A Norway Day Cake To Die For

I'm trying to see past the streaming rain today, surely it will improve in time for Norway Day on Sunday? Although obviously this amount of rain is bound to turbo-charge the plants in the garden, which is a very welcome effect after such a dry spring.

Anyway, so far my preparations for ND have consisted of making gravlaks and baking a cake. Plus eating too many of the Scandi sweets I ordered from the Skandikitchen "just because I need to test the quality". I have rather a lot left to do on the prepping front.

But, I'd like to share the recipe for the cake, which was a great success at our Norway Day garden party last year. It's a recipe by famous Norwegian food blogger Trine Sandberg (www.trinesmatblogg.no) and she has graciously allowed me to translate and publish it here. Trine calls it the 'Hurra for 17. mai kake' which if you don't read Norwegian means 'Hurrah for the 17th of May'.

It's easy, but looks very impressive.

Ingredients
* 150g butter
* 200g dark chocolate (70% is good)
* 3 medium eggs
* 150-175g caster sugar
* 1tbsp vanilla sugar (I used 1tsp vanilla extract as vanilla sugar isn't commonly available in the UK)
* 125g plain white flour (not self-raising)
* 1tsp baking powder

 Photo: lifewithanordicsoul

Baking
* Heat your oven to 175°C (or 160°C fan)
* Grease and flour a round 22-24cm tin and set aside
* Melt the butter in a pan on a low heat while you break the chocolate into small pieces
* Remove the pan from the hob and add the chocolate, stirring until it melts completely (it's important that the butter is not too hot as this can make the chocolate go grainy)
* Add one egg at a time, stirring the batter thoroughly but gently between each
* Stir in the sugar, vanilla and baking powder
* Sift the flour into the batter while stirring until completely smooth
* Pour the batter into the tin and place it on the middle shelf in the oven

* Bake for 20-30 minutes (test with a wooden toothpick after 20 mins - if you pull it out clean the cake is done, if not bake for a few more minutes) 

* Leave the cake to cool on a rack while you prepare the filling and topping

Filling & Topping

Chocolate ganache, crème chantilly, pears and berries...

Chocolate ganache ingredients:

* 200g chopped dark chocolate

* 100ml single cream

* 50ml water

* 2-3tsp caster sugar

* 1tbsp butter

Chocolate ganache method:

* Add the chocolate and butter to a large mixing bowl

* Gently heat the cream, water and sugar in a pan on the hob until the sugar dissolves and pour it into the mixing bowl

* Stir the mixture gently until the chocolate is completely melted. Do not stir more than necessary.

Crème chantilly, pears & berries:

*500ml whipping cream

* 1tsp caster sugar

* 1 drop of vanilla essence

* 1 punnet of strawberries (raspberries are fine, but strawberries are more 'flag red')

* 1 punnet of blueberries

* 1 tin of pears in natural juice

Method:

* Whip the cream, sugar and vanilla until you get a fluffy whipped cream with 'hold' and put the bowl in the fridge

* Slice the cake in two horizontal layers

* Spread half of the whipped cream over the bottom layer of the cake, then layer the pears and half of the berries on top of this (I would recommend slicing the pears and strawberries so that you can layer fairly flat)

* Gently place the second layer of the cake on top of the first

* Pour the chocolate ganache over the top of the cake and spread with a spatula, letting some of it run down the sides (at this point the ganache should have cooled and thickened a bit so that it doesn't run too much)

* Set the cake aside to allow the ganache to cool and set before you continue

* Spread the remainder of the cream over the top of the cake but not all the way out to the edge

* Decorate the top of the cake with the rest of the berries

And there you have it: Hurra for 17. mai kake!

Photo: Trine Sandberg