Happy Birthday, Karate Kid!

Today it is the Karate Kid’s birthday and my heart floweth over! He is turning into a fine young man. Slightly taller than his mother, handsome, intelligent, funny and sweet. I am very proud!

He will be treated to a shopping spree after school, and then dinner at Hard Rock Café in Copenhagen, which is one of his fav restaurants. And cake, of course! There has to be cake! Birthday cake is mandatory in this household, and when asked what cake he wanted me to bake, he said “Suksessterte” (Success Tart, directly translated), and so Suksessterte was made and served for breakfast. (Yes, breakfast. Hey, it’s his birthday!)

After a fair bit of googling, I am starting to think this cake is Norwegian/Swedish, and that weirds me out as almonds are imported. Anyhow, this cake is very common in Norway and you will find it at many occasions. Super easy to make. So here is my recipe for Success Tart (or, as I call it: “The super yummy, flat, yellow one”):

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Success Tart (Suksessterte)

Almonds Meringue base

• 4 egg whites
• 150 grams icing sugar
• 150 grams almonds

Line with parchment paper, and butter a 24 centimeter round cake tin.

Set the oven to 170 degrees Celsius

Grind the almonds using a food processor. Mix the almonds with icing sugar.

Whisk the egg whites until stiff, about 2 minutes. Fold in the almond flour and icing sugar. (Do not overwork the mixture as that will take out the air that you just whisked into the egg whites)

With a spatula, spoon the meringue evenly into the baking tin and bake it (bottom rack) for 35-40 minutes.

Let the tart cool in the baking tin.

Yellow cream

• 4 egg yolks
• 100 ml cream
• 125 grams sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla essence, vanilla sugar or the seeds from 1 pod
• 150 grams butter

Place all ingredients (except the butter) in a heavy-bottomed pan on low heat while you constantly stir with a whisk until it thickens. This takes 5-10 minutes. Do not let the mixture come to a boil as the eggs will then curdle. You don’t want that!

Remove the pan from the heat and add the butter, a tablespoon at a time while you stir with the whisk. Put in refrigerator to cool

Take the almond meringue base out of the baking tin and place it on a serving plate. Spread the yellow crème on top. Decorate with shaved chocolate or chopped almonds, or whatever suits your fancy.

The tart sits nicely in the refrigerator for a couple of days.

Want a bigger cake? Double the recipe and make two bases that you stack with yellow crème in between and on top.

Oh I can hardly wait for my 15 year old to come home from school, so I can feed him more cake before whisking him away to his favorite stores for a shopping spree and then to Hard Rock Café.

Happy Birthday!

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Norway

The Karate Kid and Columbia

Confirmation 2016

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Halloween at Tivoli, Denmark

Future Carpenter

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Tivoli, Denmark

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London 2016

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Confirmation 2016

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Old Mamasan and the Karate Kid enjoying fresly brewed coffee in the morning

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The Kid also enjoyed the game

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