Miss My's Sumptuous Strawberry-Apple Pie

Three and a half weeks ago I started an entrepreneurship course for people who want to start a business in Finland. The course has been tough as it is taught solely in Finnish but my fellow students have made the course bearable. Actually, they have made it a lot of fun and the course seems more like meeting friends whilst at the same time learning important things regarding setting up a business.

The highlights of our school days are the coffee breaks and lunch time. We have discovered many restaurants in the area which serve a proper lunch buffet. Some of my fellow students have enjoyed the buffets so much that they felt sick afterwards. As I am grateful for having so many 'school' friends I decided to treat them to some home baked cake. I made a strawberry-apple cake. It isn't the most common combination but it really works. One school friend even asked whether I could bake one for him and he actually offered to pay me for it! Doing business during an entrepreneurship course, it doesn't get any better than that.

I kind of created the recipe myself so you might have to fine-tune it yourself but here is approximately what I used.

Ingredients:

200 grams of softened butter
1,5 dl of sugar
0,5 dl of vanilla sugar
1 free range egg
about 5 dl of flour
1,5 teaspoons of baking powder

Filling:

approximately 7 small apples
250 grams of strawberries
25 grams of butter
2 teaspoons of vanilla sugar

Preparation:

Mix the softened butter with the sugar. I use my hands (of course after thoroughly cleansing them) but you can use a wooden spoon or spatula if you like. Add the egg and mix. In a separate bowl mix the flour and baking powder. Add the flour mix to the butter/sugar/egg mixture. Whilst mixing test the texture to see if it is not too dry. The texture should be nice and sticky.

Peel the apples and cut them into parts. Melt the butter in a pan. Fry the apple parts until they have become a bit mushy. Add the vanilla sugar and take the pan off the stove.

Put the dough in a baking form (diameter of 24cm or 26cm depending on how thick you like your dough) and make sure the form is well covered. Then put the apple mixture onto the dough. Top the apple mixture with slices of strawberry.

That's it! Enjoy. Isabella and my fellow students sure did!

Miss My's Piimäkakku a.k.a Buttermilk Cake Recipe

Last Saturday Miss Mo and I got together with a few other girls for a really fun girls' evening. Everyone brought something to eat. I brought meatballs and piimäkakku which is a cake made with piimä (buttermilk). Many Finnish people have had piimäkakku at least once in their lives and some friends have said piimäkakku reminds them of their youths. Because I had some piimä left I made two more cakes and brought pieces to the play park and passed them around. The cake is very easy to make and doesn't involve difficult processes. Some people have asked for the recipe. I make the cake according to the recipe given to me by Isabella's grandmother.

Ingredients:

4,5 dl flour
3 dl sugar
1,5 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground cloves
1 dl melted margarine
3 dl buttermilk

Preparation:

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celcius. Melt the margarine in a bowl above a pan with hot water. Mix the dry ingredients. Add the melted margarine to the dry ingredient. Stir with a wooden spoon and 'chop' the lumps into smaller pieces. Add the buttermilk. Stir well. Grease a cake tin and pour the mixture into the cake tin. Bake it in the oven for circa 30-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. 


That's it! It's simple and delicious.

Enjoy!

Miss My's Blueberry Cake

In our freezer were some blueberries which we picked last autumn and I decided to make a Blueberry Cake. I made it using the following recipe:

Ingredients

200 grams of butter
2,5 dl of sugar
A pinch of salt
4 eggs
1 dl of crème fraîche
4,5 dl of flour
2 tsp of vanilla sugar
1 tsp of baking powder
2,5 dl of blueberries

Preparation

Preheat the oven to 175 degrees Celsius.

Melt the butter 'au bain-marie'. Whisk the eggs and sugar until foamy. Add the melted butter to the egg/sugar mixture. Mix the dry ingredients in a separate bowl and add the dry ingredients and the crème fraîche to the butter/egg/sugar mixture. Carefully fold the blueberries into the batter.

Pour the mixture into a buttered oven dish and let it bake in the oven for about an hour. Every now and then you can check with a toothpick or skewer whether the cake is cooked through.

I served it with some vanilla ice cream and flaked almonds.


Enjoy!