooting mouthpart. Press into place.

Roll out the black fondant to make the inside of the shooting mouthpart and to make the eyes. Press into place. 

Make small flat discs of white fondant and press into place to finish the eyes.

Press the fondant gently but firmly with a blunt thinnish edge (I used the edge of a rubber spatula), to make the leaf veins and divisions between leaves and stem.

Dust white shimmer powder to make highlights on the head.

If you have sufficient suitable remaining cake, buttercream and fondant, you could shape and cover some peas! About the same size as the shooting mouth makes sense... I did this thinking perhaps s could have some teaser cake in the morning before the party - in the end we didn't have time for this but it was still kind of nice to have them for sharing.

We decided not to show the finished cake to s until we revealed it at his birthday party, with the candles and singing, in front of all the boys! I was pretty happy with it but also a bit nervous... My heart literally leapt when, as soon as he saw it, he said: 'it's good mummy'! Praise indeed - esp as he can be a bit of a wee hater...

The cake was a really nice texture and tasted good but I didn't really find it mango-y enough. Perhaps I'll try a different recipe next time (if there is another mango cake request!) - maybe this one.

The buttercream was not the right texture. I think I pitched in too much extra mango powder - just noticed the recipe starts with whole freeze dried rasps, I'm sure I measured the same amount of powder by volume, which will have been way more! It wasn't really sticky enough for slathering, and it stressed me out a bit as I couldn't get it to stick to the cake very well. Next time a different recipe (or just stick to the one given...).

I can see the cake is a bit bumpy in places - if the buttercream had been a better texture, I can see it would have been important to make as smooth a surface as possible before putting the fondant over.

I had to mix a lottt of black food colouring into the white fondant to make it black enough - and then it was a bit too sticky for good rolling - so those bits were tricky. I might be tempted to buy black as well as white for optimal results...

I think the mouthpart could have been a bit better - although I am not certain how.

The white shimmer seemed like a good idea for the highlighting, and I kind of like it, but I don't think it is completely necessary. Also it doesn't look that different from just flour or icing sugar or cornstarch or so - not so shimmery - maybe one of those white powders would have been OK instead?

S birthday mango-chocolate football cake

For S birthday this year, he wanted mango and chocolate, Dortmund football team themed...

I wanted to try making mango cake with freezedried mango powder this time. It was surprisingly hard to find a recipe with mango powder in it. I decided to use this one, subbing the raspberry powder with mango. And then mango icing based on this recipe. And coconut 'grass'.

I ended up doing a half size cake cos I realized it'd prob be too much if I did the whole lot. Meant 1.5 eggs, bit awkward, but if I was doing it for more people could do the whole lot...

(for a half size)

For the cake:

5 oz plain flour

1 oz freeze dried mango

(1 oz cocoa powder)

1 1/8 tsp baking powder

3 oz butter, softened

5 oz sugar

1 1/2 eggs

3/4 tsp vanilla essence

5/8 cup milk

yellow + black food colouring 

 

For the icing:

4 oz cream cheese

2 oz butter

6 oz icing sugar

2 oz freeze dried mango

For the 'grass':

4 oz desiccated coconut

c. 2 tbsp warm water

green food colouring

 

Also:

White mesh from a bag of garlic

wire

six lego figures, three with yellow dortmund shirts made from felt

one little ball

chocolate, chopped

Heat oven to 180C / 350F. Grease and line the base of 1 9-in round baking tin.

In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, mango, baking powder and salt.

In a large bowl, beat butter and sugar til pale and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla.

Alternate adding the flour mix and the milk to the egg mix, beginning and ending with flour (3x flour, 2x milk), fully incorporating after each addition.

 

(if doing black and yellow for dortmund, split the mix and add black food colouring to one and yellow to the other)

 

Transfer to the tin. Bake til a skewer comes out clean - 24-28 min. Cool in tin 10 min before removing to wire rack. Cool to room temp.

 

For the icing, beat butter and cream cheese til smooth. Add icing sugar gradually, and mango powder. Beat until smooth and fluffy. 

For the grass, heat oven to 70C. Put coconut in a bowl and add food colouring and water and mix until it is s good and consistent colour. Spread thinly on a baking sheet lined with paper. Stir every 10 min til dry - c. 40 min total.

