Taytekakku

My mom was over last weekend and brought me an amazing birthday cake.   It’s one of my favorite cakes.   The cake is called Taytekakku; I always just call it Finnish cake because I have no idea how it’s  name is pronounced in Finnish.      She put it together at my house, which explains the fancy cake plate.

My mom is 100 percent Finn, which makes me half Finn and extremely happy about it every time I have this cake.   This cake is very moist, I eat it with a spoon and savor every bite.

Although the instructions I’ve copied below look very involved, this cake isn’t terribly difficult to make. 

This recipe is from our church cookbook.

The filled cake “taytekakku” is the crowning touch on the Finnish coffee table.   There can be great variations in these cakes but they are all make with sponge cake base.  The layers are split and moistened with juice and the cake is filled with whipped cream and fruit.

Cake:

4 large eggs

1 cup sugar

1 cup all purpose flour

2 Tablespoons cornstarch

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/8 teaspoon salt

Beat eggs, gradually adding the sugar and beating until thick (about 10 minutes) Sift or mix well the flour, baking powder, and salt. Fold into egg mixture carefully. Pour into 2 well greased and floured 8 inch round pans (line pans with wax paper to make cakes easy to remove) Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes. Cool. Split each layer horizontally.

Moistening mixture: 1 -2 cups liquid - orange pineapple juice works well.

Filling:

1 can crushed pineapple

2-3 bananas

Sliced strawberries or strawberry jam

1 pint cream, whipped and lightly sweetened with powdered sugar for filling and topping

Assemble Cake:

Place one layer of cake on a plate with cut side up. Moisten lightly with juice. Top with crushed pineapple and 1/3 of the whipped cream. Cover with second layer of cake; moisten and fill with cream and bananas. Cover with third layer of cake, moisten and top with sliced strawberries and cream. Moisten last layer of cake and put cut side down on top. To complete cake, frost with whipped cream and decorate with sliced fruit or other decorations. Chill and serve.

My mom topped my cake with dried apricots that had been soaked in rum.   So good.   Try this cake, you won’t be disappointed, it is delicious.

Chili Contest

There was a Chili Contest today at work.   Four coworkers made their best chili and brought it in to the break room.

Although I think I make good chili, I didn’t  compete.  I wasn’t working today but I did stop in  to work with my husband to taste, vote, and take some pictures.

I was surprised that all of the chili tasted different.

I had a hard time deciding between chili number three and chili number four.     

Chili number four was most like the chili I make ;  I thought it was good.   It was the spiciest of the chili.    I like spicy.

Chili number three tasted most like the chili my husband makes; it  was really good too.   It had ground beef, chunks of beef (which were very tender) and bacon in it.    It also had more than one type of bean.

Chili number two and one were less spicy but still good.    Chili two had nice big chunks of meat.

 

Chili number one had mushrooms in it.   I’ve never had mushrooms in chili before, they were a nice addition.  It was a mild chili.

Since I didn’t enter a chili, I couldn’t lose,and I got to try four different types of chili.

I did contribute something to the contest.  

Chocolate Cupcakes for dessert.

I think they were yummy too.

Valentine’s Day

I made a table centerpiece for Valentine’s Day.    I don’t decorate for Valentine’s Day but this year I felt like I needed a little celebration in the middle of this long, very cold, winter.   It’s not fancy or expensive but it makes me happy to see it and brightens up my table.

The tootsie pops were already in the mug on my counter.   I set the mug on a silver tray my mom gave me;  it was a wedding present  to my parents many years ago.    I thought it was sweet to have something on my Valentine’s table that came from a celebration of my parent’s love.    I made some paper hearts for on the tray and put a few decorated Valentine’s straws in with the lollipops.  

My mother-in-law gave me the red beeswax candles;  she passed away in 2001.   I’ve kept these candles for a long time.    

My mom, my husband and I will share a Valentine’s meal of steak and crab.    My husband got me a heart necklace and some candy.   I’m writing him a poem.

Happy Valentine’s Day.

Mount Munahana

When my kids were little they loved to climb  to and play on the tops of big snow piles.   My husband would often take them to a nearby parking lot and let them scale to the top of the snow piles.   

They pretended they were exploring a mountain, and this mountain was named Mount Munahana.    The tallest snow pile  always got this name.  

   

This memory came back to me today as I drove into the parking lot  at my work.   Snow is piled high, the tops of the piles really do look  a lot like mountains.   There is a whole mountain range over the fence around the lot.

This memory so made me wish I could zap both my kids back seventeen or so years to see them tackle these mountains.    I imagine how excited they would be  telling the story of climbing Mount Munahana.

Another Year

I remember when 40 used to sound old.   Now that I’ve been here for a couple of years, it doesn’t sound old and it certainly doesn’t feel old to me.

I’ve learned not to get too excited about my birthday.    My brother Randy, who is a year younger, also has a birthday in February and we always had our party together.   Our celebrations were often canceled due to someone in our family throwing up.  If it  wasn’t the flu,  it was a blizzard that canceled our party.     So,  it disappointed me, but didn’t surprise me, that my birthday plans were thwarted by the weather this year too.    Stupid Snow.

Since my husband knew that he would be out of town on my birthday, he took me out yesterday to buy me a fabulous birthday gift.  

This telephoto lens is going to be so much fun to use.    My husband bought me a new camera for Christmas and now I have this lens to play with too.      I need to take some classes to learn how to operate my SLR camera.    I’ve got the “For Dummies” book which I’m making my way through.   Some of it is quite confusing;  I must be dumber than the usual dummy.    Oh well,  I’ll eventually get it and when I do, I’ll post my best pictures here.