Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Swedish coffee cake aka kärleksmums

Kärleksmums / Love yummies / Swedish coffee cake / Rootsi kohvikook

I was translating some Swedish recipes the other day, when I came across the word 'långpanna'. I knew it was an oven sheet, but wasn't sure about the size of it. A quick internet search revealed that it's the deep-sided oven sheet, about 30x35 cm in size, that's used for baking kärleksmums. Although I know about quite a few Swedish cakes and pastries, I hadn't heard about these 'love yummies', but was intrigued. They are described as a slightly lighter alternative to regular brownies and are apparently sold pretty much in every café in dear old Sverige. This must be indeed the cake - a friend of mine - Airi - who lived in Sweden for quite a few years during her 20s, instantly recognised the cake at a party last weekend, where I brought it along.

Our little family loved it - not too chocolatey or rich, but still with a good amount of cocoa and very satisfying.

Both Anne and Dagmar have blogged about that particular cake as well, good Swedish foodbloggers as they are ;)

Kärleksmums
(Kärleksmums ehk kohviglasuuriga kakaokook)
Makes about 30 squares

150 g butter, melted
3 large eggs
250 g caster sugar
150 ml milk
240 g plain flour/all-purpose flour
2 Tbsp Dutch-processed cocoa powder
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp vanilla sugar

Coffee-chocolate glaze:
75 g butter
2 Tbsp strong coffee
1 Tbsp cocoa powder
2 tsp vanilla sugar
about 200 g icing sugar/confectioner's sugar

desiccated/shredded coconut, to decorate

Preheat the oven to 200 C/400 F.
Whisk eggs and sugar until thick and pale. Fold in the melted butter (cooled!) and milk.
Combine the dry ingredients, then fold quickly and gently into the wet ingredients.
Spoon the batter onto a lined cookie sheet (abut 30x35 cm).
Bake in a preheated 20 C oven for about 15-20 minutes, until the cake feels springy when touched with a finger. Take out of the oven and let cool.
For the glaze, melt the butter over a low heat, stir in the rest of the ingredients. Spread the glaze over the cooled cake base.
Sprinkle with plenty of shredded coconut.

Cut in to squares before serving.

7 comments:

Roxy said...

I'll have to make this now!

Zoozi said...

Näeb väga isuäratav välja. Võtame plaani :)

Totempole said...

Hi! This is the first recipe I'm trying out for your blog. I go to school in New York, but studied in Tallinn two summers ago and actually have a fair bit of Kama at hand. Do you think that could be an worthwhile substitution for normal flour? I'm considering using it because it's a lighter cake, and I think that a bit of a nuttier flavor might be interesting--

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!

Shaun said...

Pille ~ Long time, no see! I hope you and your family are doing well. This recipe reminds me of what we called "American Crunch", which my mother baked often. In the base, though, were cornflakes. I will have to hunt around for the old recipe to see how it compares. These are great looking brownies.

Alanna Kellogg said...

So funny! I have a cake just like this and have taken it the last couple of years to an outdoor party where one of the guests is from Sweden - and she always says, "My mum makes this cake!" Now I know what it is!

Pille said...

Roxy - what did you think?

Zoozi - hea ja lihtne, mis veel tahta ;)

Totempole - my response is way delayed, apologies. But I don't think kama would work in this cake - you want the base to be quite light and fluffy, and kama's gluten amount won't help you to achieve that. I suspect you'd end up with a much denser cake. However - you won't know until you try :)

Shaun - that "American crunch" sounds intriguing, Shaun!!

Alanna - yep, you've been making Love Yummies all those years ;)

Tara said...

This was wonderful! The coffee chocolate frosting was absolutely delicious! I could (and may have a little) eat it straight from the bowl.