I was googling for recipes for this traditional Finnish almond caramel cake which I've known all my life. We call it Tosca cake, because we are very sophisticated like that. Operatically and classical musically. You know, Esa-Pekka Salonen and Jukka-Pekka Saraste and Pekka Kuusisto and Jean-Pekka Sibelius. No, not really. Just Jean.



Even our metal heads, many of them also called Pekka, are classically trained like the ubercool Apocalyptica who I am dragging poor husband to see next spring when they are playing Metallica on their cellos in Roayl Festival Hall.

But then, what did I see. Lots of links to Swedish Tosca cake. Did they have to steal this too. Was it not enough they took our meatballs and cinnamon buns. And Marimekko. Arja Saijonmaa we don't mind, they're welcome to her.

Anyway, we are used to this of course, the Swedes always getting the better deal, bluer eyes, longer legs and blonder hair, better pay and bigger cars, happier marriages and healthier coronary arteries, more internationally successful pop-bands, although some slightly less rock'n'roll than ours as helpfully demonstrated below.

The Herreys from Sweden - see what I'm saying - even their shoes are golden. Apparently diggiloodiggiley everyone is looking at them (a Finn's nightmare) as they dance with wings on their backs on the streets in their golden shoes while the heavens are opening and the whole world is smiling. I can't see that happenining to a Finn, much more likely to be hit in the head with an empty beer bottle and a dead pig while queueing for their antidepressants.

Apocalyptica - I quite like a man with long hair and a string instrument.And if someone's not wearing a shirt,  I'm not going to hold it against them. It's not like they have golden shoes and stuff.  BTW none of their songs contain words starting with "diggi".

Of course it's not a competition and we are brothers and all that and we do think the Swedes are awfully cute with their happy tunes and pastel colours.

So Tosca cake then, I wanted to make this for a charity bake sale at work. I don't always get my act together to participate, but this time it is in memory of a colleague, so I wanted to contribute. I made three of these Tosca cakes (I doubled the recipe and used slightly smaller pans than in the recipe. And I made a Finnish bundt with Christmas spices, I think it's high time we start to celebrate Christmas.

For both I made little tasting versions for husband because I don't want him to feel left out, and also I wanted him to be the judge as to whether they are good enough to burden my very lovely colleagues with. I don't want to eat a lot of cakes myself because I just bought a lovely pair of very tight trousers, which I very much would like to be able to wear without looking like a pig on two legs, which is what one of my brothers used to call me, the psychopath, so this is where a husband comes in handy. Not only does he eat the cakes, but also loves me as I am. I think he even loves me more if the pants are a bit on the tight side.

And I am not a thoroughly reliable baker, so it's important to include some quality assurance in the process, I remember producing a completely flat green buttermilk cake for my Dad's work bake sale once. I still don't understand how it could turn green. Not just  slighlty greenish but lurid fluorescent green.


The beauty of the Tosca cake is of course the gorgeous topping, which is added during the baking so it seeps into the cake and forms a fantastic shiny slightly crispy layer on top. The cake also freezes well. It was a huge success at the bake sale, all three gone in no time. The Christmas spiced bundt was fantastic too apparently.

I focused on the savoury stuff and got the biggest and baddest scotch egg I have ever had made by one of our lovely warehouse guys. It was made with a pickled egg inside, I love pickled eggs! The whole thing was the size of a large baby's head. Burb.

The egg inside is normal size so it gives you and idea of the amount of saausage surrounding it. Can you hear the egg screaming for help? Lemme out!

Finnish Tosca-cake (recipe from valio.fi)

As it's a Finnish recipe the measuments are metric.

Cake:
2 eggs
1 ½  dl sugar
2 ½  dl plain flour
1 ½  tsp baking powder
½  dl milk
150 g butter (melted)

Topping:
50 g butter
75 g flaked almonds
1 dl sugar
½  dl cream
1 tbsp plain flour

Butter a 22 cm loose base cake tin and cover the base with round piece of baking sheet.

Whisk the eggs and sugar together until they form a light foam. Mix the flour with baking powder, and mix the milk and melted butter and pour both in while lightly continuing to whisk
Pour into the cake tin. Bake in 175C for 25 minutes.

