Author Archives: Björg Farstad

Growing up in Norway Cake was always on the menu for various celebrations and occations. And not only one but lots of different cakes. My mother made cakes of all kinds and for all different purposes. A dessert that was very common during my childhood and teenage years was Jelly with vanilla sauce. It was a kids favorite and a modern dessert back than. My mother some times used to combine cake and jelly and made fancy cakes that way for special occations. So this cake is a Fruit and Chocolate Cake with Jelly! And with vanilla filling.

My mother used to make Marble Cake. I thought it was very impressive when I grew up, how she could make the pattern inside the cake. I cannot remember I have made this since I moved from Norway actually when I was young. So I wondered if it is still being made. As I searched for it I found it is made but referred to as “An Old Fashioned Formkake”. Formkake is a Norwegian term for a lot of coffee cakes that you bake in a pan and than cut in smaller pieces. So this is one out of many. Anyways the marble is what is special with this one. Last night I recreated my mothers Marmorkake.

Lefse is a traditional kind of flatbread made in Norway. It is used as coffeebread with different fillings. There are so many variations across the country and unique to regions and families. My mother had so many recipes and we used to bake Lefse of various kinds before Christmas. We would make so much it would last throughout the year. I was very little when starting to bake Lefse with my mother. This recipe from my mom is one of the easiest one´s to make, “Tjukklefse” (thick Lefse). It is filled with a spread of butter and icing sugar which is whisked fluffy . Lefse is eaten as a coffee cake.

This cake is one of the most delicious and festive cakes my mom taught me to bake. It is named after the Norwegian Queen Sonja. The name though of the cake and the recipe is from when she became the Crown Princess of Norway, so the recipe is from about around 1968. And I read it is her own recipe which is the origin for the cake. My mother though has put her own touch to it. And I have always made it the way my mom did, with the marzipan decorations and also the whipped piped cream.

The first cake I learnt to bake was the sponge cake. It is probably also the most useful cake I have learnt to bake since it can be used to make all kinds of cakes with various fillings and toppings and building blocks to all sizes of cakes. It is the cake inside the Marzipan Cake. I learnt to make this cake from my mother. I think I was not more than six years old when I started. And the most vivid memory I have is all the times I failed. I also remember the miraculous first time the cake did not sink down in the middle and never ever after. I had mastered the challenge of the sponge cake!