Index

Introduction 2

Cinnamon Rolls 3

Drømmekage 5

Træstammer 7

Cheesecake 9

Chocolate Chip Cookies 11

Brownie 13

Pebernødder 15

Brunsviger 17

Vaniljekranse 19

Fastelavnsboller 21

Jaime’s Orange and Chocolate Cake 24

Epilogue 27

1 Introduction

Denmark is a country that loves sweets, that is no secret, and their passion seems to be rooted in their own culture and personality. Danes have an immense variety of traditional , they all seem to know how to bake and they even have TV programmes fully dedicated to baking. Here cake is not regarded as an occasional treat or something for special occasions, but as something you can eat on a daily basis, just because it’s “hyggeligt”... And for a sweets lover like me, that is just perfect.

I have eaten so many sweets during my voluntary service in Denmark that I have memories, anecdotes and refections attached to many of those cakes and biscuits. This is a small recipe compilation of those desserts, accompanied by the stories they evoque and remind me of. It is also an excuse for me to bake some delicious , many of which I had never even heard of before I came to this sweet country and met these sweet people. I hope you enjoy reading about them and maybe even try to bake them yourselves.

2 Cinnamon Rolls A sweet beginning

Let’s start this book from the beginning, from the day my project started. I had only been in Denmark for a couple of days when Vandel Efterskole opened, which is the school where I’ve been working as a volunteer for the whole year. Vandel is a place full of nice people, and that’s something I realized from the frst minute, even before the students arrived, just by talking to the staf and teachers and realizing how warm and welcoming they all were. However, I was a bit nervous about meeting the students and seeing what they would be like. The day they arrived and everyone was both tense and excited, since they were saying goodbye to their families and starting a new and exciting phase in their lives. In that sense we were in a similar situation. Everything was new for me too, and I felt a bit lost. My job that day was to talk to the students and their families and ofer them some cinnamon rolls that the staf from the school’s kitchen had prepared. Even though they looked delicious, I didn’t want to take any in case there weren’t enough for everybody. For some reason I was so nervous I thought it could be wrong for me to eat a single . As if he could read my mind, one of the students approached me and told me I could take as many as I wanted. Apparently, he had been in Vandel the previous year too, and he knew how everything worked much better than I did. We ate some cinnamon rolls together and had an entertaining conversation. He was very nice to me and talking to him was what made me realize I had nothing to be nervous about. From that point on I relaxed and started enjoying the day. It really was a sweet start to my experience in Denmark. Almost as sweet as the cinnamon rolls that we ate!

3 Ingredients

Dough

❖ 100 grams of ❖ 250 mL of milk ❖ 50 grams of fresh yeast ❖ 2 eggs ❖ 600 grams of four ❖ 2 teaspoons of cardamom ❖ 1 teaspoon of salt

Filling

❖ 150 grams of soft butter ❖ 100 grams of brown sugar ❖ 2 tablespoons of cinnamon

Glace

❖ 200 mL of powdered sugar ❖ 2 tablespoons of water

Instructions

Start by mixing the melted butter with the milk at room temperature and dissolving in the yeast in them. Add the dry ingredients and mix until obtaining a soft but still sticky dough. Let the dough rest for half an hour so that it starts rising with the activated yeast. After that, roll the dough on a fat surface with some four to avoid sticking. Mix the softened butter with brown sugar and cinnamon until creating a paste. Extend the butter paste throughout the extended dough. Once you’ve fnished extending, it’s time to roll the dough, trying to keep it tight and well compacted until you end up with a cylinder. Cut it in sections of the desired height, then place them in the baking pan, cover them with some cloth and let them rise for another 15 minutes. Before putting in the oven, brush them with the beaten eggs so that they turn golden, which shouldn’t take more than 12 or 15 minutes. Once they are fully baked, pour the icing while they are still hot and let them cool.

