Swedish Sugar Cake with Lingonberries

On Tuesday my dog club had its annual meeting and elections. Since I’m a current club officer and I’m up for re-election I kinda had to attend the meeting. On Monday the club’s president gave me a call to: 1) Make sure I was attending. 2) Ask me if I had any ideas on what organizations the club should donate towards hurricane Katrina animal rescue efforts and what we should donate. 3) Hit me up for some cake.

Well I told her I was planning on attending, but I was going to be a little late to the board meeting before the main meeting. I had to get four children fed and ready to go to Nate’s soccer practice. She said that was fine and if anything came up that would interest me in the meeting she would hold it up until I arrived.

Then I told her I had some definite ideas of what our club should do for the Katrina rescue efforts. At this point I think it would be best for us to send money. That way they can buy the supplies that are needed and the money would be spent in the affected area and in a (very) small way help the local economy. For the organizations themselves I recommended Noah’s Wish and EARS.

Then there was the cake. She didn’t actually come out and ask for a cake, but I got the hint. She was going on how this was the annual meeting and wouldn’t it be nice if we had more than just a bag of chips for refreshments. I didn’t say anything. Then she went on how people were bringing this and that and maybe I could bring something. Since I have a well deserved reputation in the club for cakes I knew what she wanted. At that point I said I could bring some sort of cake. As I stood there on the phone I thought about what I could make. Then it hit me, I could make a Swedish Sugar cake with Lingon Berries. I had finally tracked down some Lingonberries a few weeks ago at a gourmet store a half hour’s drive from me. I told her I had just the cake.

So today’s treat is Swedish Sugar cake with Lingonberries

I got this recipe from Pascale (a German Swiss postdoc’s wife) in the lab I worked in when Larry and I lived in Wisconsin. I do have to warn y’all that the recipe uses metric units, but it’s not too hard to find metric measuring cups. Pascale noted that 2 dl is about 7 oz.

2 eggs
2 dl sugar
3 dl flour
2 tsp baking powder
¾ tsp cardamom*
1 tsp cinnamon
100 g butter**
1 dl milk
1dl lingonberries***

Prepare a nine inch cake pan. Grease with butter and then flour the pan.

In a large bowl blend the eggs with the sugar. Melt the butter and mix it with the milk in a small bowl. Mix the lingonberries in with the butter mixture. Then add the butter mixture to the eggs and sugar. Mix in the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and cardamom. Pour the batter in the prepared cake pan and bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes.

*The original recipe only called for ½ tsp of cardamom. I liked its flavor so much that I bumped it up to ¾ tsp. I do have to warn you that this spice is expensive, but it lasts a long time.

**A stick of butter is 113 g in the US. I just cut off about a tsp and use that to grease the pan. A little extra butter won’t hurt the cake.

***I have always used a jar of Lingonberry preserves when I make this cake. I never measure it out; I just dump the whole jar in. The lingonberry link has a fairly good price.

The resultant cake is very fragrant and delicious. I like to decorate the top with powdered sugar to give it a more finished appearance. The cake can be served warm or cold. It is not a sweet cake and is always a big hit. It is a nice cake to bake because the whole process takes a little less than an hour. Sadly I did not take a picture of the finished product as I was in a bit of a rush. Next time I make one I’ll take a picture.