The cake of the month project: Swedish Saffron Cake

It's very easy to get caught up in recipes and forget about experimenting new flavors, I recently came to the conclusion that am basically relying on the same recipes over and over again. To spice things up, I’ve decided to start a new project. Every month I will bake a traditional cake from a new country. Something which is unique and tasty. Something I don’t have every day, and most importantly, something I have never baked before.

This month’s cake will be from Sweden.

I have this fascination with Sweden that I can’t justify. Maybe it’s because everyone there is tall and blond, or because of IKEA, or because they are the most eco-conscious country in the world. I have secret plans to move to Sweden one day. But before I do that, here are the top ten things I have to do before:

1. Learn Swedish.
2. Loose some weight so I can blend in with the blond & slim population.
3. Dye my hair blond so I can blend in with the blond & slim population.
4. Increase my coffee consumption. Apparently, the Swedes drink a lot of coffee.
5. Know to exchange value of Euro.
6. Exchange my entire life savings to Euro. Does anyone know the equivalent of 100 Kuwaiti dinars to Euro? A small fortune maybe?
7. Be on time. The Swedes are punctual.
8. Start to like winter, especially long cold ones. If not, antidepressants were made for a reason.
9. Understand what a carbon foot print is & become more eco friendly: is it really this difficult to stop using disposable bags?
10. Get used to the fact shopping time ends at 5 pm. And stop complaining that the mall in Kuwait closes early at 10 pm.

Unfortunately, people who are not slim, blond, coffee drinkers, euro users, winter lovers, eco-concious, always late & shopaholics have little place to fit in the Swedish community. Therefore, all my plans to move to Sweden will be put on hold. Meanwhile am going to feed my never ending fascination with sweden with a cake like no other.

Saffron cake.

In Kuwait, saffron & cardamom is a popular cake. Although the Swedish & the Kuwaiti version both use saffron, the test is completely different. Kuwaiti version usually involves adding turmeric, pistachios, cardamom & sometimes rosewater. While the Swedish cake is saffron only. I think both cakes are a treat to taste buds. But hey who am I to judge? I like all cakes. So don't take my word, try this cake.

When making this cake, make sure to use real saffron. Not an artificial colored turmeric powder with synthetic flavor and a “E” additive on the label.

Saffron is the world’s most expensive spice by weight. Its usually sold in grams, luckily, a little goes long way. So you don’t need to spend your life savings to devour in a little saffron pleasure.

Honestly, I was little worried that I would not like the cake. But when I sampled it, I couldn’t stop, aside from its aromatic smell, it was light and moist and had just the right amount of sweetness with a it had pungent flavor & a honey like taste.

This cake is fairly easy to make. The hardest thing was whipping the eggs and sugar till they are frothy. But I found a little pink machine that does this well, it’s called Kitchen Aid & I treat it as one of my own children.

The rest is easy. Am sure you all know who to melt butter and fold flour. Although I was lazy to fold the flour and I used the whip attachment to fold the flour. Which probably explains the crack in the middle. 

 If you really liked the post enough to make the recipe, share your photo on Facebook page here.

Swedish Saffron Cake

Adapted from: delish.com who adopted it from Allt om Mat

{click here for printable recipe}

Ingredients
1 cup or (200g) butter, melted
½ tsp (0.5 g) of saffron
1 tsp sugar
2 eggs at room temperature
1 1/3 cups or 300g sugar
1 cup or 250ml milk
1 2/3 cups or 210g all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
Confection sugar for decoration
Whipped cream or strawberries, or raspberry jam.

