Finnish Strawberry Cake

Because "food is love."

I read this post by my insta pal Lindsay Cameron Wilson last week all the while nodding and shouting yes, in my head at least.

We’re traversing a similar faze of life though I think I’m roughly 18 months ahead of, the empty nest faze. Ahead though I may be I don’t think I’m 18 months more evolved from my jump start, are we ever? Asking for a friend.

I recognised so much of myself in her words, indeed she could have been writing about me. The passing of food batons and knowledge to young men launching into the world, the dreams and action versus in action.

I chose action, or maybe it chose me.

A friend and gifted food photographer invited me over for a play date and to generously share some skills that had alluded me. She, of the same age group and parenting stage understood, she’d made the invitation with the need to keep busy in mind after a visit from boy two and his partner. With a simple backyard lemon our subject we bonded over professional frustrations, her gently guiding me towards a skill I’d previously thought unattainable for me, her kindness creatively freeing and personally uplifting. All over a lemon with all it’s natural blemishes acquired in her short life at the end of a green branch nurturing it’s maturity to ripening.

Also, with action in mind, amongst other things, I’ve been trying to focus on reading the non-fiction books I love, collect and never seem to finish, unlike fiction. Putting the doom scrolling aside after dinner nightly and picking up whichever food focussed book of my current fancy my new intention. You’ll note the use of the word intent rather than habit, it’s a work in progress. This last week, Kitchen Sentimental by famed and loved chef Annie Smithers captured my attention. In her memoir she reflects on her lifelong love affair with food and cooking, sometimes joyful and others vexed but in conclusion she lands on one beautiful thought,

“Food is love!”

Meanwhile in the last weeks on the family front,

Boy one has been crossing the red ochre, mineral seamed landscape of The Kimberley, hiking and swimming in gorges and catching the coveted Barramundi all with his wonderful girl by his side. From there they’ve hiked towards and swam under water falls in Kakadu and watched the sunset over billabongs alive with birdlife and opportunistic crocodiles hoping for dinner. And at night cooking dinner together under the stars to the soundtrack of frogs, cicadas and a plethora of crtitters.

As I mentioned in my last missive boy two has been here for a visit from his tropical north Queensland home. A special visit, unattached to Christmas or any family members birthdays he came to meet his girl on her return from a visit to her home land in northern Europe and of course to introduce her to us. He showed her his home, visiting wineries, famed bakeries in grungy bohemian streets, and fine dining overlooking the cityscape as the sun set and the lights of a capital city coloured and illuminated the view. A special evening to celebrate her birthday.

On their return from a city break we enjoyed a special family dinner to honour her birthday in the way families do. We enjoyed a meal of fresh local seafood, special wines chosen by my sommelier son and of course birthday cake.

The cake. I’d sought prior advice from an aussie based Swedish ceramicist pal asking for birthday celebration tips. She shared with me a recipe from her Dad’s cookbook collection that looked both delicious and very achievable.

On her arrival our beautiful guest presented us with gifts from her homeland. Thoughtful and carefully chosen treasures mine a coffee mug filled with Finnish chocolate (delicious!) and a wonderful cookbook containing the cuisine of her heritage. Flicking through I noted a variation of the cake I’d planned to prepare. Surprising her with this grand tower of celebration both delighted and surprised her and apparently tasted just right.

The day after that lovely dinner they went home to the warmth of the tropics and I, a cold windy day in a quiet home again.

Action or inaction …

And the one thread through it all was food. Cooking for those I love, a grand gateau for a festive occasion, a lemon as a centre point for a day of professional growth and friendship, reading about one’s love of cooking and a star lit dinner in pristine wilderness.

Food is love indeed, the thread that draws us close, and holds us together when we’re apart.

