Tag: Celebrations

  • Pavlova Cheesecake (Ostekake) with Fresh Berries

    Pavlova Cheesecake (Ostekake) with Fresh Berries

    Pavlova Cheesecake (Ostekake) with Fresh Berries

    In moments of indecisiveness, inspiration can come unexpectedly. Sometimes, it just takes a good friend and a simple conversation to provide a little clarity that sparks an idea. That is how this cake – a combination of pavlova and cheesecake – came to be.

    You see, the month of May is prime cake table ´kakebord´ time in Norway. With confirmations, weddings, celebratory parties, and, of course, 17 Mai (Norway’s Constitution Day), there’s no reason not to bake or at least indulge in the dessert conversation. There are traditional cakes, like kvæfjordkake, bløtkake, marzipan cake, kransekake. There are also newer favorites such as pavlova and brownies. One thing for is for sure, whether it’s chocolate, vanilla, meringue, marzipan, simple, extravagant, old or new, the most important thing is the love that is poured out and shared during the occasion and the cake is just a sweet indulgent that adds to memory.

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  • Pannekaker (Norwegian Pancakes)

    Pannekaker (Norwegian Pancakes)

    Norwegian Pancakes (Pannekaker)
    Norwegian Pancakes (Pannekaker)

    The smell of eggy batter cooking atop a skillet is almost unmistakable. It draws you in as it evokes loving memories to the forefront.

    Pancakes (pannekaker) are deeply embedded into the Norwegian food culture. They’re typical “farm to table” food, with the ingredients sourced from a working farm – eggs from the hens, grain from the fields, and milk from the cows.

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  • Kaffegraut (Norwegian Semolina Porridge)

    Kaffegraut (Norwegian Semolina Porridge)

    Kaffegraut (Norwegian "Coffee" Porridge)
    Kaffegraut (Norwegian Semolina Porridge)

    Not long after we moved to Norway, I was served kaffegraut “coffee porridge” at the Rollag Station Kafe in Rollag. It was presented simple enough. A bowl with a thin layer of cinnamon and symmetrically placed raisins on top. What lied beneath the brown layer, though, was unknown to me. I was curious, perhaps even a little skeptical being that it was porridge and all. But one bite in and my slightly tensed shoulders relaxed. My eyes widened as my thoughts began to process what I had just encountered, and I couldn’t help but smile as I took in the smooth textures and subtle buttery and sweet flavors.

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  • Kvæfjordkake: The World’s Best Cake (Verdens Beste)

    Kvæfjordkake: The World’s Best Cake (Verdens Beste)

    Norway's Kvæfjordkake (Verdens Beste "The World's Best Cake")Norway's Kvæfjordkake (Verdens Beste "The World's Best Cake")Sponge cake baked with meringue and almonds becomes the centerpiece of this delightful layer cake filled with custard and whipped cream. It began its inception in the north of Norway and has earned it’s nickname as verdens beste, “the world’s best”. (more…)

  • Cinnamon Cake Bread (Kanelkakebrød)

    Cinnamon Cake Bread (Kanelkakebrød)

    Cinnamon Cake Bread (Kanelkakebrød)Cinnamon Cake Bread (Kanelkakebrød)Winter came with a fierceness this year, unlike last year’s somewhat bleak and disappointing season where pockets of snow and slush lay strewn about fields of brown. This winter had other ideas. Grandeur ideas. A plush blanket of white snow, covered with another blanket, and another, and yet another. In some places, the snow towers so high that when I peer out my window I can only see the skyline. (more…)

  • ‘Glitre’ kringle

    ‘Glitre’ kringle

    Glitrekringle (Maj-Lis's Norwegian pastry with raisins and nuts)Glitrekringle (Maj-Lis's Norwegian pastry with raisins and nuts)In the bright of the day, looking toward the bay, the water sparkles as the sun’s rays reflect off the waves with an intense luster creating an almost magical atmosphere.  This reoccurring picture and likening to glitter is what gave inspiration for the name of a farm in Rollag three generations ago. It would, in recent times, be the inspiration behind the name of the baked good so loved and so often served at this farm, by the hands of Maj-Lis. (more…)