Runeberg's torte

Finnish: Runebergintorttu, Swedish: Runebergstårta

Today The VegHog is baking, which is quite a rare occasion but now there's a reason for it! It's making a seasonal cake: Runeberg's torte. Runeberg's torte is a Finnish cake named after the national poet of Finland Johan Ludvig Runeberg (1804-1877). According to legend his wife Fredrika Runeberg created this torte out of limited stock in her kitchen and from then on J. L. ate it every day for breakfast.

Every year around the time of Runeberg's birthday, 5th February, many Finns bake or buy these cakes in order to enjoy them with loads of coffee. As this day is soon upon us The VegHog bakes these cakes with its own variated non-alcoholic recipe. I made them for the first time ever a year ago and my goal is to improve my version now. Maybe it can get better each year as these are surprisingly easy and fun to make. By googling you can find the traditional recipe even in English if you prefer.

Ingredients to make 10 cakes

For the dough:

100 g Margarine

1 dl Sugar

1 Egg

1 dl Wheatflour

1 dl Breadcrumbs

½ dl Ground almonds

1 tsp Baking powder

For the topping:

Raspberry jam

For the icing:

1 tbsp Lemon juice

2-3 dl Icing sugar

And this is how it's done

Whisk the margarine and the sugar into a foamlike texture. Add the egg while whisking further.

Mix the dry ingredients for the dough with each other. Add them to the margarine, sugar and egg mixture and stir it all into an even paste.

I'm using my silicone baking tray for these but you can also put the dough into muffin cases. Divide the dough into the cases and fill them approximately halfway.

Bake in the oven at about 200C for 10-15 minutes. Let them cool down after baking.

Almost done now...

While the cakes are cooling down make the icing by mixing the icing sugar and lemon juice into a firm paste. 

Place the raspberry jam on the top in the middle of the cakes. You can even press it a little bit deeper into the cake. Squirt the icing mixture with an icing gun onto the cakes in a thin circle around the jam. 

And you're done, they're best served with good fairtrade coffee.

They should be slightly higher. Check out the pictures online what they're supposed to look like.

I would be excited to hear any non-Finns' opinions about these cakes in case somebody tries making them.

Happy Runeberg's day on Tuesday and stay hungry!

Your VegHog