Tastes Great, Less Punsch

« Runebergin torttu / Runeberg cake - A butter cake topped with raspberry jam and icing named for the Finnish National poet who is remembered each year on the 5th of February. »

Would you bake 15 batches of Runeberg cakes to find one that made a moist, tasty cake? No, you probably wouldn't as you're probably not a frustrated chemist who finds soaking a dry cake in a sweet liqueur to moisten it to be a lame solution to a bad recipe. Food should not be an alcohol transport vector. :) I figured that Cook's Illustrated's test kitchen wasn't going to be deconstructing the Runeberg cake anytime in the near future so I took that as a good excuse to try doing it myself.

Vaasan & Vaasan, the largest producer of baked goods in Finland and the Baltics, issued an interesting press release about Runeberg cakes and their sales statistics (in Finnish) last year on the 200th anniversary of Runeberg's Day which notes that, between New Year's and the 5th of February, over 1.4 million cakes are consumed each year and that number is growing by 5-10% each year. They also note that the "right" recipe is not in anyone's possession, but after having tried a number of recipes myself that I found in Finnish cookbooks and from a few web sites there certainly could be better recipes. The most interesting tidbit was about how the cakes came to be moistened with liqueurs. At some point in 1970s Turku, bakers began moistening the cake and the success of the moistened cakes brought an end to the dry, unmoistened cakes. Even today, there are disagreements about what is the proper moistening solution as Fazer uses rum, Vaasan & Vaasan uses cognac and others use a Swedish specialty known as 'arrakkipunssi' or Swedish Punsch. So, at last we know the where and the when of the addition of the sweet liquors to the cake.

« A 1963 Runeberg cake serigraph by Pertti Pohjola for HOK »

Where to begin the story of my two week odyssey in search of the golden moist ratio of butter, eggs, sugar and flour? Last year, I tried making the classic recipe from Kotiruoka with somewhat disappointing results as they were dry and weren't very attractive. I resolved to make a better cake this year and, after 15 different recipes and lots of research, I think I have achieved that goal. Although, I think Jarkko and my colleagues are a bit sick of eating them by now. :)

« My kitchen helper last year and this year (roll mouse over pic) while making Runeberg cakes. »

I started with the premise that, at heart, the Runeberg cake is basically a pound/bundt cake which is not a dry cake even though the amount of butter in the batter is about the same as the Runeberg cake. Looking through about 100 recipes for various butter, bundt and pound cakes, I settled on three things that might be immediately useful; lowering the temperature from 200C/395F to 175C/350F to keep the cakes from crowning, moving the baking rack from the middle of the oven to the lower third and emulsifying the egg with the creamed sugar and butter to give the cake a better texture and crumb. I also wanted to keep as close to the Kotiruoka recipe as possible since it remains one of the best recipes available and it is a good cake if only a bit too dry.

In the first few recipe variations I used almond paste creamed with the butter instead of ground or chopped almonds and about 1/3 of the flour. The resulting butter almond cake was excellent, but it had too much almond and was far too dense for it to be a Runeberg cake. Ground and chopped almonds were also tried with the chopped almonds winning for both flavour and texture. I increased the butter to 225g/1/2lb, added one more egg and tried various different flours. I even tried a spelt Runeberg cake [picture] that, while tasty, remained dry and had the wrong texture. Finally, I settled on regular, all-purpose flour, bread crumbs and ginger cookie crumbs. Most, if not all, of the commercial brands do not use bread or cookie crumbs in their cakes, but their primary goal is to make a cake that remains fresh for a week or more and so have less latitude in what they can use in their products. Brown sugar was added as well for its hygroscopic and browning properties.

There was one ingredient that was missing and is present in several of the commercially produced cakes that I suspect is the defining taste and aroma of what most people associate with the Runeberg cakes; bitter almond oil. Jarkko pointed out this missing and rather elusive ingredient. I say elusive since I went to four large groceries in downtown, none of which carried it. Stockmann didn't even have it and the clerk there told me that I would find it at my favourite baking ingredient supermarket, the aptekki. It was -30C with a brisk wind, but I hauled my arse down the street to the aptekki only to have the woman in the white coat inform me that it is illegal to sell it since it is a carcinogen. I left annoyed and confused since, although the bitter almond benzaldehyde is toxic in large doses, it is harmless in the amounts we use in baking, not to mention that most of the Runebergin torttu sold in Finland contain this aromatic compound. Jarkko finally located a bottle of it in a supermarket near his office. I am frequently amazed not only by the dearth of decent cooking shops with a reasonable selection of goods in Helsinki (In Rovaniemi, I found a shop in downtown that had a huge selection of stuff that put both of the tiny cook's shops in Helsinki to shame.), but also the difficulty I often have in finding seasonal and traditional ingredients and tools during the season that they are, well, traditionally used. It leaves me with the impression that either nobody bakes anymore or that the shops in downtown just suck.

