The Icelandic Canadian - 01.06.1967, Page 107

THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
105
filled with whipped cream. These were
all good with coffee, which is the na-
tional Icelandic and Icelandic-Can-
adian beverage. I’m sure thalt it must
have been an Icelander who invented
the coffee break, though I have no
proof. But the greatest delicacy of all
is also what is probably the best known
Icelandic specialty—vinarterta.
This cake is, of course, based on the
Torte principle. In fact, the name
vinar does not mean wine but a cor-
ruption of the word Vienna. It is a
Viennese Torte, but the use of dried
fruit makes it peculiarly Icelandic.
Vinarterta (Icelandic Cake)
Cream together 1 cup butter and 1 Ys
cups sugar. Beat in 3 eggs, % cup miilk,
1 teaspoon each of almond and vanilla
extract, 3 (teaspoons baking powder,
and just enough sifted flour to make
a dough that can be handled, almost
like a cooky dough. Be careful not to
use too much flour. Roll the dough out
thin and cut it in 8-inch circles. Fit the
rounds into 8-inch cake pans. Bake
the rounds in a moderate oven (350°
F.) for 10 to 15 minutes. Watch care-
fully. The cake should be light in
color. You should be able to make 11
layers, enough to make a 5-layer and
a 6-layer cake. Cool the layers before
filling them.
Prune Filling
Cook 2 pounds prunes in water to
cover until they are soft and the wa-
ter is almost absorbed and let them
cool. Remove the stones and put the
prunes through a meat grinder. Put
the prunes in a pan, add 2Yz cups sugar
and 1 teaspoon finely ground carda-
mom seed, and heat gently, striring oc-
casionally and being careful not to let
the mixlture burn. Cool the filling
and spread the cake layers, making, as
suggested, 2 cakes. Frosting is optional,
but a plain vanilla icing does paint
the lily nicely.
Gramma used to cut a circle the
size of a tumbler out of the center of
all her cakes and slice the wheel. My
brother always got (the circle while
the rest of us ate the spokes. But she
used to save the turnovers for me: bits
of leftover pastry turned over sugared
blueberries or apples. Ponnukokkur,
cold waferlike pancakes sprinkled with
brown sugar and rolled up; rosettes,
flower-shaped delicacies made with a
timbale iron, covered with whipped
cream and maybe a dab of strawberry
jam: these I remember too, along with
more common treats like the crumbly
rich date bar that I learned, when I
grew up, to call matrimonial cake.
Here are the pancakes of my mem-
ory.
Ponnukokur (Icelandic Pancakes)
Beat 2 eggs, add 3 tablespoon sugar.
Yz teaspoon each of salt and grated
nujtmeg, and % cup milk. Beat well.
Sift together 2 cups sifted flour, 14 tea-
spoon baking soda, and 1 teaspoon
baking powder and add alternately
with 1% cups milk. Rub a small
amount of butter on the bottom of a
frying pan or, better yet, use a griddle
Ithat requires no fat. Make the pan-
cakes the diameter desired; if they are
4 or 5 inches across they roll up nicely.
Serve cold, sprinkled with brown
sugar.
My grandmother used to do a baked