Nut Ribbon Cake

Turns out I haven't blogged about one of my favourite cookbooks, Swedish Cakes and Cookies, a classic first published in 1945 with multiple editions and now translated into English. I picked it up at the shop in Scandinavian House in New York, a lovely little store full of Scandinavian things. The book has a lot of yeast-based dough recipes, which I haven't tried, but also simpler things, like muffins, quickbreads and cookies. Here is the Nut Ribbon Cake (p. 70), definitely a treat but easy to make.

For the filling, mix 2/3 cup brown sugar, 2 tsp cinnamon, 2 Tbsp flour, and 3/4 cup chopped walnuts (or hazelnuts). Then stir in 3 Tbsp margarine, melted. Set aside.

In a large bowl, beat 7 Tbsp/100g butter with 3/4 cup sugar until light and fluffy. Add 2 eggs, one at a time. Add 1/4 tsp almond extract. In a small bowl, combine the dry ingredients: 2 cups flour, 2 tsp baking powder, 1/4 tsp salt. Add the dry ingredients to the wet, alternating with 1 cup (total) of sour cream. Beat well to make a thick batter. Pour half of the batter into an oiled loaf pan, then add the nut filling, and cover with the rest of the batter. Bake @350 for 45-50 minutes.

The cake was nice and fluffy, and the filling was sweet and crunchy. The cinnamon came through nicely, though the large amount of filling meant the pieces fell apart a little while serving. It was pretty rich, and it was a little hard to tell when it was cooked through - I think mine was a little underdone. This recipe wasn't particularly Scandinavian (no cardamom?!) but I'll try to get through a few more in the next while.