Finnish Strawberry Cake will remind you of a sponge cake. It is very close to one but in my opinion is a more resilient one and quite a bit easier than the often delicate hand required to create the perfect airy light sponge of our heritage. I’ve adapted this recipe from the beautiful book I was gifted while keeping it very faithful to the original. I was advised by my pal that cream is preferred over icing in nordic cuisine and that strawberries must be ripe and sweet. My husband, not known for loving cake nor cream but who is notorious for his love of strawberries went back for seconds, that makes it winner in my eyes.

Ingredients:

4 eggs at room temperature

200 gm white sugar. Don’t be tempted to sub in caster, speaking from experience.

1 ½ tsp vanilla paste

120 gm plain flour

80 gm potato starch, available in some large supermarkets, specialty food stores & delis

2 tsp baking powder

500 gm strawberries (2 punnets)

1 tsp strawberry jam or honey

500 ml thickened cream whipped

1 desert spoon full of icing sugar

1 tsp vanilla paste extra

Method:

When you first have an inkling to make this cake take the eggs out of the fridge and find something else to do. This will have a threefold effect, your yearning to bake the cake will grow with the anticipation, the eggs will come to room temperature which is actually important and like when you lay out exercise gear for a morning workout before bed any waning motivation will be overcome with those now room temperature eggs staring at you on the bench.

Preheat oven to 170c fan forced. Grease and line two 18cm cake tins. A cm or so either side of 18 is fine.

In a stand mixer with whisk attachment fitted, combine eggs, sugar and vanilla and mix on medium for three minutes until every thing is thoroughly combined then increase to medium high (this is one notch on my Kitchen Aid mixer) and whisk for 7-8 minutes. While this is happening combine flour, potato starch and baking powder and mix with a balloon whisk, this combines and aerates the ingredients in the way sifting would without the faff.

When your egg mixture has tripled in volume, is a very pale cream colour and a mousse like consistency almost similar to that you’d aim for whisking egg whites for a pavlova but not as stiff it’s done. Remove bowl from stand and fold half the dry ingredients gently into the egg mix using a spatula or balloon whisk then fold in the other half. Be gentle to preserve all that air while ensuring all the flour is combined.

Divide between the two tins and bake for 30 minutes. Cakes are cooked when fine golden crust (not golden brown) is formed and a skewer comes out clean.

Allow to cool completely in the tins. I like to place the tins on a cooling rack so as not to trap heat under the tins.

When ready to decorate whip the cream, icing sugar and vanilla together set aside.

Trim tops from strawberries. Place a half of one punnet of strawberries and the jam/honey in a blender or jug with a stick blender and puree. Place one cake on the plate you wish to serve on, trim a very thin layer of the top crust of the cake off and brush with half the puree.  

Pipe a ring of cream around the edge the cake to act as a mote and fill the space with the remaining strawberries of the first punnet chopped into bite size chunks.

Place the second cake on top and repeat with the remaining strawberry puree and a ring of cream. Now coat the outside of the cake with cream in the way you would with butter cream icing. For the top choose your own adventure with the remaining punnet of strawberries to decorate with keeping them whole, chopped or a combination.

Notes:

If you’re deft of hand you can absolutely slice the cakes cross wise to create more layers and an even more impressive cake. Just divide the ingredients by the number of layers for the desired effect.

And in a complete departure from the norm here’s a sneaky iphone pic of the actual cake.

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Finds & Forays

As the weather slowly improves here my mind is turning to salads. I’m excited for Alice Zaslevsky’s new book featuring salads particularly if it’s as good as this dressing that’s right up my alley.

In my ongoing efforts to curb my cookbook proclivities I’ve been visiting the library. It somehow makes me feel smug coming home with my pile of food tomes. From my recent stack I suspect I’ll wind up buying this one by Letitia Clark after making this delicious zucchini cake. One to put away for the summer glut but my tip is to up the zucchini to 300gm.

Finally if you’re wondering about Finnish chocolate here your go. It’s a very hard recommend from me.

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Enjoy the rest of your week friends,

S x