Average Betty makes traditional Estonian barley bread

Remember my recent post about a quirky American foodblogger, Sara o'Donnell aka Average Betty, visiting Estonia? Well, she's now back home, and going through all the lovely recipes served at our party and mentioned in my post (or at least that's what I'd love to think :)). She has also posted her first Estonian recipe video on her very popular YouTube channel, where she makes and bakes the delicious and simple Estonian barley bread, odrajahukarask.

Here's the link to Average Betty's YouTube recipe video* - do check it out, it's very informative and entertaining at the same time.

Sara uses a recipe from Marika Blossfeldt's excellent book Essential Nourishment: Recipes from My Estonian Farm. and the bread on Sara's photo (on the left) and on the video looks just perfect.

Here are links to some other blog posts written  by Sara about her trip to Estonia:
Estonian epicures and how to choose wine infographic (August 3)
My day with chef Dimitri Demjanov (August 20)
Traditional Estonian barley bread recipe  (August 29)
Leib: Estonian for Bread  (August 30)

* Note that while the soda bread/barley bread Average Betty is making is traditionally Estonian, the music at the beginning and at the end of the video is definitely not. Sara was here during the Old Town Festival, and wandering around our beautiful Town Hall Square while some Russian babushkas were on the stage, singing :)

Once you've tried Sara's/Marika's recipe for the traditional soda bread, remember that you'll find two more recipes for the Estonian barley bread/soda bread here on Nami-Nami.

Estonian soda bread/barley bread with kefir or cultured buttermilk:

Estonian barley bread with ricotta:


Feel free to browse all the Estonian recipes here on Nami-Nami.

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Beetroot pkhali, or Georgian beet salad with walnuts and herbs

There have been no beetroot recipes on Nami-Nami recently. I wrote about the wonderful Persian dish, beetroot borani, back in May, but that's three months ago! Me thinks there's definitely time for another beet dish, or I'm in danger of losing my Beetroot Princess* title :)

A fortnight ago we hosted a Georgian feast in our backyard, and one of the many Georgian dishes I prepared was this simple and stunning-looking pkhali, made with beetroot. Pkhali is a Georgian vegetable dish that's something between a salad, dip or even spread, depending on the consistency you choose; the characteristic feature is the aromatic garlic-walnut-herb dressing. (You may have come across an alternative spelling, mkhali. That's the Russian name for this Caucasian salad.) The most popular are beetroot pkhali and spinach pkhali, but one can also use cabbage, eggplant/aubergine, red kidney beans or other vegetables. At any Georgian feast, you would usually find a selection of pkhakli-dishes to sample. I've provided a number of links at the end of the post, if you wish to explore further.

Ideally you'd roast your own beets for the best flavour, but I've used pre-cooked (organic) beets on couple of occasions and I doubt anyone noticed, really.

Charklis pkhali aka Georgian beet salad with walnuts and herbs
(Gruusia peedisalat kreeka pähklitega)
Serves about six or many more as part of a buffét table

 

500 g beets/beetroot

100 g walnuts
3 to 4 garlic cloves
1 tsp salt
freshly ground black pepper, to taste
a handful of fresh parsley
a handful of fresh coriander/cilantro
0.5 tsp dried savoury
0.5 tsp ground coriander seeds
about a Tbsp of good-quality red wine vinegar, apple cider vinegar or balsamic vinegar

If you're using raw beets, then scrub them clean and wash thoroughly, wrap into a piece of foil and bake in a pre-heated 180C/350F oven for 60 to 90 minutes, until the beets are cooked. Cool, peel and grate finely.
If you're using boiled beets, then grate them finely and let drain on a sieve for a while, to get rid of any excess moisture (you can press the beets even drier with your hands or a wooden spoon).
At the same time place the walnuts, garlic cloves and a generous pinch of salt into a food processor and process into coarse paste. Add the coriander/cilantro leaves and parsley, process again for a short while.
(You can obviously use the good old pestle and mortar to make that walnut and garlic paste).
In a big bowl, mix the grated beets, walnut-garlic-herb paste and the rest of the ingredients. Season with salt and pepper according to taste. Be cautious with the vinegar - pkhali needs to be slightly acidic, but never vinegary, and the exact amount depends on the sweetness of your roasted or cooked beetroots.
Cover the bowl and transfer into the fridge or cold larder for 2-6 hours - this "waiting time" is necessary for the flavours to mingle and develop.
To serve**, form the pkhali into small balls (optional) and place onto your serving plate. Garnish with pomegranate seeds, thinly sliced red onion or chopped of spring onion/scallion.
Serve at room temperature.

