It’s June and almost midsummer, the time when Scandinavian nights are short, bright and magical and no-one thinks about safety reflectors. So many of us Scandinavians in North America have had our flights “back home” cancelled and are stuck with pitch black nights from 9 or 10 pm. In addition, Scandinavian markets and festivals are cancelled so no new kitchen towels, loose-leaf tea, fika mugs or cute onesies for the next generation. Well, Krista Nygaard of the Scandinavian Design Studio pulled together a team who has created an amazing online community of vendors and customers at scandinavianfest.com. So lets go shopping online instead and then bake (recipe at the end of this post) a midsummer strawberry cake 🍰!
Scandinavian Midsummer Shopping
There are too much neat stuff to highlight all the vendors here, but we wanted to showcase some of favorites for a good hygge despite Covid-19. (click on the images to go the the stores):
We’ve been on the lookout for some special baby clothes for a newcomer in our extended family. These are prefect!
Wool blankets are amazing and last forever! Love the champaign bubble design on this Norwegian lambs wool blanket in black and natural. Perfect when it gets chilly in the fall and scores sky high on the hygge scale!
Next must-have is a proper fika mug and then a tray to carry your fika to the couch or favorite spot in the garden or on the porch.
Finally, we need something to pour into your fika mugs, and on days when we’ve had enough coffee (yea, imagine that!), we like to switch to flavored black teas. In Sweden, every town has a tea store with a wall full of different huge loose-leaf tea containers, from where they scoop up your order. Our suitcases usually have a few pounds (!) when traveling back to the US. Here is one kind you can order from Oregon with elderberries, blueberries and more on an Earl Grey base. Yum!
Midsummer Strawberry Cake with Vanilla Custard and Whipped Cream
The first Scandinavian grown strawberries are usually ready at midsummer and no midsummer party is complete without a strawberry cake. Instead of frosting, it is covered with a layer of freshly whipped whipping cream.
Ingredients:
- 3 eggs
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 ½ cups flour
- 2 tsp double acting baking powder
- 5 tbsp melted butter
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ⅓ cup water
- 1 – 1 ½ cup vanilla custard or vanilla pudding
- 1 – 1 ½ cups whipping cream, whipped with ½ tbsp sugar
- 12-16 oz strawberries
Steps:
- Preheat oven to 350º
- Butter and flour or breadcrumb an 8 ½” cake pan (2-3 layers)
- Whip eggs and sugar until light in color and fluffy
- Mix in melted butter, vanilla extract, and water
- Mix in flour and baking powder
- Pour into pan and bake for 35-40 minutes, test with a cake tester to make sure the middle is cooked all the way through
- Take out of pan an let cool
- While the cake is in the oven, rinse, dry and clean strawberries. Cut half of them into small pieces and mix with 1 tbsp sugar. Let sit.
- When cool, cut the cake in 2 or 3 layers and put the bottom layer on a cake platter
- Spread out the cut strawberries and pour on the liquid.
- If 2 layers, put a layer of custard on the strawberries, if 3 layers, put a layer of cake between strawberries and custard
- Put on the last layer and cover the cake with whipped cream
- Decorate with the remaining strawberries
Enjoy & Happy Midsummer!
The funflector team
