Sweden’s favourite cake, toscakaka, combines a soft tender crumb with a crispy, chewy top. Recipe reprinted with permission from The Little Swedish Kitchen by Rachel Khoo.
Cherries are in season just now, and I can’t resist buying them at the supermarket. Truth be told, this year, for some reason, the cherries seem to be even tastier than usual. Rich, dark and juicy – perfect for eating in the garden.
They’re also delicious in baking, like in this traditional toscakaka, or tosca cake, from Sweden. My daughter and I baked this cake together recently; she pitted the cherries by stabbing a chopstick through the centre of each fruit to push the pip out. Fingers dripping in cherry juice, she cut each cherry in half and we arranged them, skin side down, on top of the cake batter before baking. The semi-baked sponge cake is then topped with a gorgeous slivered almond layer, and baked until golden and crispy.
THE LITTLE SWEDISH KITCHEN BY RACHEL KHOO
This recipe comes from Rachel Khoo’s sixth cookery book: The Little Swedish Kitchen, published by Penguin Books earlier this month. Rachel Khoo became a household name in 2012 through the BBC tv show The Little Paris Kitchen: Cooking with Rachel Khoo, and she now lives in Sweden with her Swedish husband and baby.
The Little Swedish Kitchen, with its beautiful photography by David Loftus, features over 100 Swedish recipes, both classical and contemporary. This book has Rachel’s take on the more familiar Swedish meatballs, this classic toscakaka and the famous Swedish buns. She’s also got a breakfast blueberry pie recipe which has my name all over it. I too am not adverse to eating pie for breakfast, and her interesting oat/banana crust sounds like a much healthier option than my English grandmother’s lard-loaded pastry.
I love that the cookery book contents are divided into the seasons, each season featuring recipes satisfying the natural cravings we have as the year progresses. Each section features a beautifully written introduction, and each recipe is accompanied by a personal anecdote – a little snippet into Rachel’s life in Sweden.
Other recipes I’m keen to try include her peas, potatoes and chicken in a pot (a simple one-pan dish of slow-cooked chicken) and the chocolate cake the dog ate – a sugar, gluten, nut and dairy free chocolate cake made with dates and black beans topped with a cocoa avocado frosting. Her smashed potatoes with green sauce are on the menu for this evening – new potatoes are boiled and roughly smashed, served with a delicious sounding sauce made with fresh dill, parsley and tarragon.
TOSCA CAKE
Rachel’s Swedish tosca cake recipe features plums, but she suggests that apricots, cherries or other soft fruits could be used, so we made ours with cherries.
Our cake seems to have risen substantially more than the cake pictured in The Little Swedish Kitchen, but it certainly does taste fantastic; perfect with a mid-morning cuppa.
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I would really recommend this cookery book to anyone who enjoys reading cookery books curled up on the couch with a slice of cake and a cuppa. This is one of those sorts of books that could act as a coffee table book, with its beautiful photography and evocative stories. I have a newfound interest to visit Sweden after reading this, and experience, first-hand, a crayfish party.
The Little Swedish Kitchen retails for £20 and can be found in most leading bookstores and through Amazon.
Penguin Books have very kindly offered one of my UK readers the chance to win a copy of this hardback book – simply scroll to the bottom of this post and fill out the Rafflecopter form!
Swedish Cherry Tosca Cake Recipe (Toscakaka)
Ingredients
for the cake:
- 150 grams caster sugar
- 100 grams butter
- 3 medium free-range eggs
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 pinch Shetland sea salt
- 250 grams plain flour
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 250 grams fresh cherries (or 9-10 plums)
for the topping:
- 50 grams butter
- 50 grams caster sugar
- 100 grams flaked almonds
- 1 tbsp rum (optional)
- 2 tbsp plain flour
- 3 tbsp double cream
- 1 pinch Shetland sea salt
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Instructions
- Preheat oven t 180 C/ 160 C fan/ gas mark 4. Butter and line a 21 cm springform (or silicone) baking pan with greaseproof paper.
- Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well between each addition. Stir in the vanilla.
- In another bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder and salt.
- Fold the dry ingredients into the wet and spoon into the prepared tin.
- Arrange a single layer of halved, pitted cherries, skin side down, on the top of the cake.
- Bake in the centre of the oven 30-35 minutes. The centre of the cake will still be wobbly.
- Meanwhile, melt the butter and combine with the remaining topping ingredients.
- Turn the oven up to 200 C/ 180 C fan/ gas 6. Spread the topping over the cake and bake in the centre of the oven for a further 20-25 minutes, until golden and crisp.
Notes
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PIN THIS TOSCA CAKE RECIPE FOR LATER!
THE LITTLE SWEDISH KITCHEN GIVEAWAY
Penguin Books have kindly offered my UK readers the chance to win a hardback copy of The Little Swedish Kitchen by Rachel Khoo worth £20! To enter, simply fill out the Rafflecopter entry form below!
HOW TO ENTER
For your chance to win a hardback copy of The Little Swedish Kitchen by Rachel Khoo worth £20! enter using the Rafflecopter form below. Come back and tweet about the giveaway every day for more chances to win!
TERMS & CONDITIONS
This giveaway is open to UK entries only. Entrants must be age 18 or over. The winner will need to respond within 28 days of being contacted; failure to do this may result in another winner being selected.