4 Drømmekage Aftenkafe

My project as a volunteer is in an Efterskole, which, for the ones not familiar with the term, is a crazy boarding school where crazy things happen on a daily basis, from reproducing the American elections, to going on scarry trips in the middle of the night or preparing a whole musical in a week (stage and costumes included). All these things make my project both incredibly fun and terribly tiring. That’s why daily routine is much appreciated, and my favorite part of the school’s everyday life is “aftenkafen”. Aftenkafen is the last meal of the day that we take at 21:30 and, contrary to what you might imagine, it doesn’t involve any cofee. It consists of a piece of fruit and a bun, some cookies or a piece of cake. There is always great expectation to see what we are having for aftenkafen, and the school's homemade drømmekage is many people’s favourite option, including myself. It’s probably the frst Danish cake I tried here, and a perfect example of how sugary danish is. But apart from an excuse to eat some cake, aftenkafen is the perfect opportunity to chat with the students, refect on what has happened during the day and have a “hyggeligt” time together. A very sweet way to end the day!

5 Ingredients

Cake

❖ 4 eggs ❖ 300 grams of sugar ❖ 200 mL of milk ❖ 50 grams of butter ❖ 250 grams of four ❖ 3 teaspoons of baking soda ❖ 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

Topping

❖ 100 grams of butter ❖ 150 grams of grated coconut ❖ 225 grams of brown sugar ❖ 50 mL of milk

Instructions

Beat together the eggs and sugar until light and fufy. Heat the milk and butter in the microwave until melted, and add it to the mixture. Whisk the dry ingredients and slowly add them to the wet ingredients by sifting them in. Don’t overmix the dough or else you might miss some of the fufness that’s key to this cake. Pour the dough in a small baking pan and put it in the oven at 200ºC for around 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, prepare the topping by melting butter in a pan and adding brown sugar. Bring it to a boil and, as soon as the sugar starts caramelizing, add in the coconut. Stir constantly, and if the consistency is not soft enough, start adding the milk. The quantities mentioned above are the ones I used following an internet recipe, but most drømmekager I’ve tried in Denmark have at least twice the amount of topping that this one has, so don’t hesitate to prepare more if you like it very sweet and sticky.

When the cake is almost fully baked, take it out of the oven and spread the coconut mix on top. Try to achieve a consistent thickness throughout the whole cake, and put it back in the oven for about 5 minutes, raising the temperature to 225ºC. Take it of the oven and let it cool before you eat it.

6 Træstammer Building relationships in the kitchen

Around the beginning of the school year, I came across my frst big frustration. I had been joining the lessons and some of the activities for a couple of weeks, but most students acted a bit shy around me and I always had to start every conversation. At that time, I was still learning the students’ names and most of them were uncertain of my purpose in the school (even I was). Then the “Boys cooking classes” started. It was an optional lesson that took place only once a week for a few weeks, and I joined because I wanted to learn some Danish dishes to show my friends and family back in Spain. It was a lesson not many students were attending, which created a very cozy environment where we had to cook in small groups. I think for most students that was the frst time they were seeing me not taking a leading role like the teachers. In fact, I still couldn’t understand a single word of Danish, so they were the ones helping me out. I believe that was the moment they realized I could also be one of them, and while cooking we started small conversations that allowed complicity to grow. I remember preparing Træstammer the last day of the courses and having so much fun playing with the food and getting dirty together, as well as having some deep conversations while we let the Træstammer cool down. In conclusion, cooking helped me fnd my place in my project and allowed me to start building deeper relationships with the students.

7 Ingredients

❖ 450 grams of cake left-overs ❖ 200 grams of dark chocolate ❖ 2 tablespoons of raspberry jam ❖ 2 tablespoons of rum essence ❖ 200 grams of marzipan

Instructions

Start by making the cake left-overs into crumbs with a fork or your hands. Add 100 grams of melted chocolate, the jam and the rum essence and keep mixing until you get a sticky dough. Extend the marzipan on a fat surface lightly covered with powdered sugar to avoid sticking. Make small cylinders of the desired thickness with the dough and place them on the extended marzipan. Cut the marzipan so that it adjusts to the size of your cylinders, then roll the marzipan and dough together, completely covering the dough with the marzipan. Repeat until you fnish all the dough. Melt the rest of the chocolate and dip both extremes of each trunk in it, then let them cool in the fridge.