Steps:

1. Preheat oven to 180°C /350 °F /Gas mark 4.
2. Butter and flour the sides and bottom of a 9” springform cake pan. Line the pan with parchment paper.
3. In the mortar, mix the saffron with 1 tsp of sugar until it’s a powder.
4. Using a stand mixer fitted with the whip attachment or a handheld electric mixer whisk, beat eggs & sugar until frothy about five minutes on high speed. The mixture should be very thick and mousse-like. Add the saffron and sugar powder.
5. In a separate bowl, combine the melted butter & the milk. With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the liquid ingredients to the egg and sugar mixture.
6. Using a rubber spatula, gently fold in the flour and baking powder into the bowl.
7. Pour into the prepared cake pan and bake for about 45 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. The cake should be golden brown, slightly shrunken back from the sides.
8. Leave to cool for 30 minutes on the wire rack. Release the sprinform clips, and leave to cool completely before removing from the bottom of the pan.
9. Powder with confection sugar before serving. Serve with whipped cream, or strawberries, or raspberry jam. 

See you next recipe...

Top 10 Food Trend of 2013 in Kuwait

Its no secret the world is changing every day. There is a new trend everyday. Food trends are no exception.
Just google food trends and you will find hundreds of articles about the new food trends of the world. Shockingly there is none about the food trends in Kuwait! Seriously? Come on! We live a country where food is celebrated & rejoiced. Where food is the buzz of all buzzes (to me at least). But rest assured am here to the rescue. I’ve compiled the below list of top ten food trends I see blooming for 2013.
Opinions expressed below are 100% mine. I don not claim that I have the know how of what is really going to happen. I just thought it would be fun & useful list. So I hope you enjoy the read.

The list is numbered according to what jumped to my mind first, not what is actually number one or ten.

1. South American cuisine.

Forget about Chinese, Japanese, Indian, Lebanese, Moroccan etc… South American food is the food to try. Recently, Missoni Hotel held a Brazilian Food festival to celebrate the opening of its new Brazilian restaurant, Luna. There are currently two Braizilian restaurants in Kuwait that I know of Luna – Hotel Missoni & Cuts – Movenpick Hotel
 

2. Say goodbye to Pinkberry queues.

These endless queue at frozen yogurt joints have finally came to an end. The cheesecake factory is the new IT place.. At its opening in the avenues, people stood in queues for hours just so they can dine in. Personally, I refuse to stand in a queue for food, unless say, we’re at war, the kids are starving & we desperately need some bread. Else, am passing on all kinds food queues. Even if a cheesecake is at the end of line (pun intended). 

3. Home based bakeries.

Not all of us have the willing or ability or patience to make our own desserts. Although there are many professional bakeries in Kuwait, currently many are swaying away from these and are ordering from home based small businesses.. Why I think these are a blooming business in 2013? Simply, people love homemade food. Kudos to all the ladies (and gents) running these home based bakery business. I have no idea how you do it.
IMHO, there should be some sort of a website or directory. This will help people find what they want instead of reyling solely on google searches / instagram / whatsapp ads. 

There is even a paleo home bakery. Why didn't I hear about this when I was on low carb diet?

 4. Diet foods.

This is a trend that won’t fade anytime soon. According to Arabtimes, Kuwait has ranked second in obesity (link here). The USA was number one. So statistically speaking, if you are planning to start a deit food business, Kuwait is the second largest niche of people who needs help dieting. If diet sounds appealing to you, you probably should not be reading this blog. But if you insist, you could read it and contact one of the many diet companies here in Kuwait such as: Diet Center, LoFat, Dietcare, Calorie Control, etc…
After you contact them, please do yourself a favor and have some brownies with ice cream.

5. Cooking classes.

No one can master all the culinary arts of cooking. Unless you’re Martha Stewart or Jamie Oliver of course. But since most of us are not, a cooking class here and there can only be beneficial. Am just waiting to have some free time on hand, and I plan to attend a cooking class or two, the Japanese cooking class at Chef boutique look really appealing. Perhaps I’ll even drag my husband with me. It wouldn’t hurt him to learn to cook a decent meal for me as a change. If you’re interested, you can contact Chef boutique, Whisk Kuwait (their Facebook page).
There’s even a place that teaches kids how to cook. It’s called Young Chefs Academy. I have great hopes of dragging my kids there also. Once they are old enough anyway. 

