Sticky Saffron Cake

A perfect winter-time dessert, or a nice treat to nibble with a cup of Glögg (mulled spiced wine). You can serve this on its own, or with a dollop of whipped cream, and perhaps some berries. It's very adaptable, like almost all of my recipes.


Sticky Saffron Cake

100 g butter
200 g white chocolate, finely chopped
1/2 gram saffron
3 tbsp golden syrup
3 eggs
3 tbsp sugar
1/2 vanilla bean, scraped out seeds
1/2 tsp salt
90 g flour

Melt the butter. Add the chocolate, and stir until smooth. Add the saffron and syrup and one egg at a time. Stir well between every addition. Finally stir in the dry ingredients - sugar, vanilla, salt and flour.

Butter a springform tin (mine is 24 cm) and sprinkle with coconut. Pour in the batter.

Bake at 175°C for about 15 minutes. Maybe a little bit longer - check and see. It should be a little bit wobbly in the middle, but mostly set. Chill completely before serving, over night is ideal.

Happy Holidays!

Lemon bars

Need a yummy dessert or a snack to bring to a party? Here's your new best friend - lemon bars. Much simpler to make than you'd expect - or at least than I expected. And delicious.

Lemon bars

Bottom layer:

220 g unsalted butter, cold 

90 g sugar

240 g flour

1 egg yolk

Top layer:

300 g sugar

30 g flour

150 ml lemon juice (I used three lemons)

4 eggs 

Cut the butter into small cubes. Run in a food processor or Kitchen-aid (or with your fingertips) with flour and sugar until crumbly. Add the yolk and work until the  dough just barely comes together. 

Press into a lined tin (mine is about 28*33 cm) and bake at 175 for about 20 minutes or until lightly golden. Remove and cool for five minutes. 

For the filling, just mix all ingredients in a bowl and whisk until smooth. Pour on top of he cake and bake for another 20 minutes. The cake should NOT color. Remove and let cool completely before cutting into bars. Serve with a sprinkle of powdered sugar. 

Christmas shopping in Copenhagen

I had a great time last weekend - me and Lena went down to Malmo to visit Dagmar, who has recently moved. We went to Copenhagen, which is just a short trainride away. We enjoyed the christmas decorations, strolled along Stroget, shopped, talked, and had a champagne lunch at Huks Fluks. 



As always in Denmark, I picked up a few new mugs from Green Gate.



One fun find was Hotel Chocolat, which is a British chain of upscale chocolate boutiques. I've read about them before but never visited, I had no idea there was one in Copenhagen. I bought a bunch of these 100g chocolate bars - not all are pictured, because some are destined for christmas stockings.



We also shopped at Emporia, a huge shopping center just outside Malmo, and walking distance from Dagmar's new house. I found this super cute cookie jar at TGR, a fun store that has all sorts of knick-knacks.



And then there was Gräddbullerian - a small shop with just this specific sort of pastry. It's a thin wafer covered with - basically - marshmallow fluff, and dipped in chocolate. I bought the two seasonal varieties, gingerbread and saffron, as well as peppermint, and unflavored ones for the kids.



Dagmar treated us to all sorts of exotic candy - mostly from Japan and the US. I really enjoyed Brain Blasterz, which was a delicious super sour candy.

All in all, it was a fantastic weeekend. I really love hanging out with these girls and I'm looking forward to our next trip - New York City!