To assemble, cut the cake in two horizontally. Layer it with icing. Put top half on, cover with icing. Press 'grass' onto the top to make a football field. Make a goal out of net and wire and press it in on one side. Add the figures and ball to make a scene.

It didn't rise well. Perhaps it took too long to mix in the yellow and black. Or perhaps the baking powder was too old. Or perhaps something else went wrong... Oh well, it still tasted nice enough.

6th birthday: Mango Shiny Mew Cake

This year's cake request was mango, and shiny Mew (the Pokemon). I felt like expectations were pretty high, and it was a tough challenge... I didn't feel like I could do a good Mew as a 3D-sculpted cake - also it is tricky trying to work out if a cake will be good for sculpting before baking. So this time I decided to go 2D, and also took inspiration from perler (s likes that too), so did a kind of perler-style shiny Mew made of little edibles of several colours / types... I also bought a backup sugar paper Mew in case it all went horribly wrong, from the same place I got the muffin toppers for s's birthday cookies to take to school.

I made a mango cake from this recipe (coincidentally vegan), and a mango icing that I basically freestyled (similar to last year's), and sandwiched it with a kind of mango jam.

For the cake:

2 cups / 220 g / 7.76 oz plain flour

2 tsp / 8 g baking powder

½ tsp / 3 g bicarbonate of soda

½ cup / 120 ml veg oil

1 cup / 225 g / 7.9 oz sugar

1 cup / 265 ml mango purée (used tinned)

1 tsp / 5 ml vanilla extract (used powder)

¼ cup / 60 g milk (used oat milk)

For the icing:

4 oz butter

4 oz icing sugar

c. 1/2 cup (or more if possible, replacing some or all of the icing sugar) freeze-dried mango, powdered

For the mango 'jam':

1 packet dried mango, snipped into small pieces

For the decoration:

101 dark chocolate balls

93 pale bluish white balls

33 blue balls (note: it would have been nice if 4 of these were a darker blue or purple)

2 white chocolate balls

A rectangular perler base plate with at least 20 x 25 perler places

To make the cake:

Heat the oven to 180C and lined an 8 inch round cake tin with baking paper.

 

In a medium bowl, whisk flour, baking powder and bicarb.

 

In a large bowl, whisk sugar and oil together until pale and well combined. Add the mango puree and beat well. Beat in the vanilla and milk.

Gently fold the flour mixture into the liquid mixture and mix until everything is well combined and there are no large flour pockets. Do not overmix.

 

Pour the batter into the cake tin and bake for 30-35 min, until a skewer comes out clean. Let cool completely before icing.

 

To make the icing:

 

Beat the butter in a medium bowl until pale. Add the icing sugar and powdered freeze-dried mango and beat some more. Chill until needed, but bring to room temperature before using.

 

To make the mango 'jam':

Put the dried mango in a small bowl and cover (just) with hot water. Let soak overnight or for several hours. Blend with a wand blender to a thick, smooth, jam-like consistency.

To assemble:

Cut the cooled cake horizontally in half to make two layers. I froze the cake after cooling and cutting because I thought it might make it easier to ice - perhaps it did, but I also think it might have messed up the texture and made it a bit too dense. 

When ready to ice, put the bottom half on a plate or serving disc, then spread the mango 'jam' over it. Put the second cake half on top. Spread the icing over the top and round the sides as smoothly as possible.

 

Press the perler plate, spike side down, into the icing quite hard until you can see a grid of indentations. Then arrange the balls according to this design:

The birthday boy seemed happy with it! He ate lots and didn't dis it at all - he's a bit of a grumpy handful these days so that felt like success. I thought the cake was a bit dense but it tasted pretty good. The rest of the tin of mango puree became delicious smoothies, it was really good.

Oat, cranberry and white chocolate cookies

I've made these a couple of times now, including once for s to take to school for his 6th birthday (with Pokemon sugar papers and icing on top). They were easy and good.

To make approx. 25 smallish cookies:

76 g / 2.68 oz butter

60 g / 2.1 oz brown sugar

1 large egg

67 g / 2.36 oz oats

90 g / 3.17 oz flour

1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp salt

3 oz cranberries

56 g / 2 oz white choc chunks

Heat the oven to 190C / 375F.

