Schwartzwald Torte: Swedish Birthday Cake

Happy Birthday Husband! A specially requested cake, for a special day, the Schwartzwald Torte is reserved for only very special people on very special occasions in Sweden. At first I was confused by the name, but this is not the "Black Forest Gateux" of the British 70's, nor the German Dessert "Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte" either. It is in fact a Swedish cake called Schwarzwaldtårta which is related to the traditional Black Forest cake only by name. It consists of layers of hazelnut meringue with whipped cream in between. The whole cake is also covered with whipped cream and decorated with chocolate. Special indeed. This cake needs to be assembled immediately before eating, so while the birthday boy slept, I whipped up this gastronomic monster (literally) in the kitchen. As you might imagine, this is rather a fun cake to assemble and one can be as artistic or garish (depending on how you look at it) as you like. Great fun can be had where abstract use of chocolate is required. The result was greatly appreciated by said birthday boy and that is all that matters! Embrace the 70's chef in you and give it a go next time a special occasion calls for a special cake.

This recipe is from "Sju Sorters Kakor - Swedish Cakes and Cookies"

Oven temp: 175C/350F, 3/4cup hazelnuts, 1cup sifted icing sugar, 4 egg whites, 2 cups whipping cream, 1 tsp vanilla essence, 1/3cup further of ground hazelnuts. Chocolate & cocoa to decorate. Draw 3 circles, each one 23cm in diameter, on baking parchment. Place 2 on one baking sheet and the third on another. Grease and flour the circles. Lightly toast the nuts in the oven. Rub off the skins with a clean teatowel/kitchen towel. Grind nuts and mix with powedered sugar. Beat egg whites until stiff (you should be able to hold the bowl up side down). Carefully fold in the nut mixture, spread the mixture over the circles. Bake in the centre of oven for around 10 minutes. The meringue should be the colour of biscuits, firm, but not hard. Let cool. Whip cream for filling and stir in the vanilla and nuts. Layer the meringues with cream in between. Spread cream over the top and sides. Arrange chocolate and dust with sifted cocoa.

Easter High Tea

Along with the Easter Cookie Decorating that went on last weekend, I made a high tea for my guests - after all, I couldn't have them do all that amazing creative thinking on empty stomachs! I love a proper high tea with bite size everything and preferably lots of champagne - tea is optional at my high teas. This year I made mini bacon and leek quiches, strawberry & cream fairy cakes, cinnamon buns, cucumber sandwiches, lemon drizzle cake and some little chocolate crispie things just for good measure. It seemed to go down well as there was very little left by the end... And there was lots of champagne, which might account for some of the amazing cookie creations! The feathers tied to the new Spring branch is a Swedish tradition. The branches were originally a switch to represent Christ's suffering, but have since been decorated with the brightly coloured feathers to welcome in Spring. Sweden's celebration of Easter is really interesting and involves the children dressing as witches and collecting candy door to door, much like our halloween. Very topsy turvy. You can read a little about it here.... Until next year, Happy Easter and on to Summer!