* My friend Alanna of A Veggie Venture is the reigning Beet Queen, remember :)

** Alternatively, spread the pkhali evenly on a plate, then make a diamond pattern on the spread with the edge of your knife before garnishing (see Melissa's spinach pkhali link below as an example). Of course, you can also simply spoon the pkhali into a suitably sized bowl.

More pkhali recipes: 
Spinach pkhali @ The Traveler's Lunchbox
Spinach pkhali balls @ Jeanette's Healthy Living
Beetroot pkhali @ Winter Skies, Kitchen Aglow
Beet pkhali  @ Stay for Tea
Spinach pkhali @ Delicious Georgian Recipes
Spinach Pkhali, Cabbage Pkhali, Beet Pkhali  @ Food Gather.com

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Ravensburger The Amazing Spider-man Jigsaw Puzzle

Recently Ravensburger sent us our Puzzle of the month to review, usually the puzzle is aimed for Nathan or James but Callum had a lovely surprise when he saw that this months puzzle was in fact for him. We were sent The Amazing Spider-man jigsaw puzzles.

There are 3 puzzles in the box, each puzzle is made up of 49 pieces. When I first opened the box and saw a bag full of pieces I was slightly concerned as to how Callum would differentiate between the pieces needed for the 3 individual puzzles, especially as there is a lot of red and blue pieces for each of them. On closer inspection we saw that the puzzles were all marked differently on the backs so that you could see which piece belonged to which puzzle.

Callum said he enjoyed doing the puzzles and that they didn't take him to long to do although they did make him use his brain to figure out where the pieces went. The puzzles are suitable for children aged 5+. Nathan did try helping Callum at one point but got bored as he said there were too many pieces to put together.

We can't wait until next month so see what puzzle we will have to review.

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Scatter Brainz... Real Boys Toys

This last week Callum and Nathan have been playing with some real boys toys. They were sent some Scatter Brainz to try out. Were were sent a 8 pack and a 3 pack of Series 1 Scatter Brainz. Scatter Brainz have just been released, they will be on shelves very soon and I'm pretty certain they will be a toy that is on lots of Christmas lists this year.

The Scatter Brainz are a dart shaped toy, each dart has a unique character. The darts have a sticky squashed brain tip. 

Series 1 Scatter Brainz are sold in packs of 3 and 8. The 8 pack includes a Scatter Brainz target board.  There are rare and ultra rare Scatter Brainz hidden inside the packs.

Also soon available to buy is the Brain Bazooka and the Scatter Brainz Mental Case. The Brain Bazooka shoots up to 5 darts, it comes in two different styles and includes two exclusive dart characters. The Mental Case features a dart board that spins, four different targets, space for 50 darts, plus 4 exclusive toy Scatter Brainz.

Scatter Brainz toys will soon be available to buy from good toy retailers, the 8 pack is priced around £9.99.

All week Callum has been playing with the Scatter Brainz, both him and Nathan find them really funny ("because you can see their brain mummy" - oh silly me!!) the only thing they complained about them was that they lost some of their stickiness however I think if we had the tin to keep them in then they would last a lot longer and if the boys had remembered to replace the caps over the brainz once they'd finished playing with them too then I think they would have kept their stickiness a bit longer.

Overall the boys really liked them even if this was more the novelty factor they said they would definitely like more in the future and have certainly been eyeing up the dart gun as a must for their lists to Santa (which seem to be growing bigger and bigger)

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Courgette cake with lemon frosting (Lemon and Zucchini Cake)

I've been blogging for over 7 years now, and have been reading a number of foodblogs from regularly since then. You know who you are, JW, KD, AK, DL, EB, MK, CD, MW and so on. I still clearly remember an old Utah (?) joke Kalyn posted in her excellent blog six years ago, so I've dugged it up for you:

Do you know why people in Utah lock their car doors in the summer when they go into church? It's because if they don't, when they come out the car will be full of zucchini.
(Kalyn Denny, Garden Update #3, 4 June 2006)

Well, the courgette/zucchini grows just as well here in Estonia, and I'm having to come up with delicious ways of using the bounty on almost a daily basis. And there are only 2 zucchini plants in my vegetable garden this year!!!