Beat the butter and sugar til light and fluffy. Add the egg, mix well. Mix the oats, flour, bicarbonate of soda, cinnamon and salt in separate bowl, then add in a few goes, mixing well each time. Stir in the cranberries and chocolate chunks. Put rounded teaspoonfuls on ungreased baking sheets. Bake 10-12 min til golden brown. Cool on a wire rack.

Koldskål pancakes

A little bit of koldskål left that no one seemed inclined to eat as is. Was thinking about making pancakes, but would have to be eggless as no eggs. Considered banana. Considered koldskål. Found this recipe and it was exactly what I had in mind. Gave it a try. 

https://www.dk-kogebogen.dk/opskrifter/38618/pandekager-med-koldskaal

180 g / 6.5 oz flour

1 tsp baking powder

1-2 tbsp sugar

1/4 tsp salt

300 ml koldskål

50 ml water (or milk)

2 tbsp veg oil

1 tsp vanilla sugar

Mix flour, baking powder, sugar, vanilla and salt in a medium bowl.

Mix milk, water and oil in a small bowl then beat it gradually into the flour mix. Best until soft and without clumps. It should be quite thick, like a cake dough. Add a bit more flour or water if needed.

Melt a little butter in a pan at medium temperature then cook the pancakes til golden on both sides.

Serve with maple syrup (and bananas?) while still warm.

They are pretty good! The thick kind of pancakes.

Pizza snails

s’s birthday wish was to have his class from børnehave over to play. They do this sometimes for birthdays - the whole room of kids goes to the birthday boy/girl’s house for a few hours in the morning during børnehave time, with a pedagog or two. But we haven’t tried it before… 

Apparently pizza snails (pizza snegle) are required for such gatherings. Like overnight bread rolls, these seem to be something every Danish mum can whip up with her eyes closed.

I asked two different Danish mums about how to make pizza snegle, and both directed me to the same recipe, this one. So that seemed like a done deal. 

(makes about 30 medium snails - including some slightly small/awkward end ones - about 20 acceptably similar ones)

For the dough:

50 g fresh yeast

200 ml milk

150 ml plain yoghurt 

2 eggs 

1 tsp salt

1 tbsp honey

100 ml olive oil

250 g / 9 oz wholewheat flour

400 g / 14 1/2 oz plain flour

 

For the tomato sauce:

1 tbsp olive oil

1 onion, finely chopped

1 clove garlic, finely chopped

1 400 g tin tomatoes

2 tbsp tomato purée

2 tsp dried oregano

Salt+pepper

 

To finish:

125 g (one pack) fresh mozzarella, finely chopped

1 egg, lightly beaten - for brushing

 

Make the dough:

Mix yeast in a large bowl with the milk. Add oil, yoghurt, honey, egg, salt and wholewheat flour and mix well together.

 

Add plain flour a little at a time until the dough is nice and flexible (it was a bit sticky). Put in a warm place to rise, with a tea towel over it, for about an hour or until doubled in size.

 

Make the tomato sauce:

Heat olive oil in a pan and sauté onion and garlic until soft and translucent. Add tinned tomatoes, tomato purée, oregano, salt and pepper. Simmer c 20 min until thick. Let cool, and keep in fridge until needed, esp if making in advance.

 

Assembly:

Roll out half the dough on a floured surface until c 1/2 cm thick rectangle/square. Spread half the tomato sauce out evenly on top, except c. 4 cm from one end. Sprinkle with half the cheese. Roll into a long roll and cut snails about 2 cm thick with a sharp knife. Put on baking sheets lined with baking paper, with a few cm between them at least, and make round and neat with your hands. Repeat with the other half of the ingredients. Let rise on the sheets for 30 min. Brush with beaten egg. Bake 16-18 min at 180C, until golden brown.

 

They came out well and looked legit. They didn't go down all that well with the kids (they preferred melon, salty popcorn and coconut water), but there were no major complaints so think I got them about right.

