TWD: Swedish Visiting Cake (aka Gimme Gimme Gimme a Cake After Midnight)

And here I thought ABBA was the best thing to come from Sweden!!

Thank you, Nancy, from The Dogs Eat the Crumbs who chose Dorie's Swedish Visiting Cake as this week's recipe! I'd like to think I would have baked along this week no matter what, but the fact that one of my very very fave TWD bloggers chose it led me to know there was NO WAY I was skipping this week! Nancy/n.o.e I was SO happy to bake along with you this week! :) I always love visiting your site-even though unfortunately I've not visited m/any TWD sites lately due to time working mommy constraints...but look at this face...HERE'S why I don't post or read so much anymore..forgive me, fellow bakers??)

but truly, I always find myself relating to Nancy's posts and thinking "I think she and I would get along so well!" :)

Back to the Swedes: This cake is amazing. It's perfect in its simplicity. It is supposed to be made in a cast iron skillet--and I bought a dark blue/white glazed one not to long ago (it's so much nicer than the terrible photo shows...) But I realized that mine is a bit over the 9" called for in the recipe, so you'll see my edges were well done...but the texture in the middle? Spongy without being soggy...perfectly moist (thanks to a melted stick o' butter!)..the almond flavors are so full, yet not overpowering (gotta love anything with almond extract!...Or I do anyways!) Perfect for tea/coffee in the morning...or in the afternoon, or over after dinner conversation!

The story here is you can start it when you see folks coming up the street, and the cake will be ready by the time you get around to having dessert. Love that kind of story behind a traditional recipe!

You start with a great little tactic that Dorie uses in one of my other fave recipes, the French Yogurt Cake, wherein you blend the lemon zest with your hands into the sugar to make the sugar fragrant prior to adding in other ingredients (oh, and by the way, this was a one-bowl, no electric mixer needed recipe--another reason to love this!!) Once you do that you've done the "heavy lifting" of this recipe--all else you have to do is add the eggs, extracts, flour and melted butter.

Nancy, you are the reason I have another top Dorie recipe! I know that when I go visiting, or expect visitors, this will be one of those things I can whip up (I already know the recipe by heart, which is even better!) THANK YOU THANK YOU! I needed another "French Yogurt Cake" type dessert and found it!

Dear Husband thought it was fabulous--but asked "so I don't suppose this is good for me in any way?" Once I shared there is a cup of sugar and stick of butter his fears were confirmed...so we may have to freeze half of it to prevent the 2 of us from eating this whole thing in record time!

I can't wait to make this and impress folks with it! I will try different pans next time--or adjust recipe to fit properly into a 10" skillet...

I have awful photo this week...it was either snap and post, or no post at all...and considering 2 weeks ago I took extra time to snap photos in the daylight, and then did not get my act together to write the post on the coconut cake we all baked--ugh..meant I missed a Tuesday posting...So even though it does not count, just for the record, here is my dandy coconut cake from a couple of weeks ago! Anytime I can take out the Kugelhopf pan is a good time!

For more on the Swedish Visiting Cake, including recipe, visit Nancy's blog...and for more takes on the cake, visit the sites listed in the blogroll of us Dorie Greenspan faithfuls!