Monday, December 06, 2010

Lingonberry Gingerbread

mjukpepparkaka

Every winter, my husband wistfully speaks of soft gingerbread cakes. Being somewhat mean, I've never baked that for him, but I finally gave in. And it was a great time to try out this cute s-xl cake pan that was sent to me from CoolStuff.se - it means that people who're not so fond of soft cakes (me) can have a small piece, while people who are very fond of it (husband) can have a large piece. Or several.

s-xl-cakepan

Not that you can't just use a knife. Of course. But this pan is pretty fun! I found it easy to use, too. It's sturdy enough to move into the oven even filled with batter, and it released the cake quite easily. (I did butter it a little, just in case.)

I had smetana at hand - a very thick, fat soured cream. You can use sour cream instead, or all yogurt. Or all sour cream. As long as it's slightly sour, to give the baking soda something to react with, you're fine.

Lingonberry Gingerbread

100 g butter
100 ml lingonberry jam
2 eggs
200 g sugar
75 ml smetana or creme fraiche
75 ml mild yogurt
180 g flour
1,5 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt

Melt the butter. Add the lingonberry jam and set aside.

In a bowl, mix the flour with the baking soda, cloves, ginger, cinnamon and salt.

Beat eggs and sugar until very fluffy. Add the smetana and yogurt. Stir in the flour mixture, and finally the butter-lingonberry mixture.

Pour everything into a buttered cake pan and bake at 175°C for about 20 minutes if your pan is as wide as mine is. If you have a smaller pan, which will give a higher cake, it'll need to bake for longer. Make sure to check it with a cake tester, which inserted into the center should come out clean.

Recipe in Swedish:
Mjuk pepparkaka med lingon

14 comments:

Three-Cookies said...

The baking tray looks interesting, however I wonder whether the slices baked equally considering that the slices will have different heights. Did some slices overbake? I suppose since its a soft cake overbaked slices would still be moist.

Credit Union said...

My wife will love your commentary. She loves baking. Thanks for sharing!

Catherine said...

I really like the design of this cake!

Anna said...

Hi Anne, love your blog & recipes. I was wondering, would it be possible to substitute the lingonberry jam with another type of jam, like raspberry or strawberry? Sadly I don't live in lovely Sweden so I can't get hold of any lingonberry jam...

Anne said...

easilygoodeats - good point! I didn't have that problem at all with this, but I suppose it might very well happen.

Anna - oh, another jam would be quite weird! It needs to be quite tart. If you can't get lingonberries, cranberries will work - just mash up cranberries (a stick blender is great for this) with a bit of sugar, until they're a little sweet. And then use that - it ought to be very similar.

Tea said...

Gjorde precis samma sak i går, fast i en inte riktigt lika piffig form. Verkligen något av det godaste som finns!

Ayuni said...

Wow, the pan is so unique...where did you get it?

Sean Grey Hanson said...

Very interesting! I love the idea of using that baking tray.

Anne said...

Ayuni - I got it from a Swedish online shop, but it's available in many places. Just google "s-xl cake pan" and you'll find it in many places.

ptasia said...

Oh, fab - I live in smetana land (ie. Poland :), I have homemade lingonberry jam, I love gingerbread... Gotta make it ;)

Sophia Callahan said...

i love your blog!! i'm totally going to try and make this! I love lingonberrg! :)

xx, sophia

www.trashbagblack.blogspot.com

nursing scrubs said...

That looks delicious but when it comes to cooking, I’m having second thoughts, it’s just that I am not so good at it; I really don’t have the magic to make such tasty food. Good for you :)

Sean Grey Hanson said...

Hm! Lingonberry Jam does it all! :D I know this is just darn delicous! :D

Wordpress Customization said...

I am sure my daughter will love this. Anyway, thank you for sharing this recipe. Right now, I am thinking on cooking this one on weekend.