5th birthday: Dragonfish cake

For the first time this year I had a birthday cake request from s (who was turning five! FIVE!). Dragonfish. Perhaps I was too ambitious last year and got his expectations up? It's nice to be believed in, and I thought I’d try… Request was for coconut and mango. And blue. 

Decided to do a coconut cake and mango icing. Needed to get a few details for it to be a dragonfish - mainly a light- up lure and long, sharp, multitudinous teeth. Then also big weird eyes, and some spikes and spots along a long, thin body.

Hard to find good pics of dragonfish, since it cannot live above deep sea level. But I am pretty sure s got the idea from wild kratts so I partly based the look on that.

Pretty much followed this recipe for the coconut cake - baked in one round springform tin and one loaf tin.

For the cake:

250 g / 9 oz butter, softened, plus extra for greasing

250 g / 9 oz sugar 

4 eggs, lightly beaten 

1 tsp vanilla 

250 g / 9oz flour 

3 tsp baking powder 

75 g / 2 ½ oz desiccated coconut 

4 tbsp coconut cream

 

For the icing:

6 oz butter

6 oz icing sugar

c. 3/4 cup mango purée made from dried unsweetened mango covered in hot water and soaked for a few hours, then blended up

3-4 tbsp ground desiccated coconut

Food colouring (should be blue)

 

For Features:

1 fresh ripe/brown coconut

1 pack marzipan

c. 30 g dark chocolate

Small white chocolate drops / buttons

Food colouring (blue, green)

Small bike light

Tape

Kitchen foil 

To make the cake:
Heat the oven to 180C. Grease tins and line the bases with buttered baking paper.

Cream the softened butter and sugar together for 3–4 min, or until pale and light – do this as much as possible, here is where I wish I had a mixer of some kind. Gradually add the eggs, mixing well between each addition. Add the vanilla and mix again. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into the bowl, add the desiccated coconut and coconut cream, and beat again until the mixture is smooth and the ingredients are well combined.

Divide the mixture evenly between the prepared tins and bake for 25–30 min, or until the cakes are well-risen, golden-brown and a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean.

Leave the cakes to cool in the tins for 5 min, then carefully turn out onto a wire rack and leave to cool completely.

To make the icing:

Beat the butter until really pale and light. Gradually add the icing sugar, mixing well between each addition. Add the thick mango puree and ground desiccated coconut and mix again. Finally add the food colouring until desired colour is reached (nb I wanted it to be blue but it ended up more green - think the orange-yellow colour of the mango might have skewed it). Chill until needed.

To make the features:

Teeth + spikes - fresh coconut - cracked open and flesh removed in as big pieces as possible; then sliced into thin spikes. Tooth pieces left white; tail spike pieces coloured blue by mixing with food colouring.

Lure+spots - marzipan, food colouring, bike light, tape, foil - marzipan coloured with food colouring by kneading briefly together until colour consistent, then squished into spots; bike light taped into appropriate shape then wrapped with foil, then foil covered with coloured marzipan to make the part that attaches the lure to the fish's body.

Eyes - Melted dark chocolate with small white chocolate blobs in the middle. 

To assemble:

Carve the cakes into shape, sticking together with icing. I used a couple of toothpicks hidden at the back of its head as well, to keep the jaws open. When the shape is OK, cover the outside with icing. Then add the features in appropriate places.

I made the cakes, icing and most of the features two days before the birthday, then chilled overnight, then assembled the day before and kept in cool room overnight. Ideally you could do it all in one day, but... life... All the components should be chilled when assembling - and definitely not at all warm - think it makes everything easier if stuff is stiffer.

I wasn't completely happy with the colour, and the fish was a little dumpier than I would have liked, but on the whole it turned out like I wanted - recognisably a dragonfish!

Whipped feta

This came about as a good way to use up part of a block of feta left over from something else. I love feta but it doesn’t keep long after you’ve opened it, and there never seems to be exactly the right amount in the block for what you’re making… This is really quick and simple and the rest of the ingredients we pretty much always have. 

1/2 block feta
1/2 cup skyr
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tbsp lemon juice
Pinch of salt
Little bit of garlic, crushed

Put all ingredients in a little blender and blend. Scrape into serving bowl and sprinkle additional salt, pepper and olive oil on top.