Runeberg cakes are dense, super moist, bursting with great flavours of cardamom, almonds, ginger, and zest. Almond meal and biscuit crumbs lend a great texture. Laced with rum syrup and jam topping with icing ring makes it a great dessert
Threads of smoke
emerge on the horizon from the distant hamlets. The air is cold and vaporous. A
million pearls of dew hanging on the blades of the grass make the lawn look
like a carpet of diamonds. The morning is misty and serene.
The branches in the distance shake and the raucous calls
of the White Crested Laughing Thrush tear the silence. They jump on the
branches and continue calling in shrill notes.
Soon, one after the other, the group disappears in the orchard while
their calls still audible in the air.
We are expecting some guests for tea. Our baking studio
gets active as the Sun emerges and it gets warmer. We are baking Runeberg’s
Torte.
Runeberg torte is a Finnishpastry named after the Finnish national poet
Johan Ludvig Runeberg and is traditionally made and eaten on February 5th,
Runeberg’s birthday.
Runeberg’s Torte is
traditionally a tall cylindrical pastry that is soaked in rum or cognac
flavoured sugar syrup and topped with a dollop of jam, lastly garnished with a
ring of white or pink sugar icing. In home baking, they are often baked in
muffin tins.
Runeberg cakes are dense, super moist, bursting with great flavours of
cardamom, almonds, ginger, and zest. Almond meal and biscuit crumbs lend a great
texture. Laced with rum syrup and jam topping with icing ring makes it to-die
for dessert.
It takes a lot of time to make them but the effort is well rewarded!
Runerbergintorttuja – Runeberg Torte
Ingredients
Cake
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup finely ground ginger snaps or digestive biscuits (add 1 teaspoon of ground ginger powder if using digestive biscuits)
- ¾ cup almond meal
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 ½ teaspoon ground green cardamom seeds
- 1 cup (2 sticks butter)
- 1 ½ cups unrefined sugar/castor sugar
- 3 free-range eggs
- 2 tablespoons honey
- ½ cup whipping cream
- ½ cup fresh orange juice (or store-bought)
- 1 ½ teaspoon orange zest (or candied peels chopped finely)
Ingredients
Rum Syrup
- 1 cup sugar
- ½ cup water
- 2 tablespoon rum
Ingredients
For topping
- Raspberry jam (or any other jam of choice)
- ½ cup icing sugar
- 1 tablespoon milk
- ½ teaspoon almond extract or essence
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Grease and flour one standard 12-cup muffin tray.
- Whisk together all-purpose flour, ginger snaps, almond meal, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cardamom powder in a large bowl. Keep aside.
- Cream butter and sugar till pale and light. Add honey and beat for another 2-3 minutes till fluffy.
- Add eggs, one at a time beating well after each addition.
- Now add cream and beat so that it is well incorporated and you get a uniform mixture.
- Add orange zest.
- Now add dry ingredients and orange juice in three shifts. Add dry ingredients and a little orange juice. Repeat. If at any step you feel that the batter is of right consistency, do not add more orange juice.
- Spoon the batter into the prepared tray, filling up the cups to ¾th level. Level the tops with a spatula.
- Bake for 20 minutes or till a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Remove from the oven. Remove from the tray after 15 minutes.
- To prepare rum syrup, take sugar and water in a thick bottomed pan.
- Stir till sugar dissolves. Bring it to a boil. Turn off the heat
- Stir in rum. Let it cool.
- Unmould the cakes, while the cakes are still warm, poke the tops with a toothpick. With a pastry brush, brush the syrup on the top and sides of the cake. Let the cakes cool.
- To prepare the icing, take icing sugar, milk and almond extract in a cup. Whisk till thick paste forms.
- Pour in an icing bag.
Assembly
- Arrange the cupcakes upside down in a tray. ( Cut out the bulging portion if the cakes are not standing)
- With a sharp knife, scoop out a shallow cone from the topside of each cake making a small depression.
- Brush more syrup into the depression.
- Fill up the depression with a 1- 1 ½ tablespoon of jam.
- Make a ring with the icing around the jam topping.
- Serve.
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