The Transplanted Baker

Hardanger Cherry-Almond Cake

I’d accept the argument that when you buy a carton of picked-this-morning, super plump, red juice-running-down-your-chin cherries, it’s best just to pop the suckers in your mouth and enjoy them the way nature intended.

But then again, everyone loves a good cake. Especially a good old-fashioned cake. And especially a cake scented with sweet, sweet almond and dotted with the deepest, darkest, prettiest Morello cherries that man can grow.

My recommendation? Buy a carton to snack on and to have a pit-spitting contest with, then buy a second carton to bake this cake:

Hardanger Cherry-Almond Cake

It’s easy and straightforward,  kind of like all the best things in life- coloring books, riding a bike, hot dogs on the grill.....

I’ll bet you a carton of the best Hardanger cherries that you have a majority of the ingredients for this cake in your cupboard as we speak. Sugar? Flour? Almond extract? Baking powder and baking soda? A sack of sliced almonds? Yea, I thought so. Double check that you have the eggs and sour cream before picking up the cherries from the store (or even better, from the farmer’s market or roadside stand) and we’re ready to go!

I gave this cake the powdered sugar treatment,  but feel free to doll it up a bit with a scoop of good ice cream or some freshly whipped cream. Also- if you’re having trouble finding some fresh cherries (or just don’t want to put on the shoes and pants required to go to the store), go ahead and use some frozen or canned cherries- but you may want to thicken them up with some cornstarch before adding them to the batter.

Hardanger Cherry-Almond Cake

Hardanger Morell- og Mandlekake

*makes one- round 10” cake

1 cup (200g) sugar

1/2 cup (1 stick/115g) unsalted butter, room temperature

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon almond extract

2 cups (260g) all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup (240g) sour cream

 1 1/2 lb. (680g) fresh, pitted cherries (alternately, frozen or canned cherries thickened with a little cornstarch)

1/2 cup (2 ounces/ 50g) thinly sliced almonds, toasted

*powdered sugar, ice cream or whipped cream to serve

 

1. Preheat oven to 350°F/175C. Butter a 10-inch springform pan.

2. Beat sugar and butter in large bowl until light. Add eggs, vanilla extract and almond extract and beat well. Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt into medium bowl. Mix half of dry ingredients into butter mixture. Mix in sour cream, then remaining dry ingredients.

3. Pour 2/3 of batter (about 2 cups) into prepared pan. Drop cherries by tablespoons evenly over batter. Drop remaining batter by spoonfuls over pie filling. Using back of spoon, carefully spread batter over filling. Sprinkle with almonds. Bake until tester inserted into center of cake comes out clean, about 1 hour. Cool in pan on rack. (Can be prepared 1 day ahead. Cover with foil and store at room temperature.) 

Hardanger Cherries

We spent the first weekend of our summer vacation in the fruit capital of Norway. 

Hardanger, a region just south of us and just east of Bergen, encapsulates everything beautiful, charming, and addictive about Norway. Apple, pear, plum, and cherry orchards are planted tightly along the fjordside and as your drive your car along the swinging, bumpy roads in late July, you find yourself in the midst of a Morello cherry-lovers dream. 

Self-serve stands. "30 kroner. Betal i boksen, takk" (please pay in the box, thanks)

The definition of "farm to table", only this was more like "farm to mouth" 

Some stands were better constructed than others. Bachelor farmers?

Ice-capped mountains in the peak of summer 

Runaways

Selling patriotism and raspberries too

A special thanks to my extremely accommodating driver

Hardanger Cherry Cake recipe to follow... 

Drum roll...

I can't think of anyone more worthy of receiving a high quality, uber-Norwegian cheese plane than the woman whose name I drew above. Someone of Japanese blood, of Spanish residency, of cheese-loving tendency, and most importantly, of bread-baking skill. Check out her site, Samurai Viking Cuisine- my vote for the most clever food blog name of all-time. 

Although most contestants wrote in saying that their favorite summer dessert is something made from either strawberries or rhubarb (usually a combination of the too), Murasaki wrote that her favorite summer dessert is shaved ice flavored with Matcha and condensed milk. 

Now, if someone were to force me to pick just one favorite summer dessert, I would have to go with my old birthday favorite. As boring, or cliche, or unoriginal as it may be, just give me a slice of strawberry-rhubarb pie.  But then again, after visiting Japan in the middle of a heat wave a few years ago, nothing tastes better than a scoop of Matcha ice cream when you've got sweat on your brow. 