8 Cheesecake The idea for this book

One of the frst activities I did with the Sydjylland ICYE branch was going to a “Sønderjyske kagebord”, which is a tradition from southern Jutland in which a table with 21 diferent cakes is prepared and people get together to try them. Basically, a cake bufet. Although the tradition dates back to the 19th century, it became a sign of resistance during World War II, because it served as an excuse for people to be able to hold meetings, something that was forbidden under other circumstances at that time. As a result, it has become a sign of patriotism and resistance, and the perfect excuse for sweets lovers like me to eat huge amounts of cake. I’m very glad for the Sydjylland ICYE board because thanks to them I have been able to better know this region and its tradition, as well as going to places and doing things that I would have never done if it wasn’t for them, and that has made my stay here much richer in many senses. The idea of making a recipe book as my Dissemination Project actually came from chatting with them during the “cake table” activity. After trying the 21 cakes in that “kagebord”, we decided that the best one was one of the cheesecakes. I haven’t been able to exactly reproduce it, but I still wanted to include a cheesecake recipe in honor of the Sydjylland board.

9 Ingredients

❖ 200 grams of digestive biscuits ❖ 100 grams of butter ❖ 250 mL of heavy cream ❖ 600 grams of cream cheese ❖ 100 grams of sugar ❖ 15 grams of confectioners’ sugar ❖ 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract ❖ Any jam you like

Instructions

Start with the crust by breaking the biscuits into thin crumbs and adding the melted butter. The quantities here don’t need to be very precise, they change depending on how thick you like your crust. You also don’t need to use digestive biscuits, but bear in mind that diferent types of biscuits require diferent amounts of butter. I use digestives because they are slightly salty and quite buttery. Put the mixture in the base of your cake pan and pack it tight with a spoon or any other utensil. Let it cool in the fridge while you prepare the rest of the cake.

Mix the cheese and the sugar until smooth and creamy. Add in the vanilla extract and the confectioners’ sugar. Mix again thoroughly, since the confectioners’ sugar is key to obtaining the right consistency. In another bowl whip the cold cream into stif peaks. Mix carefully the whip cream with the cheese mixture trying not to lose all the air that you mixed in. Add everything on top of the and let it cool in the fridge for a while before you extend the jam, since the mixture can be a bit too soft at the beginning. Let the cake in the fridge for at least 12 hours and serve it cold.

10 Chocolate Chip Cookies Sharing

In the school where I volunteer, whenever it’s a student’s birthday, we all sing together to publicly wish them a happy birthday. This is something that doesn’t difer much from what I’m used to. However, when it’s a teacher’s birthday, the teacher has to bring something sweet (usually Flødeboller) to share it with all the other teachers. I thought it was peculiar how the one celebrating was also the one giving something away… and I loved it. I believe sharing is the key to bring people together. It’s actually the reason why I like to bake, to share my sweet creations with other people. Therefore, when my birthday came, I decided to bake something to share with everybody, and chocolate chip cookies are perfect for that, because you can make dozens in a single batch and everybody loves them. In exchange, not only did everyone sing happy birthday to me, they also gave me a card signed by all students that said “Tillykke med fødselsdagen”. That made me so happy, and even though it was my frst birthday far from my friends and family, I started feeling a bit more at home here in Denmark. At the end of the day, a home is a place where you share space, experiences and food with other people, and that’s just what Vandel is for me.

11 Ingredients

❖ 230 grams of butter ❖ 200 grams of white sugar ❖ 200 grams of brown sugar ❖ 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract ❖ 2 eggs ❖ 400 grams of all-purpose four ❖ 2 teaspoons of baking powder ❖ 2 teaspoons of salt ❖ 400 grams of chocolate

Instructions

Start by creaming the room temperature butter with the sugars until fufy. Continue by adding the eggs and vanilla extract, beating them thoroughly to maintain the soft consistency previously achieved. Add the dry ingredients, little by little. You will obtain a clay-like mixture, not too wet but defnitely not like the typical bread sticky dough. Now it’s time to add in the chocolate. I haven’t specifed the type of chocolate because I think it should be a matter of preference whether you want to use dark or milky, or if you should use chocolate chips or cut the chocolate yourself. I usually buy dark chocolate and cut it in diferent sized chunks so that it’s not homogenous. And I know 400 grams might seem like a crazy amount of chocolate, you don’t need to use that much if you don’t want to, but I’ve never heard anyone complaining about my chocolate chip cookies having too much chocolate.

