Runebergintorttu
Ingredients
- 100 g butter
- 50 ml sugar and 50 ml brown sugar
- 1 egg, at room temperature
- 150 ml wheat flour
- 75 ml ground almonds
- 50 ml fine breadcrumbs or biscuit crumbs
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp ground cardamom
- 75 ml whipping cream
- About 70 ml raspberry jam, for the filling and topping
- 2 tbsp hot water, 1 tbsp sugar and 2 tbsp punch, cognac or almond liqueur, for the syrup
- 100 ml icing sugar and 2 tsp cold water, for the icing
Named for the national poet Johan Ludvig Runeberg, whose wife Fredrika is said to have baked it from what she had in the pantry, the Runeberg torte is a small, tall cake of butter, sugars, almond flour and breadcrumbs spiced with cardamom, baked in cylindrical molds (muffin tins will do). A dab of raspberry jam is hidden in the centre before baking, the warm cakes are brushed with a punch or rum syrup, and once cool each is finished with a ring of white icing piped around a spoonful of jam on top.
Method
Heat the oven to 175°C (350°F) and butter and flour cylindrical molds or a muffin tin. Cream the butter with both sugars until fluffy, then beat in the egg.
Mix the flour, ground almonds, breadcrumbs, baking powder and cardamom, and fold them into the butter mixture alternately with the cream.
Fill the molds three-quarters full, drop half a teaspoon of jam into the centre of each and cover with a little more batter.
Bake for about 20 minutes until golden and cooked through.
While the cakes cool, stir the sugar into the hot water and add the liqueur. Brush the syrup over the warm cakes and leave them to rest, ideally for a few hours or overnight, before unmolding.
Mix the icing sugar with the cold water to a thick paste. Spoon a little jam onto the top of each cake and pipe a ring of icing around it.
