Gluten-free red currant - white chocolate cake

The perfect cake for autumn! This is such a fresh cake - and super easy to make.

Red currant – white chocolate cake

BASE (Traditional Finnish oatmeal cookie recipe.)

Ingredients:

50 g vegetable shortening or butter

1 dl sugar

2 dl rolled oats (gluten-free)

1 tbsp of gluten-free flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 egg

Method:

Place the butter / shortening together with sugar in a pan. Heat the mixture until the butter melts. Add the rest of the ingredients and quickly mix them together.

Spread the mixture over a lined cake tin with loose edges. Bake for about 10-15 minutes at 200 degrees (Celsius) or until golden brown and set.

Note that the “cookie” is supposed to stay a bit chewy so do not overcook! Once baked, set aside to cool and continue with the white chocolate mixture.

CAKE

White chocolate filling:

200 g white chocolate

2 dl heavy cream

200 g quark (plain yoghurt is a good substitute)

0,5 dl sugar

4 gelatin leaves

1 tbsp boiling water

Red currant filling:

300 g red currants

1 dl sugar

2 dl heavy cream

200 grams of quark

5 gelatin leaves

First prepare the white chocolate filling.

Place the gelatin leaves in cold water.

Whip the cream. Add the sugar and qaurk.

Melt the white chocolate. (I always do the following: I boil water in a pan and place a steel bowl on top of it. Once boiling, I remove the pan from heat and only then place the white chocolate in the bowl. White chocolate liquefies already in about 40 degrees so you need to handle the chocolate gently to prevent it from turning grainy.)

Pour the melted chocolate into the cream-quark mixture. Mix well.

Dissolve the gelatin leaves into a small amount of boiling water and add to the mixture.

Pour the mousse into to cake tin and refrigerate for about 60 minutes. 

For the red currant filling, place the gelatin leaves in cold water. 

Bring the red currants and the sugar to boil in a pan. Sieve the berries and leave to cool.

While still somewhat warm, dissolve the gelatin leaves into the berries.

Whip the cream and mix with the quark and the cooled berries (should be about room temperature).

Pour the pink mousse over the white chocolate mousse and place back in the refrigerator. 

Let the cake set completely (at least 3 hours) before removing from the cake tin.

If you like, garnish the cake with whipped cream and/or red currants. Last time I made this, I did not use any garnish and I still think it looks great.

The cake is served here with white chocolate chip cookies. Recipe to follow!

New Orleans

I visited New Orleans for the first time in my life in the end of January this year. In other words, this entry has taken it´s time to get here, but as the city is absolutely marvellous and it has a great variety of gluten-free foods, I am writing this now anyway.

I don´t think I have ever been as mesmerized by a city as I was with New Orleans. I arrived late on a Saturday night and had to go to bed immediately as I had been travelling for over 24 hours at that point and had to get up at 7 am for a meeting... But just looking at the city and the architecture and all of the houses and the liveliness of it all - it really brought a smile to my face.

I stayed at the corner of Bourbon Street at Hotel Mazarin. I had a large room facing Bienville Street, literally 10 meters or so from Bourbon Street. So, it was loud - but so full of feeling and history. I really loved it. And wore ear plugs during the nights. :)

The nice thing about Hotel Mazarin was that it had a complimentary breakfast. Nothing major, but many gluten-free items; eggs cooked in many ways, bacon, fruit, yogurt and juices. I got my stomach full for sure!

I am a dessert person. No matter how full I am, there is always room for dessert. And sweets. And in New Orleans, you can just smell all the goodies onto the streets. Sugar, cream, chocolate... Candied apples in oh so many ways...

...dark chocolate cherries... (and white chocolate and milk chocolate)

...fudges...

...Mississippi Mud...

...Chocolate with nuts and marshmallows...

...and of course, pralines. A heavenly mixture of cream, sugar and maybe syrup, I would think. Mixed together with nuts, chocolate and the likes and cooked until the sugar granulates slightly. They are heavenly. And smell sooooo delicious!

I did not quite make Mardi Gras, but there were plenty of bead shops all around. many colours and lively people. Good stuff!

I hope to someday make a road trip from Florida to Texas (and then some) and really experience the Southern States. I think I´m going to love it!

The coolest merry-go-round ever. Super ecologic, too!

At the Las Dalias hippy-market at Ibiza.

Is this not the coolest (and by far the most ecologic) merry-go-round ever? It is run by one man cycling. And as you can see, the horses are made of recycled tyres. Super!

Ibiza is a great place for kids, and not a bad place for coeliacs either. I´ll get back to you soon with more info and photos!

Ikea Ryssby, a new limited edition collection for October 2014!

I would have so many great gluten-free stories to write, but those will have to wait for now as there´s NEWS FROM IKEA! ;)
(I will get back to the gluten-free tips soonest, promise!)


Ikea will launch another limited edition collection in October 2014. The series is called Ryssby and as it´s name suggests, it has it´s design roots in Russia.

Photos from IKEA.

I especially like the fabrics and the pillows. Also the candle holder looks nice and classic.

Not quite sure about the mirror. It seems the series will have furniture, too.

Dishes, too! These I like. The tea pot reminds me greatly of a Russian samovar my mom had. It is probably meant to create just that thought, but nonetheless - I cannot wait to serve mulled wine (glögi in Finnish) during Christmas from that. Something good to look forward to now that summer is saying goodbye to us Finns. :)

Love this chair!

Photos are press photos of IKEA, via http://blogg.skonahem.com/addsimplicity/2014/08/06/ikeas-nya-serie-ryssby/

The series will also include bedding and even a quilted bed spread from the looks of it. Quite nice, again! Ikea amazes me time after time. Last autumn the paper shop was such a refreshment to the Ikea range; last spring the Bråkig collection and now this. I like!

Gluten-free Stockholm, Stockholm with kids, shopping in Stockholm, design in Stockholm - FABULOUS STOCKHOLM

Stockholm is so close by that it is easy to forget how fabulous it is. 

Well, I just started this entry with a lie. No, you can not forget how good Stockholm is, the problem is I just do not visit it often enough!

This time I spent 3 fun-filled days there with my daughter. We went to Junibacken, Gröna Lund, shopping, eating, had ice cream, goodies, sushi, meatballs, pancakes, cotton candy, strawberries...

The owl in the book we saw in the Junibacken book store was overwhelmingly cool and cute. Shame the book was more for babies and toddlers than for pre-school-aged.

You gotta love the Swedes. Gluten-free meatballs AND pancakes. All for the regular price at the Junibcaken restaurant.

More gluten-free goodies. This time from Edelweiss cafe at the Gallerian shopping centre. Mandelhorna, or almond horn. And I actually got to choose what to eat! They served about 20 different cakes, cookies or pastries and around 6 (!) of them gluten-free. I chose this one and it was heavenly. 

I will bake these later and let you know!

More indulgences. A gluten-free whopper. Supposedly available at all Burger Kings in Sweden. Also, Maccie D and Max sell gluten-free burgers. 

Designtorget is all about the little things, such as these. I actually was looking for extra legs about a year ago and found none. And there they were, at Designtorget, ready to be picked. Just look at the shapes and the colours! 

I would like to get this HAY table, so I took a photo of the price tag. My daughter fell in love with the rug - and I understand her. I wanted to get one for her room a long time ago, but kinda just forgot about it. Maybe in the near future, then.

Finally, some photos from the Kungliga trädgården (is that correct?), or from the Royal garden. Love the flowers, so pretty.