Now it’s time to bake them. It’s also up to you what size you want your cookies to be, mine are usually not too big because I like to eat more than one. Put the dough balls on a parchment paper, and leave some space between them so that they don’t fuse together once they expand. Bake them to the desired consistency, less if you like them soft and more if you like them crunchy, but bare in mind they will all harden quite a lot once they cool. As you can see there are many alterations you can make on a single recipe to adjust them to your preferences, and I actually like to make each batch a bit diferent so that people can choose to get the ones that are more appealing to them.

12 Brownie Dinners after Danish lessons

Learning Danish is something I’ve been struggling with almost since I arrived here. It’s no secret that it’s a weird language that sounds nothing like the Romance Languages that I’m more used to hearing and speaking. However, I really enjoyed going to Danish lessons, both because it gave me an opportunity to disconnect from the intense life of my efterskole, and because there I met some very nice friends from all around the world. We soon became close and started organising small dinners where everyone brought something, either food, drinks or . I have some very special memories from those nights together and I’m very thankful for having met them. Vandel is not the most exciting place in the world, and being able to have a social life outside of my project is something I value a lot. I might not have mastered Danish as I wished I had, but going to the language school has been one of the best things I could have done here. That’s another good reason for other volunteers to give it a try and start studying Danish, because they can gain something more than just language skills. Anyways, even though we like trying new things in our semi-improvised dinners, brownies have been the dessert more than once, so here comes a pretty simple recipe that works quite well if you are not looking for anything too fancy.

13 Ingredients

❖ 200 grams of granulated sugar ❖ 200 grams of brown sugar ❖ 3 eggs ❖ 75 grams of cocoa powder ❖ 120 grams of four ❖ 1 teaspoon of salt ❖ 225 grams of butter ❖ 1 tablespoon of cofee ❖ 1 tablespoon of vanilla extract

Instructions

Start by beating the butter together with both sugars until obtaining a creamy texture. Add the eggs, the cofee and the vanilla extract and beat again thoroughly. Sift in the rest of the dry ingredients. You don’t need to work it too much at this point. Once everything is mixed together, prepare a square pan with some parchment paper and pour in the batter. Tap the pan trying to achieve a similar height all over, then put in the preheated oven at 180ºC and bake for around 30 minutes. I personally prefer it chewy rather than fully baked, but you can leave it longer if you want. You don’t need to let the brownie fully cool before you eat it, in fact, I prefer it still warm and with some ice cream.

14 Pebernødder Playing “mus” and learning how to “hygge”

When Christmas Holiday was getting close the whole country started to be lit by candles, everything smelled like cinnamon and cardamom and the stores flled up with typical Christmas sweets that I had never seen in my life. I remember talking with some students and telling them we didn’t have any of those in Spain and they were very surprised. They invited me to go over to their house to have some hot cocoa and eat pebernødder. They had this game they called “mus” where they laid a bunch of pebernødder on a table, then a person closed their eyes and another one pointed at one of the biscuits. The person who had closed their eyes had to start eating Pebernødder one by one until they ate the “mouse” or “mus” and the game ended. At frst I didn’t understand what the game was about, there were no winners or losers, just eating pebernødder. But that was actually the point. You just eat biscuits because it’s “hygge”. We had a great evening chatting, playing mus and eating pebernødder. We ended up eating a whole package and when we fnished everyone said “Det var hyggeligt”. I felt so thankful for having such a “hygge” time (and so guilty for eating that many biscuits), that I decided to bake my own pebernødder and give some to those students. That’s how I learned this recipe.

15 Ingredients

❖ 125 grams of butter, at room temperature ❖ 125 grams of sugar ❖ 50 milliliters of heavy cream (1.7 ounces) ❖ 250 grams of all-purpose four (8 3/4 ounces) ❖ 1 teaspoon of cinnamon ❖ 1 teaspoon of white pepper ❖ 1 teaspoon of ground cardamom ❖ 1 teaspoon of baking soda

Instructions

Preheat the oven at 200ºC, you want it to be fully heated by the time you fnish preparing the dough, otherwise they will cook at diferent rates. Meanwhile, beat together the butter and sugar until obtaining a soft and homogenous mixture. Add the cream until combined. Sift in the four, species and baking soda. You’ll see it’s not too sticky so you won’t need to work the dough too much. Divide it in smaller handy pieces and prepare a clean working area with more four. Roll each portion to the desired size and cut them with a knife. Mine looked like slightly fattened spheres. They were a bit small but that makes for more pebernødder to play “mus” with. Put the dough balls on a baking sheet with parchment paper and set them in the oven. There’s no need to leave much space between the balls since they don’t really expand that much. It should take no more than 10 minutes for the pebernødder to be nice and golden, so keep an eye on them, since their small size makes it easy to overcook them. Once they fnish cooling they should be hard, crunchy and slightly spicy with that typical “Christmassy” favor that cinnamon and cardamom give.

