kareina

- woke 05:00, did 30 min Pilates, went back to sleep till 08:00

- got up, made a sign from the almond paste with letters of chocolate sprinkels, saying "The 300g Anvil" to add to the base of the cake for tonight's contest.

- breakfast, pack lunch, get text message saying that I can start at 11:00 (same time as Keldor) today, the 10:00 start was when they thought I would be working in the long house, but now that I am down the hill by the forge, 11:00 is better, as most visitors take time to wander that far from the entrance.

- first "full day" Stone carving this year. A regular stream of visitors to chat with meant frequent breaks, of course. One the the most common questions I get is how long does it take to make such a pot. I reply that it os tough to estimate, as my job is both stone carving and talking to visitors, but I have worked on it at least three different weeks. Perhaps someone focusing on the carving could finish one on a week?

- Keldor was a little stressed today, as he thought he had brought his phone with him, but didn't have it when we arrived. He tried going home to check, but the house door was locked, and without the phone he couldn't send a message to learn the code for the key box. So he just returned to the museum and got the smithy set up and functioning and started working.

- As our shift ended I was seriously looking forward to the cake contest night, and he was thinking that if he doesn't find his phone he will want to just stay home and feel sorry for himself. Luckily, he had, in fact, simply left the phone on the bed when we went to work, so he happily relaxed with the phone for a half an hour before we went to the Longhouse for the gathering.

- Wow, were there some amazing cakes!

our cake wasn't a pound cake (1 lb each of butter, sugar, eggs, and flour), but rather used 300 grams of each, so I called it a 300 g Anvil. In between the layers is raspberry jam, the coating is almond paste, and the sides of the tree stump are chocolate sprinkles.

This one, the Secrets of Borg (where the museum is located) is an interpretation of a burial mound, with a chocolate cake layer for the ground, and a really yummy spinach cake layer for the vegetation layer, as well as some archaeological remains.

viking baking

This one, Everyone was Viking Baking, had a theme song (written to the tune of everyone was Kung-Fu Fighting--that song is not arranged the way it used to be when I was little, so I gather they filked a more recent re-make than the version I know)

This one, The Lamb Soup, is a beautiful re-interpretation of the lamb soup, bread, and thick cream that is served in the long house every day for lunch. It really looks pretty much like this, only not made of candy.

This one, Tiramisuggdrasill, is not only a lovely representation of Uggdrasil as a tiramisu, but also has the (not edible) Midgard Serpent, and was accompanied by a reading from the sagas, with music on the lyre, and "translations" of all of the allegories into prose.

There were many more cakes, but this highlight will do.

- woke up just after 08:00, but didn't manage to roll out of bed till almost 09:30

- still did my 30 minutes pilates workout before eating breakfast, packing lunch, changing to Viking clothes etc.

- arrived at the museum just before our shift started at 12:00. Checked the long house, my soapstone pot in progress was still there. Checked the barn, the pallet we had prepared yesterday to be delivered down the hill to our work station was still there.

- walked down the hill, no sign of anyone who might know anything.

- Keldor walked back up the hill to fetch his axe and a few useful items

- while he was gone I ate my pastie. Then one of the guys working for drift drove by, so I chatted with him. He suggested I just call Elisabeth, so I did.

- a bit later she sent a message saying that stuff was on the way.

- Keldor returned just before the pallet of stuff arrived, so we unloaded it, put the pallet in the little viking storage tent we put up yesterday, then put the boxes of metal bits for forging, and the bags of charcoal inside on the pallet, to keep everything dry if it rains. We put the benches and my box of tools in my work area, and hid my sandals and our lunch bags inside. (I changed into my viking shoes after we arrived. I know they will eventually wear holes in the soles, but I would like to put that day off as long as possible, so I use my Birkenstocks for the 1 km walk down the hill)

- then we checked that it would be ok, and got out the tent that they discovered had gotten moldy and opened it up to make a large, oddly shaped, flat roof over the stack of syones that is the forge.

- to do that he used his axe to cut poles with a forked ends. They worked very well.

- the anvil delivery happened directly after the pallet, and they said they would be back with the bellows and my soapstone. They were. At 16:30.

- the time between finishing the roof and getting that delivery went slowly. The time after went much faster, as I was both working on my stone carving and occasionally lending a hand as he worked on getting the bellows set up.

- when I started making this pot, I added a bit of a rim around the edge to make it easier to hold and lift. However the museum bought a handle for the pot, so it can be suspended over a fire. In order to rivit that to the pot I have to take away that rim and make the top of the pot flat. Luckily, I hadn't finished the inside, so I have enough stone available to do this.