Congrats Murasaki! I'll be sending your cheese plane down the North Sea within the next few days. 

A Farmer's Market Exchange

I organized a little exchange back in May. A Farmer’s Market Exchange, to be exact. 10 fun people signed up and if you weren’t one of them, well, I guess you just missed out. Here's what it was all about:

Know what I love more than just about anything? More than cooking programs, more than my teapot collection, more than my husband.....

Whoops. Scratch that last one.

But I’m being honest about those first two- and that’s saying a lot. What I love more than just about anything, is the farmer’s market.

I love everything about it: waking up early in the morning to get first picks, strolling the stands with a cup of coffee in hand, watching the farmers unload still warm-from-the-sun berries, corn, and carrots from their trucks, the scrappy freckled farm kids, watching the produce change from week to week...to tell you the truth, I start getting giddy for opening day around Christmas time. It’s true- my farmer’s market dreams always pop up at least 3 months before any seedlings, buds, or farm babies do. 

I fell in love with the St. Paul (MN) farmer’s market at an early age, so you can probably understand my relief last spring when I found out that there’s a farmer’s market in our little Norwegian town. Granted there’s not a lot of bok choy or heirloom tomatoes showing up at the Førde market, but we do have plenty of local treats like; cloudberries, juniper smoked salmon, and hand-knitted mittens. I can’t complain.

The 10 of us spent the month of June scouring our local farmer’s markets for great things to ship to our exchange buddies. Curious about what was shipped and received???

Molly of Batter-Splattered in Wasilla, Alaska exchanged with Britta of Piney Hill Farm in Glenwood City, Wisconsin:

Molly: “In spite of the box looking like it had been driven over by a truck (gotta love the u.s. postal 'service'), everything arrived in one piece. Britta did a wonderful job of rounding things up -- 2 nalgene bottles full of maple syrup from her farm, Minnesota wild rice, a Minnesota themed oven mitt, clover/basswood honey from Minn, some wild ginger lotion, a packet of notecards, and a woven bag from Bolivia. Did I score big-time or what??”

Britta: “Woweee,  did I get some great goods from Ms. Molly. I have been drinking some amazing coffee every morning, roasted in the Mat Su valley (one of the most beautiful places ever). Molly also included a great recipe book from the Anchorage farmers market, a very big "Alaska Grown" mug, and some homemade lip balm. Yummy. I Haven’t cracked her homemade jam yet but next time I make some crepes that will be the first thing on 'em. Such wonderful goodies,Thanks Molly, and Siri for putting this together. I wish I could send you some of our fresh strawberries i picked this morning.”

Wendy of A Wee Bit of Cooking in North Kessick, Scotland swapped with Rachel in St. Paul, MN:

Wendy: “I received my fabulous package yesterday from Rachel. It contained all sorts of goodies. Parmesan crisps (they lasted all of 3 minutes after opening the parcel), chocolate sauce, berry jam, bees wax, a little stuffed frog, two food based magazines and, believe it or not, honey! It seems the US is happy to ship honey but not to receive it. It is dangerous stuff though... ;) The honey is in the most adorable bear shaped jar.

*Wendy's package to Rachel has gone AWOL. It was originally returned to Wendy due to US restrictions on receiving "foreign" honey. After a second attempt at sending the package out, we belive it is somewhere between North Kessick and St. Paul (hopefully not in the middle of the Atlantic!) I'll update this and let you know what Rachel receives whenever I hear word). 

Heather of Herban Gardens in Minneapolis, Minnesota exchanged with Greg of Sippity Sup in Los Angeles, California:

Heather: “My envelope of yum had dried pear halves (those lasted a day and a half-you're right Greg, they're addicting), California green olives, an adorable recipe card for a fruit and tomato and herb salad, and treasures- baby potatoes of purple, gold, blue, and red. We fired up the trusty Chinatown bamboo steamer and steamed them until they were perfect. Thanks, Greg!”

Greg: “In my box was: Handmade Graham crackers from Prairievores, Watertown MN single source honey, Raspberry Pepper jam from St. Paul’s Lucille’s Kitchen Garden and some amazing homemade blueberry syrup from my charming benefactress herself.”

Michelle in Colorado Springs, Colorado exchanged with Sarah in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Sarah: "Chocolate pasta with directions for a super yummy dessert, some homemade soap and lip balm, a nice collection of dried fruits and an adorable reusable tote bag for the farmers' market! Thank you so much for arranging this. I've never been so excited to get a package in the mail!"

