raspberry and almonds

A bit different Runeberg's torte this year. Got a bit bored with the traditional pastries, so I mixed frozen raspberries with oat ice cream in a food processor. It's quite relaxed dessert, served with crisp almond slices and coffee.

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Almonds are represented by toasted almond slices, caramelized with muscovado sugar. Use a dry pan to toast the slices until they have little colour on them, then sprinkle on sugar, mix a few times with spatula and turn of the heat when sugar melts and starts get caramelized. Add a dash of salt too, makes an interesting pairing with the overall sweetness.

Rum, well, it's a great sidekick with coffee (the traditional torte is made with almond flour, moistened with rum and served with raspberry jam on top).




Munching down rum dipped cakes baked with almond flour and topped with sugary raspberry jam kicks off the cake spree of the spring. In the digital newspapers, everlasting debate over the best eating techniques proceeds. With a fork, without one, munching in headlong or elegantly nibbling? Same thing with laskiaispulla (buns filled with jam/whipped cream/almond paste eaten on Shrove Tuesday). I'd much rather read comparisons of recipes and ingredients or even general sugar coated mumblings about the sheer wonderful taste of pastries, but oh well.

Wonder if laskiaiskakku (cardamon bun cake?) would work? Whipped soy cream with ground cardamon, almond flour in cake base, jam in filling. Or mini cakes, that'd be supercute. Or cake pops in laskiaispulla-style, oh boy.

blinis!

We made blinis the other day with my folks. I rarely use buckwheat in salads or as a side dish like couscous (should, though), but enjoy soba noodles - great in cold soups in the summer- and blinis in the heart of winter. They're sort of winter tradition for me.

It's real easy to make blinis vegan. I just replace the egg in traditional recipies with soya yogurt and use soya or oat milk, and fry 'em with some vegan margarine (Keiju is a personal favourite). There's also vegan 'caviar' available, Caviart. It's made of seaweed, so no sturgeon harm done. I like Caviart with rye bread and dill too, and it's handy for decorating sandwich cakes.

eat fruit cake, sleep long

Whoo Christmas is ahead in couple of days time! If we all survive the awaited and scheduled oncoming end-of-the-world, that is. Then another new year. Time goes so fast, I don't even. Instead, made some fruit cake to chill in the fridge few weeks ago. Also some shots of my holiday decorated flat. I'm keeping things simple, white is great, wood is great, some additional bling is also good.






Have a great break from work and enjoy the peaceful quiet or happy loud times.

birthday cake

I have my birthday in November. This year's cake was plain almond scented one with apple marmalade filling, decorated with liquorice strands, toasted almonds and black candies. I had a hard time deciding about the deco. I like sort of gothic or darky style things for myself, but with a more organic or pagan touch. I'd just love to dump rusty metal pieces and molten leaves for the sheer look and texture, but ahem then again I like to eat cake as well as look it. I know there's rusty-looking chocolate tools availabe, but don't know if they're veg. They would make a great topping.

autumn in Stockholm

It's been so long since the trip already! I photographed away, filled about all my memocards and now it's been though trying to decide which photos I like the best. Here I've concentrated more on the food and cityscape-side of the trip. You can see more photos of street art and other stuff that caught my eye at my slowly-starting-to-roll-photoblog (it's in Finnish but I blog mostly pictures so no worry). Check rest of the foodier photos behind the cut.

orange cupcakes

Cold air and frost make me want to bake all day. No oven, so no baking from the comfort and ease of home. Muffins. Yummy with whiskey cocoa. The recipe is a relaxed one too. Mix together dry ingredients, add liquids, stir and that's it. The most challenging part is grating and juicing the orange. And leaving some muffins untouched for photography.

The recipe is modified from a Chocohili Orange cupcake recipe! It's great. Here it's just a bit different. I added almond flour to the batter and increased the amount of orange juice. Almond flour adds taste and maybe some softness to the texture.

beetroot quinoa salad

Quinoa is funny grain-like crop. It has a nutty texture and some bitterness prevails even you try to soak it or rinse it before cooking. Adding some dark sugar to salad dressings cuts down the bitter taste. Nice change from couscous. Small beetroots are sweet to marinade! They taste great raw just as well as cooked. Add beetroot slices last to the salad unless you fancy it being all purple pinkish. Nothing wrong with that either!