16 Brunsviger Traveling around Denmark with other volunteers

Even though my project is in Sydjylland, if I had to pick a traditional Danish cake, it would probably be the “fynsk” brunsviger. Luckily enough, I’ve had the chance to visit Fyn many times and eat brunsviger there because I have good friends living near Odense that are always willing to host me. One of the best things about being part of an association is that it gives you the chance to connect with interesting people from diferent places who are also volunteering in the same country as you, and with whom you are likely to share interests. Even though this isn’t the best year to meet people, I feel grateful for the volunteers that have become my friends, for being able to visit them, to see their projects and to travel with them around Denmark. And of course the sugary and buttery brunsviger is the perfect treat to recover some energy and to make those trips a whole lot sweeter.

17 Ingredients

Dough

❖ 300 mL of milk ❖ 50 grams of fresh yeast ❖ 50 grams of sugar ❖ 100 grams of butter ❖ 500 grams of all-purpose four

Topping:

❖ 150 grams of butter ❖ 250 grams of brown sugar ❖ 4 tablespoons of heavy cream ❖ 1 tablespoon of vanilla extract

Instructions

Start by dissolving the yeast and sugar in the room-temperature milk, so that the yeast gets to be fully active by the time it goes into the oven. Add the melted and cooled butter to the milk. Mix it with all the four and work it for around 10 minutes. The dough should become less and less sticky as you work it. Then cover with a towel or some plastic foil and let it rise for 30 minutes. Extend the dough into a square of about 1 cm high and let it rise for another 20 minutes.

While the dough rises, you can prepare the sauce in a pan by melting the butter and brown sugar together. Once it’s boiling, add the heavy cream and mix until integrated. Remove it from the heat and let it cool.

Back with the dough, it’s time to make the signature holes that will be flled by the sauce, making this cake sweet and delicious. Just put your fngers in the dough and press thoroughly but without reaching the bottom, since you don’t want the dough to break. Before pouring in the sauce, make a moat along the edge to prevent it from spilling and getting burnt in the oven. Bake it at 225ºC for 15 minutes and let it cool of before serving.

18 Vaniljekranse A bit of Denmark in Spain

Vaniljekranse are probably the one Danish sweet that everyone in Spain knows about, and still, most young people have never tried one of these delicious biscuits. “How come?”, you might ask. Well apparently, they became popular in Spain a long time ago and everyone was buying them in beautiful tin boxes that depicted them with a danish fag. At some point in the last 30 or 40 years they stopped being so popular and sadly no one buys them anymore, but many people kept the characteristic blue boxes to keep sewing tools and materials in it. It is actually kind of a “meme” in Spain, because we all share the experience of going to our grandparents’ houses, fnding one of these boxes and being deeply disappointed after fnding it full of threads and needles instead of biscuits. It’s funny how pieces of other countries’ culture arrive to our own in a twisted way, kind of like how here in Denmark everyone calls “Spanish melons” to a variety of melon that we actually don’t eat in Spain. All this made me think what a pity it was that none of my friends had tried real vaniljekranse, so when I went back home for Christmas, I knew that this was one of the typically Danish things that I wanted to share with them. When we got together for Christmas, I made them try some “lakris” candy with “salmiac” (which they hated), cooked “risalamande” for desert (which they loved) and made them play “pakkeleg” instead of Secret Santa as we usually do, and one of my presents was a box of homemade vaniljekranse (which they also loved).