Sarah sent Michelle a package that makes Minnesota look pretty good- a bottle of clover honey, a jar of pomegranate and black grape jam, a pouch of dried woodland mushrooms, a sack of organic harvest grains pancake mix, a bag of darn good granola from Mpls.’s Birchwood Cafe, and a Twin Cities grown cucumber.

And Siri, in Førde, Norway (yes, that’s me!) swapped with the swanky Jenn of The Leftover Queen in St. Augustine, Florida... 

While it’s a little bit embarrassing to say,  seeing as how I was the organizer and all, my local market has primarily fresh (ie: unshippable) things during the warm months and very few goods suitable for shipping to anyone outside a 100 kilometer radius from Førde (let alone to my buddy, Jenn, on the other side of the Atlantic). Knowing that Jenn had spent a year in Norway as an exchange student, I decided to risk sending her a couple of Norwegian products that were a bit “different” and hope that she’d be able to appreciate them. Read what I sent Jenn here.

So what did I end up with? Not only a Florida manatee greeting, but some mighty addictive garlic roasted peanuts, a bag of salted golden flax seed that will surely find their way into my next loaf of bread, and a bottle of kick butt Datile Pepper and Seville Orange BBQ sauce (it’s ok to be jealous). The BBQ sauce is recommended on beef, mullet, or catfish, but since the rugged Norwegian landscape and cold waters don’t provide us with a lot of cattle nor warm water  fish, our next BBQ might have to focus on one of the local favorites- lamb chops or crawfish!

Turns out that I actually come up with the occasional good idea once in a while. After a successful first-ever Farmer’s Market Exchange,  this just might call for a second exchange in another season or two. Let me know if you’re interested!

One Sweet Year (aka: a giveway)

There are few traditions in the food blogging world that I haven’t been able to wrap my head around.

First off is the ever-popular act of tying a stack of cookies with a delicate ribbon, as demonstrated here and here. It sounds like a cute idea on the surface, but after seeing a million and a half food bloggers photograph their baking creations this way, you grow a bit tired of the idea. Call me a fuddy-duddy, but the bottom line is, ribbon wrapped cookies are no longer creative nor whimsical. It’s just plain silly. Maybe this is my inner fuddy-duddy, party-pooper speaking.

Another food blogging tradition that has yet to excite me is blogging awards. You create an award, like “the super tasty blog award”, or “fun, fresh, and flavorful blog award!” and send it as an icon to someone you deem worthy of having your award on their blog. I guess it’s a nice gesture and all, but personally, it reminds me too much of junior high popularity contests and trying to collect as many friends as possible as fast as you can. Then gain, maybe this is just the fuddy-duddy speaking.

Lastly, another extremely popular food blogging tradition is the blog giveaway.  The Great Blog giveaway, where the blog writer voluntarily purchases (or in the rare case, makes) something for its’ readers to sign up to win and then sends this item in the mail to the winner using the blogger's own hard-earned money. What could possess a normal person to make such a kind gesture of pure unselfishness? Why would a sane person send a total stranger something in the mail (potentially over a very long distance) and not receive anything in exchange?

The good news is, that’s just what this fuddy-duddy is doing. You see, as it turns out, it’s The One-Year Anniversary of The Transplanted Baker. I’m not normally a big one on anniversaries. As it turns out, I had to ask my mom what the date of my wedding was as the one-year mark was approaching- to my defense, it was a court house ceremony on a random Thursday in December.  But I do feel like celebrating this anniversary, the one that marks one year of mixing and baking and notes-in-the-cookbook-margin-making and photographing and writing and sharing and dreaming. 

And to celebrate, I’m doing two things.

One, I'm baking a cake and eating it. 

Two, I’m giving away one of the most quintessential items of the Norwegian table, an ostehøvel. 

What you need to do: Now, some food bloggers just have their readers sign their name in the comment section in order entire to win the giveaway. Not me, I’m more of a “make them work for it” kind of girl. As we’re nearing the height of summer and all, I’m going to ask you to write what you believe to be the perfect summer dessert. As long as you do that by next Sunday (the 26^th), you’re name will be entered into a drawing to win this very divine, Norwegian–made, wooden-handled cheese plane. Your cheese plate will never have looked so good.

Thanks for playing along!

-Siri