The prize is offered and provided by Penguin Books. The prize is to win a hardback copy of The Little Swedish Kitchen by Rachel Khoo worth £20!. There is no cash alternative and the prize is not transferable.
There is no entry fee and no purchase is necessary to enter this giveaway. The promoter (Elizabeth’s Kitchen Diary) reserves the right to cancel or amend the giveaway and these terms and conditions without notice.
Entry into our giveaways will be deemed as acceptance of these terms and conditions.
If you need some help using Rafflecopter, here’s a quick clip to show you how. Rafflecopter will pick the winner at random from all the entries received.
Closing date is midnight (that’s 00:00 hours, 12 am on Sunday night/Monday morning) on Monday 6 August 2018 (GMT) and the winner will be announced shortly afterwards.
Elizabeth’s Kitchen Diary received a complimentary copy of The Little Swedish Kitchen for review purposes. This is not a paid post, although if you click through any of the Amazon links and make any subsequent purchase over the following 24 hours, we will earn a small commission.
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Five Things: Food, Life & Adventure – Summer 2018
I’m a big fan of Rachel Khoo anyway – her ethos is great and her recipes are amazing!
But your photos are incredible! Really would like to make this now 🙂
I think it looks great but then I’m a sucker for cookery books! The cake looks delicious!
Looks completely different to what I would usually cook, can’t wait to give it all a go. Fingers crossed.
This looks so incredibly tasty, I’d love to try it x
This book looks really good, some lovely recipes
The recipe and cookery book recipes are nice.
Lovely looking recipe – I always think that nordic cuisine is so seasonal and simple, but the key is getting the right ingredients
That cake looks delicious I will have to try this, the books looks great too
Looks delicious and would go perfectly with some cherry ice-cream!
This recipe and cookery book sounds great.
Wow this looks delicious! I can’t wait to make it!
Your tosca cake looks s delicious. I love that you used cherries too- my favourite fruit!
i love her style of cooking and this recipe looks lovely. cant wait to get a hold of this book 🙂
This looks amazing <3 xxx
Sounds awesome, would love to read it for tasty treats
This looks awesome and I would love to win this!
This sounds like a great cookbook with some fantastic recipes to try out. I’m not a big fan of cherries but I’d love to try out this recipes using apricots
i would definately love to try making this!!
That Tosca cake looks delicious! The book looks great!
Such a tasty looking cake – I’ve never tried Swedish tosca cake before! I’m definitely going to have to check out that recipe book!
looks so go. i cant wait to try the recipes
I love Rachel Khoo, I used to have the Paris Kitchen book and I loved settling down to read it. I really want this Swedish book, I love scandi cooking. Plus this cherry cake looks amazing.
Katie xoxo
Cherries and almonds – what’s not to love? My aunt in Malmo used to make cherry cake and this would be scrumptious washed down with a pot of strong Swedish coffee 🙂
this cake looks amazing – plenty of my favourite things in it. I am a Rachel Khoo fan too, so winning all round 🙂
I’ve never seen a cake topping like that before! Looks and sounds so yummy! I’d love to try this at home!
I heard this book being discussed on the radio last week. It sounded really interesting. I love trying new cuisines and don’t know a lot about Scandinavian cooking so I think I’d enjoy it. The tosca is not really something that appeals to me personally but I bake for events for a local interest group, and know it would down really well there.
This looks yummy, can’t wait to try it myself!
This looks so delicious and easy to bake…it’s almost jumping off the page at me, just the sort of recipe I like so the book is a must have.
This looks incredibly tasty and ideal for sharing on summer picnics. An inspirational cookbook.
Sheer bliss – love the recipes – will be a pleasure to make them all
WOW this cake looks amazing and perfect for the summer with an ice cream scoop on the side! Delicious!
I think this recipe sounds beautiful and i think the cook book sounds really good too.
The recipe is mouth watering & the book looks full of delicious recipe’s
I am a huge cherry fan this cake sounds delicious and I love that you used a dark bing cherry those are my favorite and so sweet. Would love a bite right now!
I love cherries but I’ve never tried baking with them before, this sounds like a great recipe.
I could do with this right now, been busy unpacking all our holiday stuff and its wet and ,miserable outside
Love cherries and the cake look fab! The book looks very interesting. We’ve fallen in love with the Swedes who’ve stayed in our flat and I’d love to have a proper visit to Sweden. My only other visit was to Stockholm many years ago on a school cruise to the Baltic countries.
I am enjoying your recipes. This one is at the top of my list to make soon.
Looks lovely
Book and recipe look fab
It all looks amazing
Great idea on this combo! Having lived in Stockholm for more than 10 years, Toscakaka is one of the cakes that I regularly make (albeit, slightly different than this recipe) 🙂
Either way, I’ve seen such nice fresh cherries here in Frankfurt recently — I cannot wait to try this recipe!
What a delicious looking cake, I would certainly love a slice!
It looks delish, we recently returned from a holiday in Stockholm and this recipe book would make a great memento if I was lucky enough to win
The cake looks more than moreish, it’s got lots of my favourite things going on, and I am always looking for new cook books, and that one looks fantastic, I don’t have any Swedish recipes.
It looks tatsy
Looks delicious and I would really like to try my hand at these recipes thanks!
This looks a beautiful recipe and I can’t wait to try it! The book looks really lovely too.