Finally, I began to notice that the Runeberg forms weren't baking the cakes as well as I had expected them to so I decided to try a few baba forms which were about the same size only with a closed bottom and slightly tapered sides. The difference was like night and day as the cakes in the baba forms baked faster and browned nicely on the outside as they should. I tried to blame the problem on my oven, but no matter where I put the forms in the oven in various combinations, the baba forms consistently performed much better than the Runeberg forms I bought from Stockmann last year. I even tried baking them in a muffin tin with better results than the round forms. What's the difference? The baba forms are a heavier non-stick aluminum with a bottom and the Runeberg form is a lighter sort of aluminum without a bottom. I don't know who manufactures the forms, but since this is a small country maybe someone who knows someone who knows someone will read this and see if they can try altering the material and putting a bottom on them for better baking results. In the interim, Fantes sells a 2"x2" round cake form that is made of the same material as the baba forms. Unfortunately, they only ship within the US. The right pan can make all the difference. You could also pour the batter into a tube pan to make a lovely cake and serve it with an orange glaze and fresh raspberries any time of the year.

It's important, although not disastrous if you don't, to have the butter, eggs and orange juice at room temperature or roughly 21C/70F. Set them out on the kitchen counter for an hour or two before you plan on baking. Having them all at the same temperature will make the butter light, fluffy and airy which is what makes for a beautiful texture and crumb. If you don't have an oven thermometer, it would be a sound investment for less than 5 euro as ovens often have temperature variation. My oven had to be turned up to almost 200C to have a consistent 175C temperature in the lower third of the oven. Consistent portions and temperature result in even baking every time. Also, after trying numerous kinds of raspberry marmalade (just a really thick jam, no citrus) and jelly, the best one for the job is Ekströms vadelmahillo which comes in a squeeze bottle and has the perfect consistency. I had used a melon ball scoop with the marmalade and it worked well, but the squeeze bottle made quick work of dispensing the jam in perfect blobs on top of the cakes. Once you have a fresh, warm, moist Runeberg cake, you'll never have the same feelings for the Fazer Runeberg cakes again. :)

Paras Runebergin torttu / The Best Runeberg Cakes

Makes: about 18 cakes
Time: prep 25-30 minutes + baking
Special equipment: a 2x2-inch cake form, Runeberg form, baba form or muffin tin
Source: HFB, Ltd. test kitchen

• 3 eggs, room temperature
• 225g or 2 sticks butter, room temperature
• 1,2 dl or 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 2,25 dl or 1 cup brown sugar, packed
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/8-1/4 teaspoon bitter almond oil
• 1 teaspoon orange zest
• 1 teaspoon finely ground cardamom **optional
• 4,75 dl or 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1,2 dl or 1/2 cup finely crushed piparkakut or crisp ginger snaps
• 1,2 dl or 1/2 cup plain fine bread crumbs
• 1,2 dl or 1/2 cup unsweetened 100% orange juice, room temperature
• 1-2 dl or 1/2-1 cup chopped or ground almonds

topping:

• raspberry jam or marmalade
• a dash or two of orange juice (if marmalade is too thick)

icing:

• 2 dl or 1 cup confectioners' sugar
• about 1/2-1 tablespoon milk or light syrup

Position baking rack to lower third of the oven and preheat to 175C/350F.

Lightly butter the sides of the runeberg cake forms and place on baking sheet covered with baking paper.

Break the eggs into a medium-sized measuring cup with a pour spout and whisk with a fork until the yolks and whites are combined. Set the cup in a bowl of warm (not hot) water to bring them up to room temperature. Zest and juice one large or two small oranges.

Place sugars and butter into a bowl and cream together until light and fluffy, about 4-5 minutes. Add in baking powder, baking soda, salt, bitter almond oil and zest. Stop the mixer and scrape the bowl down.

With the mixer on a medium speed, pour the eggs into the butter mixture very, very slowly, about 1 tablespoon at a time, allowing the egg to be incorporated fully before adding more. If the butter appears watery at any point, increase you mixer's speed a notch and beat until it is smooth and fluffy again, and only then decrease the mixer's speed and resume adding the egg mixture. Continue until the eggs have been fully incorporated and beat for another 2-3 minutes until light and fluffy. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.

Measure flour, crushed piparkakut and breadcrumbs and mix together in a bowl and add 1/3 of the flour mixture over the dough mix until incorporated. Repeat until all the flour is mixed into the dough and it looks smooth. Slowly pour in orange juice until well blended. Add ground almonds and mix well.

Spoon 3-4 tablespoons of dough into the bottom of each runeberg cake form taking care not to get the dough down the sides of the form as you drop it in. Even the dough out on the bottom of the form, smooth the top and, if necessary, scrape dough caught down the side of the form with a small spoon.

Bake for 15-20 minutes or until the top of the cakes are golden brown.

Place baking sheet on a rack to cool for about 15-20 minutes and check to see if the cakes have pulled away from the sides of the forms. Run a small, thin knife or spatula around the edge of the form if any of the cakes have stuck to the sides in places to release them. Allow them to cool for a bit longer, remove from the forms and place on a rack to cool completely before decorating.

When cool, pipe, squirt or spoon a dollop of raspberry jam onto the top of the cake and pipe a ring of stiff confectioners' sugar icing around the jam. If you dare, soak in cognac, rum or 'arrakkipunssi', a sweet Swedish concoction.