I rarely go to Ikea but when I do, I mostly linger in the housewares and grocery sections. The last time I was there I bought a jar of cloudberry jam on impulse. I had never heard of cloudberries before, but I happened to be at the store with a friend of Scandinavian descent who explained that cloudberries are prized in Sweden (which is not all that surprising, of course, given that we were at Ikea).
The jar of jam had been sitting in the cupboard just waiting for the right baking project. I wasn't expecting to find a recipe calling for cloudberry jam specifically, but I happened to find one in ScandiKitchen: Fika and Hygge by Brontë Aurell. The cookbook includes a recipe for a "Cloudberry and White Chocolate Cake" that uses cloudberry jam. The recipe is intended to be baked in a 6-inch Bundt pan, so I figured I would just double it and bake it in a 12-cup Bundt pan; I had enough jam for a double batch with a little to spare.
To make the batter, I creamed together sugar and softened butter; added eggs; incorporated the dry ingredients (flour, salt, and baking soda); and folded in chopped white chocolate (I used Valrhona Ivoire), cloudberry jam, buttermilk, lemon juice, and vanilla. I thought it was odd that this recipe includes buttermilk and lemon juice but no neutralizing agent, so I added a half teaspoon of baking soda in with the dry ingredients.
I started transferring the batter into a greased Bundt pan and quickly
realized that I had too much batter. I buttered a
small loaf pan and used that to contain some of the overflow, but my Bundt pan was
still about three-quarters full. In retrospect, I wish I had baked a
second small loaf to reduce the amount of batter in the Bundt pan even further. The small loaf was done baking after 30 minutes but it took about an
hour for the Bundt cake to finish baking, and I had to tent it with foil
halfway through baking to prevent it from becoming too dark.
I decided to take the Bundt cake to the office and keep the small loaf for me and Tom. The loaf had a rather blah looking tan-colored interior, but a very fine, light texture. It was delicious. The cloudberry jam had large seeds in it (like raspberry seeds, but much larger and with a distinctive crunch) and I loved the texture they added to the cake. The white chocolate provided a nice richness and a creamy flavor that didn't obscure the jam. And as for the cloudberry jam, it's difficult to describe the flavor. It was tart and fruity, but not berry-like. I thought the unusual flavor was terrific.
When I unmolded the Bundt cake there were a few spots on top where the crust remained stuck to the pan; it appeared that these were all spots where cloudberry seeds were on the crust. When I sliced into the Bundt, I was hugely disappointed. The texture of the Bundt cake wasn't at all like the texture of the small loaf. The Bundt had a borderline rubbery texture and an uneven structure pocked with small holes. The cake might have been slightly overbaked, but I also suspect that part of the problem was the fact that there was so much batter in the pan -- which is why I regret not taking more batter out of the Bundt pan to bake a second loaf. Despite the suboptimal texture, the Bundt cake still tasted good -- but it was definitely not as impressive as the delicate loaf.
I really liked this cake and my tasters enjoyed it as well. It was a lovely introduction to cloudberries and the next time I'm at Ikea you can be sure that I'm going to pick up some more cloudberry jam!
Recipe: "Cloudberry and White Chocolate Cake (Hjortronkaka med vit chocklad)" from ScandiKitchen: Fika and Hygge by Brontë Aurell.
The jar of jam had been sitting in the cupboard just waiting for the right baking project. I wasn't expecting to find a recipe calling for cloudberry jam specifically, but I happened to find one in ScandiKitchen: Fika and Hygge by Brontë Aurell. The cookbook includes a recipe for a "Cloudberry and White Chocolate Cake" that uses cloudberry jam. The recipe is intended to be baked in a 6-inch Bundt pan, so I figured I would just double it and bake it in a 12-cup Bundt pan; I had enough jam for a double batch with a little to spare.
To make the batter, I creamed together sugar and softened butter; added eggs; incorporated the dry ingredients (flour, salt, and baking soda); and folded in chopped white chocolate (I used Valrhona Ivoire), cloudberry jam, buttermilk, lemon juice, and vanilla. I thought it was odd that this recipe includes buttermilk and lemon juice but no neutralizing agent, so I added a half teaspoon of baking soda in with the dry ingredients.
I decided to take the Bundt cake to the office and keep the small loaf for me and Tom. The loaf had a rather blah looking tan-colored interior, but a very fine, light texture. It was delicious. The cloudberry jam had large seeds in it (like raspberry seeds, but much larger and with a distinctive crunch) and I loved the texture they added to the cake. The white chocolate provided a nice richness and a creamy flavor that didn't obscure the jam. And as for the cloudberry jam, it's difficult to describe the flavor. It was tart and fruity, but not berry-like. I thought the unusual flavor was terrific.
When I unmolded the Bundt cake there were a few spots on top where the crust remained stuck to the pan; it appeared that these were all spots where cloudberry seeds were on the crust. When I sliced into the Bundt, I was hugely disappointed. The texture of the Bundt cake wasn't at all like the texture of the small loaf. The Bundt had a borderline rubbery texture and an uneven structure pocked with small holes. The cake might have been slightly overbaked, but I also suspect that part of the problem was the fact that there was so much batter in the pan -- which is why I regret not taking more batter out of the Bundt pan to bake a second loaf. Despite the suboptimal texture, the Bundt cake still tasted good -- but it was definitely not as impressive as the delicate loaf.
I really liked this cake and my tasters enjoyed it as well. It was a lovely introduction to cloudberries and the next time I'm at Ikea you can be sure that I'm going to pick up some more cloudberry jam!
Recipe: "Cloudberry and White Chocolate Cake (Hjortronkaka med vit chocklad)" from ScandiKitchen: Fika and Hygge by Brontë Aurell.
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