Add all the topping ingredients in a saucepan. Mix and let bubble slowly until the mix thickens a little. Take the cake from the oven and spread the topping on the cake.  Continue to bake in 200C for 10 minutes until the top is nice and light brown.

This very easy, healthy and absolutely delicious turkey taco soup was inspired by a lunch we had on the last day of our American road trip in the little San Francisco bay town Sausalito after thoroughly photographing the Golden Gate and ourselves from all angles and a drive around the Marin Headlands. Husband had had quite enough of my driving by then, so I was able to have a lovely fresh margarita. With my tequila I had a chicken taco soup which was really lovely with lots of vegetables, shredded chicken and those fantastic Cal-Mex flavours.

Our road trip was quite brilliant, but it was the first holiday of that kind for us so there were some hairy moments useful learnings that I thought I’d share so that anyone planning a similar adventure can avoid some of the pitfalls, disappointments and moments of tension we experienced.

10 top tips for an American road trip

1. Be aware of mobility incompatibilities between travelling companions, i.e if you are married to the world’s slowest moving particle and you’re of slightly impatient constitution, you might want to consider other holidaying formats. But whatever you do, do not rush him, because he will just shut down and pull into his shell much like the tortoise whose speed he successfully emulates and you will definitely not make it to the pool in your new fake tan at the swanky Las Vegas Casino.
2. If you agree with your travelling companions to take a hop-on hop-off open-top bus tour, make sure travelling companions understand that like the name suggests this includes open-top busses and hopping on and hopping off before you spend $200 on the tickets. 
3. If you are planning to visit Grand Canyon make sure the travelling companions know it is not Monument Valley or Antelope slot canyon, but just a “hole in the ground” to avoid disappointment amongst those of the group who clearly must have seen some bloody impressive holes in the ground not to be impressed by this one. 
4. If you get lost in Mojave desert… Actually, don’t get lost in Mojave desert. But if you do get lost in the mind blowingly large Mojave Desert, blame it on the husband for extra fun. When you are literally dying of starvation and husband is considering eating his own children and you finally find a grumpy, wizened man and you think he says 18 miles to next stop with food, it's actually 80. Miles.  
5. Steel yourself to the fact that public parking costs $20 pretty much anywhere in LA and don’t do a prolonged bitch about it every time to the parking attendants and your wife, because surprisingly none of them gives a shit. They all want to be on the beach photographing their toes for social media rather than in a garage discussing the unfairness of parking policies in large cities.
6. The squirrels up at Big Sur are really tame and cute and don't mind a bit of chilli in their pistachios.
7. Don't lock your children in the car at 40C temperatures. American cars have some kind of annoying alarm system which will set the horn blowing when the children start to bang on the doors from the inside. Very embarrassing.
8. Yucca Valley sounds exciting, but is not. Even the town residents with defeated looks on their melancholy faces admitted: “We’re a pretty boring town”.
9. If you want to walk from Fisherman's wharf to Golden Gate, take into account that the distance is about 94 miles.
10. Americans may occasionally come and talk to you even if you don't know them. They may even speak to you in a lift, sorry elevator. One extreme older lady came knocking at our car window to ask HOWDEEDOO, HOW DO YOU LIKE YOUR SANTA FE? At first I thought it was the throat-biting and wall-climbing Gladys from the horror film Legion. But it wasn't. It was just someone who was thinking of buying a Hyundai Santa Fe and wanted to know what we thought of the car. So don't be frightened. All this effervescence is hard for us reserved Northern Europeans, but they are not dangerous or mentally ill. It must have to do with their fearless pioneering past.

This little feller has more balls than husband when it comes to spicy food

It's a magnificent hole in the ground but they really should build a gondola thingy to get you to the bottom.

Mojave Desert is a vast area with lots of sand and Joshua Trees and very little food or fuel

There are people with slight obsession with this bridge and  they seem to need to photograph it from all possible angles. Repeatedly saying to them "It's just a bridge" is not going to make any difference so you might as well just go with it.

Easy turkey taco soup (server 4-6)

Oil
400g boneless turkey breast cut into strips
Salt
Pepper
1 red onion
2 small carrots

Enjoy with a bottle of Corona or a Margarita.