19 Ingredients

❖ 225 grams of butter ❖ 100 grams of sugar (+ some extra on top) ❖ 1 pinch of salt ❖ 1 ½ teaspoon of vanilla extract ❖ 1 egg ❖ 280 grams of all-purpose four

Instructions

Preheat the oven at 180ºC with the rack at middle height. Beat together the butter, sugar and salt until slightly fufy. Add the vanilla extract and egg to the mixture until combined. Slowly add the sifted four to the wet ingredients. You will get a rather soft and fufy dough. Put it in a piping bag, ft a star tip and make medium sized circles making sure to leave a hole in the middle. It’s not a difcult shape to make but try to stay consistent with the size for better results. Before putting in the oven, sprinkle the raw biscuits with some granulated sugar for a slightly caramelized surface that will really improve the texture. Bake for around 12 minutes, until the bottom starts to look golden, with the top remaining light colored. Vaniljekranse should be crunchy and slightly crumbly with the vanilla favor being the only protagonist. It’s an easy recipe but the results are really fantastic, especially if you use good quality vanilla.

20 Fastelavnsboller Isolation

During the isolation period that came after Christmas, I was in Spain because my project, being a school, was temporarily closed. At that time my social interactions were basically limited to my parents and it was a bit hard for me to fnd entertaining things to do. That’s the reason why I was so pleased to see that ICYE’s Sydjylland branch was organizing an online baking class. It was the perfect opportunity to both keep in touch with Danish culture and to see how the other volunteers were doing during such hard times. It was a really nice evening, despite the problems that come from having to depend on online interaction, which always makes communication a bit more difcult. For example, since I had never tried fastelavnsboller and I was following the instructions blindly, I didn’t realize the buns were meant to have round, that’s why mine have a not so traditional squarish shape. Nevertheless, I’m very grateful for my branch’s initiative and for trying to make quarantine a bit cozier.

21 Ingredients

Dough

❖ 250 grams of four ❖ 3 teaspoons of baking soda ❖ 1 pinch of salt ❖ 3 tablespoons of sugar ❖ 100 grams of soft butter ❖ 1 egg ❖ 100 mL of milk

Filling

❖ 75 grams of grated marzipan ❖ 75 grams of sugar ❖ 75 grams of butter ❖ 3-4 tablespoons of jam

Topping

❖ Sprinkles, chocolate, icing... whatever you want.

Instructions

Put the dry ingredients in a bowl. Add the milk and softened butter to them and mix. Beat the egg in a separate bowl and add most of it, leaving just a bit for brushing the buns later. It’s kneading time! Do it for around 10 minutes, or until the dough is soft and no longer sticks to your hands. Once you’ve fnished with that, extend the dough into a rectangle on a foured surface. The dough should not be too thin or else it will break. A good size to achieve is 30x40cm which is easily divisible into 12 squares.

Now you have to prepare the marzipan flling. Mix in a bowl the grated marzipan with the sugar and softened butter. You will obtain a very sugary paste. You can spread a small amount of the marzipan mixture and a small teaspoon of jam in every square of dough that you’ve cut. I strongly suggest not putting too much flling, I made that mistake and most of my buns literally exploded in the oven. Once you have your squares with about a tablespoon of flling each, close them. by folding the corners towards the center and pinching them together to seal the buns. Put this uglier part of the bun downwards on the baking sheet, so that the smooth side remains visible. Do the same with all your buns and before putting them in the preheated oven at 180ºC, brush them with the rest of the beaten egg

22 that you saved before. It will take around 12 or 15 minutes in the oven for them to become golden, which means it’s time to take them out.

You should prepare the topping while they are still cooking so that you can apply it on top while they are still warm. The topping can be as easy as just melting some chocolate and putting it on top, or preparing some icing with powdered sugar and milk. In my case I prepared a rather thick icing that melted with the heat of the bun, and sprinkled some rainbow sprinkles to make them more colorful.

23 Jaime’s Orange and Chocolate Cake Finding yourself

This is the most special recipe in the book because I came up with it myself. Creating your own recipe isn’t easy but the result is very satisfying. First you have to think about what you like, what kind of desert you want to create. In my case I knew I wanted to make a chocolate cake because they are my favorite. Then you have to do some research. I looked for famous recipes that had a chocolate cake as a base to fnd some inspiration, that’s how I decided mine should combine chocolate and orange. It is also important to always take your limitations into consideration. In this cake the limitation was not using egg, because my brother is allergic to it and it’s an ingredient I try to avoid whenever I can. However, sometimes

