It is a stunningly beautiful day today. And I have enjoyed it from inside the whole day. I chose to spend the hour or so that the sun comes directly into our living area lying directly in it, only moving occasionally to ensure I stayed within the sunlight as it moved across the room 🙂 It was wonderfully lazy and indulgent.
Earlier this morning, after a lie in and breakfast with our house guest, I started on my one-big-goal for the day: to make fastelavnsbolle.
Wednesday is the beginning of lent, the forty day period before Easter. In the UK we of course have pancake day the day before on Shrove Tuesday, when every British person, regardless of religious leanings, digs out their best crepe recipe and attempts to flip them without to many ending up on the floor, and then eat them covered in lemon juice and sugar. The links to lent may not be obvious but it’s a fun tradition.
The Danish have their own pre-lent tradition. This I discovered while reading one of Rasmus’ Anders And comics (that’s Donald Duck to the rest of you). It had a page with an explanation of the traditions around Fastelavn (something horrific about putting a black cat in a barrel and then beating the heck out of the barrel – don’t worry, they don’t do that anymore 😉 and then a recipe for “Fastelavnsbolle” which from the picture looked like cream-filled iced buns. Which they basically are.
This week I did a search for recipes (for some reason not trusting the Donald Duck one) and found one on BoligLiv that looked doable. We didn’t have any marzipan though so Rasmus told me to make “kagecreme” instead which is a kind of custard cream filling. I am gradually learning all the Danish words found in recipes which opens up a whole world of new meals and cakes through Rasmus’ pile of recipe books. So this morning, while Rasmus and Peter headed off to the dinosaur museum I started kneading and translating and mixing.
The results look good at least. And they passed the aunthenticity test: Rasmus and Peter gave their verdict over a cup of coffee. Taste good – perhaps slightly too low a filling to dough ratio but a very passable first attempt.
So it is official: I am good Danish wife 🙂
