Tiger bundt cake

Finnish tiger cake is really tasty.

Tiger cake, or tiikerikakku in Finnish, is a bundt cake that most likely gets its name from the chocoloate stripes that mimics the ones to a tiger.

This recipe is good for a bundt pan size of 1,5l:

250 g butter
2 dl sugar
3 eggs
3,5 dl flour
2 tsp vanilla sugar
2 tsp baking powder

For the stripes:

1/3 of the dough
3 tbsp raw cocoa powder
3 tbsp cream or milk

Mix the butter and sugar until it becomes foam. Mix the eggs and continue mixing. Mix the flour, vanilla sugar and baking powder together and then mix it to the butter-egg foam.

Take 1/3 of the dough and mix some raw cocoa powder and cream or milk to it. Mix well.

Take a bundt pan and smear butter inside it. Then sprinkle finely grounded bread crumbs on the butter. Spread some white dough on the pan and on it some chocolate dough. Finish with white dough and cook about an hour at 175 ºC.

Smear butter inside of the pan and then
bread crumbs on the butter. This prevents
the dough sticking to the pan.

Cook for about 1 hour at 175 ºC.

Tiger cake gets its name from the beautiful
chocolate stripes.

Bolussen - dutch cinnamon rolls

The stickier, the better.

I was introduced these sweet Dutch sweet buns called bolussen by my dear Dutch friend. No wonder they are popular in the Netherlands.

For the dough you need:

8-9 dl flour
1,5 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
50 g yeast
2 dl water
0,5 dl milk
1 egg
25 g butter

Mix the water and milk together and warm the liquid to 37 ºC and mix the sugar to it. Then mix the yeast to the liquid. Add the salt, egg and flour. Knead the dough for 2 minutes. Add the butter and knead for 4 more minutes.

Let the dough to rise in a warm place under a plastic foil for about 20 minutes or when it has doubled its size. Then divide the dough to pieces of 80-100 g each and roll the balls of a strand of 30 cm long.

Roll each dough piece to a 30 cm long strand.

Now you can prepare the sugar mix where you roll the buns. For the sugar mix you need:

250 g brown sugar
4 tbsp cinnamon powder

Mix the brown sugar with cinnamon powder in a bowl. Dip each strand of dough quickly in cold water and then to the sugar and cinnamon mix. Roll them up into a tightly coiled rounds.

Quickly dip the strands in cold water and
then in the brown sugar and cinnamon mix.

Roll the sticky strands to tightly coiled rounds.

Let them rise for 5 more minutes and then cook the buns in the oven for 7 minutes at 225 ºC. After removing the bolussen from the oven, immediately flip them upside down. After they have cooled down, these sticky sweets are ready to be enjoyed.

Serve with coffee!

Malt bread

Enjoy the bread fresh with butter, cheese and
ham for instance.

I recently bought a kitchen machine to me and I don't know how did I survive without it before I had one. It is just amazing and of course I am baking and baking all the time with it. This recipe is for a malt bread.

For two large breads you need:

1 liter butter milk (also water or milk are fine)
50 g yeast
2 tsp salt
1 dl dark syrup
2 dl malt flour
3 dl rye flour
18 dl flour
100 g melted butter

Mix the yeast with 37 ºC warm butter milk. Mix then the syrup, salt, malt flour, rye flour and flour.
 Knead the dough with kitchen machine for 5-10 minutes. In the end of the kneading, add the melted butter.

Let the dough to rise to double its size under a plastic foil in a warm place with no draft. Then divide the dough and place the dough in bread tins. Let the dough to rise again under a plastic foil.

Bake the bread on the lower level of the oven for 30 minutes at 220 ºC degrees. Take the bread out and brush the bread with a mixture of syrup and water (ratio 50/50). Place the bread back in the oven and bake 10 more minutes.

Take the bread out from the bread tin and place the bread on an oven grate to cool down. This allows the bread to dry a bit and does not leave the bottom moist.

Let the bread to cool down on an oven grate.

Spinach and cream cheese cannellonis

These cannellonis have no meat at all.

I have eaten cannellonis before and I absolutely love them. But I have never made them myself. After I realised they really are easy to make I headed to the grocery store and decided to go for this vegetarian version with spinach and cream cheese.

This recipe is for 4 persons.

For cannellonis you need:

12-15 lasagna sheets (3-4 sheets per person)
200 g cream cheese
100 g mozzarella cheese
200 g fresh spinach
100 g broccoli
1 white mushroom
1 garlic clove
1 egg
salt
pepper

For the sauce you ned:

500 g tomatosauce
2,5 dl cream
Basil
Salt
Pepper

Cook the spinach for 1 minute and wash under cold water three times. Cut the spinach to small pieces. Mix it then with cream cheese, grated mozzarella, finely grated broccoli, finely chopped mushroom, minced garlic and egg. Season with salt and pepper.

Cook the lasagna sheets for 3 minutes in water with some salt. Wash the sheets under cold water. Place the cream cheese filling with a spoon on the other end of the lasagna sheet. Then simply roll the sheets and place them on a casserole. Pour the sauce over the rolls and finish with grated cheese.

Place the pasta rolls on a casserole.

Pour the sauce over the pasta rolls and
finish with grated mozzarella.

Bake on a lover level of the oven for 35 minutes at 175 °C. Then 10 more minutes on the highest level of the oven also at 175 °C.

Serve with a kale salad.

So good!

Runeberg's cakes

You may also soften the cakes with some apple juice or milk,
or then not to do this at all.

 Finland celebrates its national poet Johan Ludvig Runeberg today and what would be better way to do that than with the delicious winter treats Runeberg's cakes (Runebergintorttu in Finnish).

Recipe:

200 g butter
2,5 dl sugar
2 eggs
1 dl butter milk
1 dl cream
3 dl flour
3 dl breadcrumbs (finely ground)
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp almond extract (the amount of extract you need can vary a lot depending on the extract you have used. In this recipe I have used a Norwegian almond extract from Idun)

Garnish:
2 dl powdered sugar
1-2 tbsp water

Mix well the butter that is at room temperature with the sugar. Add the eggs and mix again. Add the buttermilk and cream to the mix. Then add the almond extract. Mix the flour, breadcrumps and baking soda together and add to the dough.

Spoon the dough i.e. to cupcake cases or similar. Make a hole in each cake and put raspberry jam in them. Bake for about 20 minutes at 200 ℃.

Let the cakes to cool down and add again some raspberry jam to the holes. Make the frosting by adding some water to powdered sugar and garnish the top of the cake with it.

The picture is a bit dark but this shows better
how the frosting should be around the jam.