I was intrigued by a recipe I saw here on WordPress for an Icelandic cake which is traditionally made for Christmas. It is made with six layers sandwiched together with a home-made prune jam, and as it was flavoured with cardamom and almonds it just sounded too good to resist making! I bought some prunes (I had everything else I needed, and after studying the recipe carefully, set to.
It was an unusual recipe compared to the ones I usually make, where I would cream the butter and sugar together and then add flour and eggs alternately. Here I creamed the butter so it was nice and fluffy, then added the butter… and then very carefully the eggs. Lastly I added the dry ingredients… the mixture was extremely light, but also very loose. The recipe said to knead it lightly… well that was impossible with the mixture I had as it was very, very soft and moist. Maybe my eggs were too big? Because I had never made it before I didn’t like to add extra flour which would have made a stiffer mix. Then I had to divide it into six equal pieces, which I did, weighing each portion. Each portion had to be ‘patted’ into a 9″ cake tine… well I really struggled to that, the mixture was so sticky it didn’t want to pat! I did my best. It was to be cooked on a low heat until golden brown… I think because my mixture was so wet it needed a higher temperature, so after a long time of anxiously waiting for it to go ‘golden brown’ I turned up the heat, and eventually I took my six cakes from the oven and turned them out.
Making the prune ‘jam’ was easy and it tasted delicious! I seemed to have rather a lot of it though, never mind, it will be wonderful on toast for breakfast! My cakes were all different thicknesses because I’d had such trouble spreading the mixture… but never mind, I spread them with the prune jam, I sandwiched them together, I wrapped them and left them to become ‘moist’ and on Christmas Day, I unwrapped my vinarterta, sliced it and served it!
The flavour was wonderful, but I don’t think I got the cake quite right… if I make it again (which I will because the flavours are lovely) I will trust my instincts and cake-making experience with the cake mixture and add more flour.
I cut it into slices and the off-cuts I used to make a dessert with home-grown raspberries, crème fraiche,and home-made raspberry jam,
Uneven layers… and should I have used more of the prune jam?
Lois Elsden 
Hi Lois, I’m sorry the cake part didn’t turn out as well as you’d hoped. In trying to troubleshoot I’m wondering a few things – was the flour all purpose and was the butter super soft? If the dough is too soft, it’s best to put the dough balls in the fridge. The patting of the dough is a bit of work, though starting from the centre of the pan, you do have to push it out bit by bit. I think I need to do a video to show how it’s done. Maybe some of what I watched my Mom do and what I have done doesn’t come across in the writing. Thanks for trying the recipe and I do hope that you’ll get better results next time. Blessings, Carol
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It was delicious – but it just seemed not quite right… I will definitely do it again, I love the combination of flavours! it was such a very soft mixture I wonder if my eggs were too big? Thanks for posting the original recipe and photos,, and thanks for your helpful suggestions about the butter and about chilling it… It is definitely going to be an annual cake for us!
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A video would be great! By the way, I used that combination of flavours in just an ordinary sponge cake, with a prune filling and it was devoured! So thanks again!
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