Book of Days Tales

Today is the birthday (1804) of Johan Ludvig Runeberg, a Finnish-Swedish poet, and the national poet of Finland. He wrote in the Swedish language. His birthday is commemorated in Finland as Runeberg Day, and is a true foodie anniversary because the centerpiece of the celebration is the locally famous Runeberg Torte (Finnish: Runebergintorttu; Swedish: Runebergstårta).

Runeberg torte

Ingredients

200 g butter
120 g sugar
2 eggs
130 g flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cardamom
80 g crushed sweet plain biscuits (cookies)
80 g ground almonds
12  mL single cream

To moisten

25 mL water
120 g sugar
2 -3 tbsp arrack liqueur (or 2 -3 tbsp rum)

Topping

raspberry jam (or raspberry marmalade)

Icing

120 g icing sugar
2 tsp lemon juice

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 200° C.

Mix the almonds and biscuit crumbs.

Cream the butter and sugar together in a stand mixer. Add one egg at a time to the butter and sugar, and beat the mixture well after each egg. Combine the flour and baking powder and stir into the mixture. Add the, bread crumbs and almonds, then the cardamom, and finally the cream. Fold everything together gently.

Grease 24 deep muffin moulds and divide the mix between them (with room left for the cakes to rise). Press a hollow in the top of top of each cake with a finger tip. Fill each hollow with raspberry jam. Bake in the middle of the oven for about 15 minutes.

Boil the water and dissolve the sugar in it. Turn off the heat and add the arrack. Moisten the baked muffins with the liquid. While the muffins are still hot, add another half a teaspoonful of jam to the middle. Let the muffins cool.

Combine the icing sugar and lemon juice in a small bowl. Use a piping tube to pipe the icing in a circle around the jam.

*Note: [on arrack and punsch]

Arrack, also spelt arak in Indonesian, is a distilled alcoholic drink typically produced in South Asia and Southeast Asia, made from either the fermented sap of coconut flowers, sugarcane, grain (e.g. red rice) or fruit, depending upon the country of origin. The clear distillate may be blended, aged in wooden barrels, or repeatedly distilled and filtered depending upon the taste and color objectives of the manufacturer. Arrack is not to be confused with arak, an anise-flavored alcoholic beverage traditionally drunk in Eastern Mediterranean and North African countries.

Punsch is a traditional liqueur in Sweden and Finland (known as punssi in Finnish), produced from arrack, other spirits (often brandy or rum), sugar and water. Arrack, first imported to Sweden from Java in 1733, is the base ingredient of punsch. Punsch usually has 25% alcohol by volume (ABV) and 30% sugar.

Originally, Swedish/Finnish punsch was a variant of punch, which became a popular drink all over Europe in the 18th century, having been introduced to Britain from India in the late 17th century. The word punch/punsch is a loanword from Sanskrit पञ्च (pañc), meaning “five”, as punch was originally made with five ingredients: alcohol, sugar, lemon, water, and tea or spices. The English spelling of the word was in Sweden and Germany adapted to local spelling rules, thus becoming punsch. In Sweden, regular punch is also served, but in order to differentiate it from the liqueur known as punsch, it is known as punschbål (punch bowl) or simply bål (bowl).