Here it is, the longest day of the year. Glad Midsommar to all of you! If 24 hours of daylight aren’t enough for knitting, nothing will be. Alternatively you could do as the Swedes and stuff your faces with strawberry cake (see recipe below), sizzle in the midnight sun, hit the best camping spots in the woods and do the frog dance around the maypole.

I have been quiet these past few weeks, but I have a good reason for it. This year we will celebrate midsummer with the newest addition to our family who was born two weeks ago. I’m madly in love and happy that all went well. I guess I’ll never suffer any lack of inspiration from now on, with two of these little monsters around!

To celebrate the birth of my second son with you, I offer 50% off all of my toy patterns this weekend only!

(June 24th at 00:00 to June 25th at 23:59 CET). Please use the coupon code NEWARRIVAL during checkout.

This cute baby blanket is the Chevron Baby Blanket (Free pattern by Allison Van Zandt) and was knit by blue-lama for my son.

This weekend we’ll celebrate with 24 hours of sunlight (hopefully without rain this year) and to do so, one best stays clear of the city. It will be a place of utter solitude if you choose to stay, as everyone else will hit the countryside, summer cottages, lakes and wilderness with friends and family. If you would like to know how to celebrate Midsummer the proper Swedish style, check out this instructional video 🙂

Swedish Midsummer for Dummies from Sweden on Vimeo.

I guess this year I’ll knit around the maypole instead and will let the others do the dancing, so that I actually get a piece of strawberry cake before it’s all gone 😛

If you also fancy making one of these, try out this recipe and be prepared for the hordes of neighbours, who’ll want to try it, too 🙂

Strawberry layer cake Swedish style

This cake is a midsummer classic. A glorious cream cake filled with fresh strawberries and served with more strawberries on the side. There will never be too many strawberries! The cake base can be cooked in advance, leaving decoration to the last minute. Make sure to keep a close eye on the berries, though, so that there will be enough surviving hungry family members until the last minute!

Cake

		butter or margarine for greasing the cake tin
		breadcrumbs for the cake tin
4		eggs
200 g	(0.9 cups)*	caster sugar
50 g	(0.4 cups)	wheat flour
80 g	(0.4 cups)	potato flour
2 tsp		baking powder

Filling

1		egg yolk
1 tbsp		icing sugar
¼ tsp		vanilla essence
150 ml	(¾ cup)	whipping cream
250 g	(8 oz)	strawberries

Decoration

250 ml	(1 cup)	whipping cream
250 g	(8 oz)	strawberries, choose your best lookers

• Pre-heat the oven to 175°C (350°F, Gas 4, Fan 160°C) and grease a 23 cm (9″) round cake tin and coat with breadcrumbs.
• Beat the eggs and sugar until light, creamy and airy, mix flour, potato flour and baking powder, then fold into the mixture.
• Pour the mixture into the cake tin and bake on the lowest rung for approximately 35-40 minutes, until an inserted skewer comes out clean and the cake is just beginning to come away from the sides of the tin.
• After 2 or 3 minutes, turn the cake out on to a wire rack. Let the cake cool completely. When cold cut the cake in half horizontally to add custard in between the layers.
• Make the filling  by whisking the egg yolk, 1 tablespoon of icing sugar and vanilla extract together until thick and creamy.
• Whip the cream until it forms soft peaks and then gently fold it into the egg and sugar mixture.  Spread it over the bottom cake layer.
• Add strawberries between the layers, if you like. Place the other cake layer on top.
• Whip the cream for decorating until fairly stiff and spread over the top and sides of the cake.  Decorate with strawberries.
• Serve with lots of extra fresh strawberries and enjoy with more strawberries as desert! 🙂

So make sure you get enough cake to last you through the very long day!

This is Stockholm at night these days:

Oh, and I finished a few toys, too. This cute couple is now living in Bordeaux, France and may they live happily ever after! The pattern can be found here

Enjoy this season as long as it lasts and have fun knitting outdoors! 🙂 Our home lake at 23:30 tonight: