Rulltårta with red currants.

Spending summer in Sweden. A traditional Swedish rulltårta,
with red currants from the garden for a rainy summer’s afternoon.

JE Nilsson and CM Cordeiro Nilsson © 2011

Coming from the tropics and having been in Sweden for almost a decade, I’ve known Swedish summers to have their own personalities. Right now, outside my window, the month of July in Sweden is rainy and cold. The weather report confirms too that after today, there will be … more rain.

cat_in_rainy_window

Pensive longing.

But all this grey outdoors has given the opportunity for us at home to create a little sunshine of our own indoors. And for one such rainy afternoon, I’ve now baked a traditional Swedish rulltårta, served in a variety of tastes, shared in the pictures below.

Swedish traditional

rulltarta

Hand whipped cream and a generous spoonful of strawberry jam and a cup of hot coffee.

A rulltårta served in the most old-fashioned of ways, with hand whipped cream and a cup of straight black coffee, is in Sweden a memory of summers long gone, a morning on the veranda, the house silent, birds chirping around in the garden doing what birds do, and not a worry in sight. Soon enough people will wake up, some will dash off for a bathe in the sea, a sailing tour, some will try their luck with some long obsolete fishing rods, some will look for strawberries, some will pry through dusty piles of decades old comic books and gossipy magazines from when the King was young, and all of this does not matter at all right now.

Tropical decadent

Rulltårta with chocolate ganache and hazelnuts.

Served with a chocolate apricot ganache and a sprinkling of chopped hazelnuts, and a cup of Earl Grey.

For others in the house, this strawberry Swiss Roll can be found at neighbourhood bakeries in Singapore, like the one right next to Katong Church. Topping this off with a luscious chocolate apricot ganache for a little of that Sacha Cake feel, is just pure heaven for a grey afternoon. And of course, a steamy cup of tea.

Summer and a little bit of sunshine on a dish.

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