Miss My Loves Lohja: Cafe Lauri's Christmas Opening 2013

We were told that just after Lohja's Christmas Street Parade our favourite Lohja coffee shop, Cafe Lauri, would have its own Christmas Opening with live music performed by students from Rytmiomena. Some students were young and some were old. Some performed traditional and well known songs and others had written their own songs. 

The owners of Cafe Lauri have organised this event every year since it opened its doors. Even though the Cafe was filled with people enjoying the live music one of the owners, Jukka, managed to have a quick word with us as we were keen on finding out what Cafe Lauri is offering during Christmas time. We got to enjoy Cafe Lauri's home made spiced berry drink (glögi) which is made by Cafe Lauri's other owner, Timo, according to a recipe by Timo's mother. They use their own berries for the drink. We were also offered home made Christmas Star pastries which was the best Christmas Star pastry I have ever had.

Jukka told us that most of their cakes, pastries and savoury things are made on the spot. They use organic and local ingredients as much as possible and I think you can really taste it. We asked Jukka whether they are offering any special Christmas creations before Christmas and he told us that you can get their delicious Christmas Star pastries as well as Christmas Swiss roll and that one Christmas favourite is their English Christmas cake. The Christmas cake gets its flavour from being marinated for several days.

We asked Jukka how he celebrates Christmas. He said he celebrates it with family and that they play music and sing. He said their Christmas is traditional with traditional Christmas foods but with added specialities such as macaroni-egg-casserole and strawberry pudding.

Cafe Lauri is regularly hosting events and performances and on Friday 29.11 at 19:00 the Eero Ojanen trio will perform. Tickets cost 10e and can be purchased in advance from Cafe Lauri.

Interesting fact: Cafe Lauri was awarded the title 'Lohja's Tourist Entreprise of the Year'!

For more information on Cafe Lauri go here:

http://www.cafelauri.fi/

All pictures belong to My Moon.

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!