Swedish Lingonberry Cake Recipe

Remember my recipe for Canadian Apple Pie? Well, it's been one of my most popular recipes - and for a good reason, as it's incredibly tasty. BUT. None of my Canadian friends could recognise the cake, that is to say, they loved the cake, but couldn't confirm its Canadian origin.

I'm a bit afraid this Swedish Lingonberry Cake recipe is the same. You see, the recipe is from a Finnish women's weekly magazine, Me Naiset, where it was published in September 2005 and called "Ruotsalainen puolukkakakku" (that's "Swedish lingonberry cake"). But I've got no particular reason to believe it's Swedish, so I apologise beforehand to all my Swedish readers :)

As I'm off to a Stockholm day cruise next Monday, I thought it's appropriate to share the recipe with you. It's a bit drier than my usual forest berry cakes, but it's tasty. A bit crumbly, almost with a shortcake-like texture. With a strong cardamom flavour, it's festive and somewhat old-fashioned. And different. We liked it, and I hope you'll like it, too.

Oh, and the lingonberries were picked by K's mum. I've got enough for another 5 lingonberry cakes :)

Swedish lingonberry cake
(Rootsi pohlakook)
Serves 10-12

1 large egg
100 ml caster sugar
100 g butter, melted
350 ml plain flour
1.5 tsp baking powder
0.5 tsp freshly ground cardamom seeds

For the topping:
400 ml whole lingonberries
75 ml caster sugar

Whisk the egg with the sugar, then add the melted butter and dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, cardamom seeds). You'll get a moist and pretty hard dough. Press that into a buttered and/or lined cake tin (appr. 20-23 cm in diameter).
Scatter lingonberries on top and sprinkle with sugar.
Bake at 175 Centigrade for 45 minutes, until the cake is cooked through.

Serve at room temperature with some ice cream or custard or whipped cream.