I am a keen baker of cakes and breads. I’ve been

baking since childhood, and have a special love

of home baking. I’m not a trained pastry chef, but

learned by doing. Before I knew I was going to

be a chef, I was a stay-at-home mom to my small

children for some years. Baking was part of our

everyday life, and I would bake cakes more than

once a week. For special occasions my children and

I would make theme cakes using our imaginations

and various homemade decorations. Since I didn’t

know any techniques, I discovered everything

through trial and error.

Bakeland

by Marit Hovland

would have been my dream book.

When I ﬁrst read

Bakeland

, I was mesmerized

by all the amazing ideas Marit brings to life.

She ﬁnds ways to bring nature into the kitchen,

combining home baking with artful but nonpro-

fessional decorating using natural ingredients. She

lives up to a basic rule of mine: don’t use anything

your grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food.

The recipes are relatively easy. Some are a

little more complicated than others, but all can be

accomplished by anybody with a passion for baking.

Just read the recipes before you start, then follow

the instructions carefully, and you will go on a

journey with Marit that is fun and creative.

Marit’s inventions bring cake and cookie dec-

orating down to earth without compromising on

aesthetics or on ﬂavor. Imagination is a big part of

this baking book. I love the little meringue mush-

rooms, the green coconut Christmas trees, the

strawberry macarons, the icing butterﬂies, and the

FOREWORD

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cookies that look like birches—iconic trees here in

the North.

The recipes are well tested and they work. I

baked from the book with great joy together with

my ten-year-old niece Mathilde, who also loves

Bakeland

. We’ve ﬂipped through it numerous times

and have a list of things we still want to make—

treats to look forward to for every season.

Bakeland

celebrates Nordic life in the way it is

structured around the seasons. Seasons are very

important in the Nordic countries. They deﬁne

our everyday life. The light tells us which month

we are in and what time of day, and we eat and

live accordingly. Produce comes and goes with the

seasons, which may be very short: berries are only

in season for six to eight weeks, so we eat them

every day while they last.

I love the way that light plays into these recipes,

offering inspiration in terms of patterns and

ideas—for example, the cookies with small clouds.

Some of the decorations even have interesting

echoes of Nordic painters.

Seasons are also about cold and warm temper-

atures. We tend to eat heavier things in winter

than in summer; we need sweet things to get us

through the dark winter months, and summer

cakes to celebrate the light and the more welcom-

ing weather.

I think we need a world in which more bak-

ing takes place at home, rather than just being

something we watch chefs do on television. This

book should be used regularly in the kitchen,

its pages getting dusted with ﬂour and spotted

with icing. It could bring families together on a

Saturday for a baking project. Or it could inspire a

baking-themed birthday party, where the children

bake the cake themselves.

Or you could just spend a day baking all by

yourself, and your dream cake will come to life. I

promise it is the best and most stress-free time you

can have. For myself, when the world is running

too fast, I go into my kitchen and bake a cake.

Marit Hovland’s

Bakeland

has inspired new ideas

that I am excited to explore. I recommend this

book to anybody who bakes.

Bake with love,

Trine Hahnemann

Author of

The Scandinavian Cookbook

and

Scandina-

vian Baking

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M I N T G L A Z E D

HAZELNUT COOKIES

Look up! Maybe you’ll see an interesting cloud in the sky today. Clouds soar by in all shapes

and sizes. Allow your imagination to soar along with them and decorate these soft hazelnut

cookies in cloud patterns with the help of a kitchen sponge.

makes 18 cookies

Hazelnut cookies

cups (250 g) hazelnuts

cups (200 g) icing sugar

1 Tbsp all-purpose ﬂour

1 egg white

1 Tbsp lemon juice

Mint glaze

1 egg white

2 tsp lemon juice

approximately 1

cups (200 g)

icing sugar

few drops peppermint oil

Decoration

blue liquid gel food coloring

water

Preheat the oven to 350ºF (180ºC). Line a baking sheet with parch-

ment paper.

Grind the hazelnuts using a nut grinder. In a bowl, combine the

ground hazelnuts with the icing sugar and ﬂour. Add the egg white

and lemon juice. Work the dough well with your hands until the

ingredients are combined.

Dust some icing sugar on your pastry board and roll out the dough

with a rolling pin until it is approximately ∑ inch (7 mm) thick. Cut

the dough into approximately 2-inch (5 cm) squares, or use cookie cut-

ters. Transfer to the prepared baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes

on the middle rack of the oven. Transfer the cookies to a wire rack

to cool.

In a bowl, stir together the egg white, lemon juice, and icing sugar.

Add peppermint oil to taste—it’s very strong, so add just a little at a

time! Transfer to a piping bag.

Mix a few drops of food coloring with a little water. For further

instructions, see page 47.

Tip: A great way to roll out an even dough is to ﬁnd two items of the same height you want your dough (here,

inch/7 mm)—for example two pieces of wood, or two magazines or books. Place these on either side of the dough

so that the rolling pin rolls on them. That way, the dough will be the same thickness all the way across.

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Lemon cream

2 Tbsp (30 g) butter

2 egg yolks

cup (70 g) granulated sugar

2 Tbsp (30 ml) lemon juice

Rosemary cupcakes

cup (65 g) butter, at room

temperature

cup (135 g) granulated sugar

2 eggs

cup (165 g) light sour cream

1 cup (135 g) all-purpose ﬂour

1 tsp baking powder

pinch of salt

tsp dried rosemary

Decoration

icing sugar

Cut the butter into cubes and keep them cold. Put all the ingredients,

except the butter, into a double boiler, or a stainless steel bowl over a

saucepan with water, and heat, stirring constantly. (You can also put

the ingredients directly into the saucepan if you keep it on low heat.)

When the mixture begins to thicken, remove it from the heat and stir

in the butter. Set aside.

Preheat the oven to 350ºF (180ºC). Line a 12-cup mufﬁn pan with

cupcake liners, or place the liners directly on a baking sheet.

Using a handheld mixer, whip the butter and the sugar together

in a bowl until ﬂuffy. Keep whipping while you add the eggs, one at a

time, mixing well between each. Fold in the sour cream with a rubber

spatula.

In a separate bowl, stir together the ﬂour, baking powder, and salt.

Sift the dry ingredients into the wet mixture and fold in. Finally, fold

in the rosemary, crushing it a little between your ﬁngers before you

add it.

Fill the cupcake liners evenly with the batter. If you’re not using a

mufﬁn pan, you’ll need to use more than 12 liners and ﬁll each one

only

full so it doesn’t overﬂow. You’ll also need to reduce the baking

time by a few minutes.

Bake the cupcakes on the middle rack of the oven for about 20

minutes. Remove them to a wire rack to cool.

On page 77, you’ll ﬁnd instructions for decorating the cupcakes.

ROSEMARY CUPCAKES

WITH LEMON CREAM

Is there anyone who hasn’t picked a daisy, pulled out petal after petal, and asked: “Loves me,

loves me not?” I think you’ll love these rosemary cupcakes, ﬁlled with a tart lemon cream and

topped with a daisy made of icing sugar.

makes 12 cupcakes

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B A K E L A N D

Nordic Treats Inspired by Nature

M A R I T H O V L A N D

f o r e w o r d b y

TRINE HAHNEMANN

FOREWORD

M I N T G L A Z E D

HAZELNUT COOKIES

ROSEMARY CUPCAKES

WITH LEMON CREAM