6. Tea shops.

Is tea the new coffee? Saying yes is probably wishful thinking. But gourmet tea shops are here to stay. Do yourself a favor and have a real cup of tea. Not just a lipton tea bag. A dilmah tea maybe. Or if you’re feeling really adventurous, try:

• The English Tea lounge (at the Sheraton Kuwait, or the Avenues +965 22597914), 
• Teavana (Avenues Grande), 
• TEAGSCHWENDNER (Marina mall, Al bairaq mall, the Avenues, Galeria 2000)

These teas are not your average tea. They can be quite expensive for a “tea”. But if you’re a tea person, you’ll find a way to justify the price tag. 

  7. Supermarket Range for Special diets.

You may having already noticed the supermarket shelves  and restaurant menus items which are Free from Wheat, gluten, sugar, fat, diary, soya.. Suitable for vegetarians etc…

I suspect in 2013, these product range will rise as the demand increases.

But can someone please explain to me how something made artificial flavorings, with artificial colors, and artificial sugar, and fat, that is zero calorie and zero cholesterol still be called food??? Come on! Half of the “free from” range, doesn’t even qualify to be food.

If you are going gluten / wheat free because of a food allergy, than good for you. If your following because of a trend, trends fade. Get a new lifestyle.

8. Salted caramel: everybody’s new favorite flavor.

Sweet & Savory. This is the newest favorite. Every year there is a new flavor and this years trend salted caramel.. More salted caramel items are appearing on menus and supermarket shelves: Salted caramel macaroons, frozen yogurt, cheesecake, cake, you name it. Salted caramel is here to stay.

At least with this flavor I can have both salty and sweet at one bite. Saves me the calories from consuming sweet and then salted.

9. Organic and imported are still on.

I don’t see this going away anytime soon. Just talk a short walk through TSC or Lulu or Carrefour, and you’ll see fancy imported items chocolate, tea, vegetables, meat, flour, chips, baby food product  etc…

The downside, the price of these items is outrageous. 3 Kuwaiti Dinars for spaghetti? Come on.

If you are on a tight budget, this is a useful link of what fruits & veggies are best bough organic. Link here. One of the top twelve are grapes, strawberries, apples & pears. None of which I’ve seen here.  Perhaps we’ll start seeing these soon.

  10. Instagram.

If you don’t Instagram your food, you’re probably better off not eating it. This is a world trend not only Kuwait, where everyone is posting photos of the food they are having / cooking / buying. Just open Instagram, and write: #food, or #instafood and you'll see what am saying.
I like the food trend of Instagram. Now, at restaurants and dinner tables, everyone is pulling their smart phone to take a food photo before the forks. That's a cool trend.


Is there anything I missed? Do you have a second opinion? Or am i just too good at forecasting the obvious? We'll see about that in 2014 inshalla.

A recap of 2012: My view of the most important event of the year

Am convinced that i was in coma during 2012. Never in my life have i ever been more disconnected from what's going on in this world. Therefore, I have created this list of the top 10 things that i remember about 2012.

1. The Artist, is silent French black and white movie that won 5 academy awards. It is the first silent movie to win an academy award since 1929! Am still baffled by how this happened.
   
2. Britannica discontinued its print edition on March 13, 2012. After 244 years of being in the business! I blame Wikipedia.

Best selling books for 2012 (Amazon list) + What i'll be reading for January 2013

No mouth watering photos for this post. Sorry.

There is a little something many of you may not know about me. Am a bookworm. I think i've been one since a very long time. If you are also a bookworm like me, than you'll appreciate this list of the  20 bestseller book for 2012 according to Amazon.

Why  am publishing this list? Because i find it much more fun to make a list of books i want to read rather than just wondering in the world of books searching of whats worth reading. Translation: am a planner and i like to plan all things in advance. 

Usually am buying the books as ebook formats. I find it easier to read this way as the books will always be with me wherever I go. More time to read. My inner bookworm is very happy with this arrangement.