24 limitations can open the doors for great stuf, for example, I found this vegan chocolate cake recipe that I use as a base and that is just delicious, moist and very intense in favor. Sometimes doing a good recipe requires doing sacrifces, or things you don’t like. In this case, I had to use orange jam for my cake, which is an ingredient that I don’t like on its own, but that made total sense here as a flling. Once you’ve planned everything, it’s time to make it real and actually bake the cake. There will be things that you will like from the frst try, but surely many other things that you will have to improove on. My frst attempt with this recipe had a very bad cover, because I didn’t really understand the diference between icing and frosting. The most important thing is to keep trying. It took me some time to fnd a nice buttercream recipe that I could use for my cake. But no matter how good or bad your cake ends up being, the key is to enjoy. It’s never going to be perfect, no matter how hard you try, so you might as well enjoy it with its imperfections. Enjoy the attempts, the leftovers and of course, the process of baking, because usually the process takes longer than actually eating the cake. Finally, always share it. A cake is too big for a single person to eat it, and it always tastes better when you share it with people you love.

Ingredients

Dough

❖ 400 grams of sugar ❖ 500 mL of boiling water ❖ 1125 mL of vegetable oil ❖ 1 tablespoon of vinegar ❖ 2 teaspoons of instant espresso powder ❖ 2 teaspoons of baking soda ❖ 1 teaspoon of salt ❖ 100 grams of unsweetened cocoa powder ❖ 300 grams of all-purpose four ❖ The zest of 1 orange

Buttercream

❖ 120 grams of butter ❖ 75 grams of cocoa powder ❖ 350 grams of confectioner's sugar ❖ 80 mL of milk ❖ 20 mL of Cointreau ❖ 1 pinch of salt

25 Filling

❖ 150 mL of heavy cream ❖ 20 grams of sugar ❖ 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract ❖ Orange jam

Instructions

Start by adding part of the water to a pan with all of the cocoa powder. It should become a paste before you add the rest of the water. This is called blooming and helps achieve an even more chocolaty favor. Add the rest of the water, the vinegar, the cofee powder, the salt and sugar and mix until dissolved. Then add the oil and four. Put in the zest, and fnally the baking soda. Mix well, pour it in a rather tall cake pan and put in the oven. It’s a very liquid mixture so it won’t take less than 40 minutes to bake, unless you bake it in 3 separate pans, which is also a good option.

Meanwhile you can start preparing the buttercream and flling. For the buttercream, soften the butter, add the dry ingredients and mix. Then add the liquor and fnally the milk while mixing until achieving the desired consistency. Let it rest in the fridge for easier use. As for the cream, you just have to make sure that it’s very cold before you add the sugar and vanilla and start beating to obtain frm peaks.

Once the cake is baked all over, let it cool for a while before slicing horizontally in two or three pieces, depending on the height of the baking pan you used. This cake is very dark in colour as well as incredibly strong in favor, but the sweet icing and flling will give it the perfect balance. Start by spreading some orange jam on the frst level of cake and then some cream on top. If you are making only two layers, make sure to be generous with the amount of jam and cream. If you don’t, repeat the same procedure for the second layer and put the fnal layer of cake on top. Then cover both top and sides with the chocolate icing and let rest in the fridge before serving.

26 Epilogue

In many ways, the process of creating my own cake recipe was similar to the process of fnding myself through this experience as a volunteer. Before I even decided I wanted to join the European solidarity corps, I had to think about the things I liked, and what I wanted to do with my life. Then I did my research until, after a long and tiring process, I found a project that I was interested in. I knew it was going to be hard, I’m a shy person and I was going to have to work hard on it so that it wouldn’t be a limitation, but thanks to that I feel like I have really improved on myself. I also knew I had to make some sacrifces, like living away from the people I loved. It was hard at the beginning. I felt like I had to make a constant efort getting better at doing my tasks, giving my best to the project and bringing value to it in some way. However, I soon started to enjoy my work, the people I worked with, my new life in Denmark, and basically every aspect of this experience, even though not everything was always perfect. Now I’m glad I decided to join the solidarity corps because it allowed me to know myself better, to improve on my weaker points and to become a person I like a little bit more. And in the process I’ve also met some incredible people that I got to share these experiences with, and who are the best part of it all.

27 DISCLAIMER

This book is just a dissemination project with no commercial interests. The recipes in it are adapted from diferent sources, many of which lack an original author or cannot be referenced. Consequently, the author of this book claims no rights over the recipes in it. The images of this book were all taken by the author and therefore belong to him, and are free to be used and shared by ICYE.

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