- our shift ended at 19:00, and we walked back up the hill to where we had parked the car, then stopped by the store on the way home, where we picked up cat sand (which he will use to get the smithy working tomorrow), yoghurt so I cam make naan bread, and baking paper to roll out the almond paste we had coloured last night.

- after a short break we went to work on our cake for tomorrow, the *300-gram anvil.*

- the anvil is cut from layers of pound cake wirh raspberry maremlade between, and covered with a bluish grey almond paste. It sits on a tree stump, also made from layers of pound cake and raspberry marmlade, but covered with brown almond paste, and with bark made from chocolate sprinkles. We also lay bits of green almond paste around the base of the tree stump.

- now it sits in the fridge and waits for tomorrow evening's cake decorating contest. The name? Because my pound cake calls for 1 pound each of butter, sugar eggs, and flour, but i chose to use 300 grams of everything, as that is an even 5 eggs.

Back in April I posted the recipe for my adaptation of a Vintage coffee cake. Last week I needed to bake something gluten-free for our Friday band session, and I decided to see how that cake would turn out without using wheat flour. The answer is Yummy! I tried a slice soon after it came out of the oven, since I knew I wouldn't still be hungry when we took a break from playing for tea and cake. My reaction after taking the first bite was "I hope they don't like it, then there will be plenty left over for me to eat tomorrow..."

Gluten Free Vintage Coffee Cake

For the topping mix together:
2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon ground flax seeds
1/2 cup oats
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1 heaping teaspoon cardamom
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
plus the parts of the freshly ground almonds and walnuts (see below) that don't go through the flour sifter. Press the topping into the bottom of a large springform pan (mine is non-stick, so I didn't grease it).

Sift together:
1 cup freshly ground almonds
1/2 cup freshly ground walnuts
1.25 cups oat flour
3/4 cup rice flour
1/2 cup cornstarch
3.5 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt

Cream together:
3/4 cup sugar
150 grams butter (~2/3 cup)

Beat in:
2 eggs

Stir in, a little at a time:
the flour mixture
2 heaping tablespoons of thick Turkish yoghurt
~3/4 cup of milk (put the yogurt into a one cup measure and add milk till it is full)

Pour the batter over the topping in the large springform pan and bake at 150 C (~300) for 35 minutes or until done.

Note that when I say "freshly ground", I actually mean grated, since we have a lovely hand-crank grater with fine holes that I like to use for nuts, but if you don't have one just tossing the nuts into a food processor or food grinder (or pay the extra to buy them pre-ground from the store would work, too).

As it turned out, everyone who tried it seemed to like, but they still left enough for me so that I have been happily having a small slice each day since. It is particularly nice crumbled and sprinkled onto my favourite snack, which is how I just ate some, and was reminded that I hadn't typed it up yet.

I mentioned two weeks ago that I had tried a coffee cake recipe I found on line, and found it good, but thought I could make it better "if..."

Today we had the nyckleharpa people over here to do music since their teacher is still on holiday, so I used it as an excuse to bake. I wound up making a double sized cake this time because we had some filmjölk that needed using up, and there was twice as much as was needed for a single cake. However, even though I doubled the other ingredients I opted NOT to double the sugar, but increased it by a smaller amount. If any of you wish to try this recipe but live in a country where they don't have fil you can substitute a thin yoghurt or cultured buttermilk, or just use ordinary milk (like the original recipe did).

Vintage Coffee Cake, version 2

Cake:

4 cups flour
3/4 cups sugar (~185 ml)
3.5 teaspoon baking powder
dash salt
150 g butter
2 eggs
1 1/2 c fil

Topping:
1/2 cups oats
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1 to 2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon brown sugar
cinnamon
cardamon

Mix the topping ingredients and sprinkle on the bottom of a buttered cake pan. (I used a large spring-form pan with a central tube, so the cake winds up ring-shaped.)

Mix the dry cake ingredients and then cut in the butter like for a pie crust. Add the fil and stir to make a thick batter. Spread batter over the topping and bake till done. I think I baked it at 175 C, but with the oven fan on. If you oven doesn't have one 200 C might be better. Invert onto a serving plate so that topping is up.

Next time I make one I will try adding applesauce to the topping...

Cake contest

Lofoten day two

gluten free vintage coffee cake

version two of the cake was, indeed, better, but now I want to try version three

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January 2026

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