New Apartment and Birthday Cake

The past month has been insanely busy. Not only have we have moved apartments, had two baby showers and celebrated a few birthdays. We have also made our apartment into a home, requiring late night trips to IKEA and lots of shopping. I absolutely love our new apartment, it is beautiful, light and airy. The view from the living room is spectacular, I love sitting on the couch watching the sunset over the George Washington Bridge.

It was my mother's birthday recently. I pulled together a quick meal, the highlight being my first ever Blotkake or Norwegian birthday cake. I was amazed at the small amount of ingredients and ease of the recipe. The best part is how easily you can customize it to what's in season. My mothers instructions were so basic, that I ruined it the first go around and had to have her supervise the second round. I'll try and elaborate on her 2 sentence email so that you don't run into the same mistakes I did.

Ingredients:

• 3 Deciliters of sugar plus a few tablespoons
• 6 Eggs
• 3 Deciliters of Flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder
• Milk - a few tablespoons
•  1 quart of Heavy cream
• fruit of your choice: strawberries, bananas, raspberries
• Dark Chocolate - optional

Preheat the oven to 345º

Visp til eggedosis: Whisk the eggs and sugar until they reach the constancy of meringue. It will take about 10 minutes to get the to this stage. This is the most important step, it's what makes the cake light and airy. 

Slowly and carefully sift in the flour and baking powder. Do not over mix, it will deflate the egg mixture. 

Pour into a 9 inch greased spring form pan and bake for about 30 minutes. The middle should spring back when you touch it and the top should be golden brown.

Let the cake cool. If you are feeling brave cut the cake into three separate pieces or you can do just two.  I was feeling bold and managed to cut the cake into three perfect pieces. Sprinkle the cake pieces with a few tablespoons of milk and let it rest for a few hours or overnight. It's best to make this cake the day before so the milk has time to moisten the layers.

Whip the heavy cream with a few tablespoons of sugar and mash 1/3 of the berries (I used Strawberries), save the prettiest ones for the top. Start by spreading the mashed berries onto the cake, then add 1/4 of the whipped cream, a few sliced berries and some shaved chocolate. The different layers allow for texture.

Repeat with the next layer. Place the last layer on top.

 Use the last 1/2 of the whip cream to ice the entire outside. Decorate with pretty berries and chocolate.

My mother did the serving and thought I needed a massive piece of cake! She gave me the top piece and herself the bottom. 

This cake is even better the next day, the layers meld together and the cake becomes very moist. My family traditionally makes it with strawberries and bananas, although my favorite version is raspberries and chocolate but feel free to make any combination you like. My Great Uncle Kare makes his with pears and pineapple.