Chocolate and Zucchini seems to be the most common and popular combination for a zucchini cake - take chocolate and zucchini cake and chocolate zucchini bread (Elise @ Simply Recipes), gluten-free chocolate chip zucchini brownies (Karina @ Gluten-free Goddess), double chocolate zucchini bread (Michelle @ Brown Eyed Baker), chocolate zucchini cupcakes (Two Peas & Their Pod), for instance. The list goes on and on. But trust me, courgettes/zucchini and lemon are just as good mates. So here's another excellent cake and another lovely recipe helping you to use up that courgette/zucchini bounty.

Note that the American measuring cup is 240 ml - that will help you convert the recipe into "American", in case you haven't got kitchen scales.

Courgette cake with lemon frosting
(Suvikõrvitsakeeks sidrunivõõbaga)
Serves about 10

 

200 g courgette/zucchini (about 400 ml coarsely grated)
finely grated zest of 1 lemon
200 g all-purpose/plain flour (about 350 ml)
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp vanilla sugar or 1 tsp vanilla extract
a pinch of salt
2 large eggs
125 g caster sugar (about 150 ml)
100 g oil (rapeseed, olive; about 150 ml)
3 to 4 Tbsp pinenuts (or chopped nuts of your choice)

Lemon frosting:
juice of 1 lemon
icing sugar/confectioner's sugar

Preheat oven to 180 C/ 350 F. Grease and flour (you can use flour, semolina, polenta) an 8×4-inch loaf pan or 1,5 litre/quart Bundt tin; set aside.

Grate the zucchini/courgette coarsely, add the grated lemon zest.

Mix flour, baking powder, vanilla sugar and salt until combined.

Whisk the eggs and sugar until pale, thick and fluffy. Fold in the oil, then the dry ingredients. Finally add the grated courgette/zucchini, lemon zest and the pine nuts.

Spoon the batter into the prepared cake tin. Bake in a pre-heated 180 C/350 F oven for about 45 minutes, until fully cooked (test the doneness with a wooden toothpick - it should remain clean after being pierced into the cake).

Let the cake cool for about 15 minutes, then turn upside down onto a serving plate. Cool completely, then remove the cake tin.

If you wish, you can glaze the cake with a lemon frosting. To make the frosting, simply add enough icing sugar into the lemon juice to get a desired consistency. Spoon the frosting over the cake and serve.

I've used blue borage flowers to decorate the cake.

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Geomag Wheels Police Chase Triple Pack

This week Callum has been really busy reviewing some fab toys. He has been really pleased about this as normally most of the toys we get to review are for his little brothers.

Callum and I have just finished  making the Geomag Wheels Police Chase Triple Pack.

Geomag is like no other toy on the market, it is a magnetic construction system that uses magnetic rods and chrome spheres. The Police Triple pack contains  68 pieces and enables you to make a  Police Helicopter, a Police car and a Police 4x4. In the box you get an instructions leaflet and enough pieces for you to complete the 3 vehicles.

This was the first time Callum has ever tried constructing with Geomag and he thought it was really fun and quite easy to do. I had to help him with folding some of the edges for the 3 vehicles as he found this slightly difficult and I must admit that without any written instructions I often wondered if I was putting things into the right places.

We started with the helicopter first as we thought this looked the simplest to build, we timed ourselves and was surprised that it took us 20 minutes to put it together. We were quite impressed with the finished result though.

After we thought we'd tackle the police 4x4. This one we thought was the most difficult of the three to complete as the rods didn't quite seem to stay in place for the wheels, this however was maybe down to the way I had folded up the body as the front wheels fitted better than the back ones.

Lastly we made the police car, this was probably the easiest out of the three vehicles to make and probably the one we should of started with as it required very little folding, even callum managed to do this one himself.

We enjoyed building the Geomag Police vehicles, its not often Callum and I get chance to spend time doing this sort of thing together so it made a lovely change. In all we spent about an hour doing them. A good point about Geomag is that they can be taken apart just as easily and a lot quicker than building them. Because the bodies are made from plastic they wont break easily and can be put back together over and over.

The Geomag Wheels Police Chase Triple Pack is available to buy from Smyths and is priced at £24.99.  We would certainly recommend this set.

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Monsuno Strike Combat Set & Cores

When we were asked to review a range of Monsuno toys I honestly didn't have a clue what they were. I asked Callum if he'd ever heard of them and was like "oh mummy they are just the best things ever... you know the programme I like watching on Nicktoons? well that's Monsuno!" I was like oh ok and still none the wiser. I asked Callum if he'd like to give them a try and he was only to happy to help.

We were sent the Monsuno Strike Combat Set, a Wild Core and a pack of 4 Cores for our review.

Monsuno are monsters created from ancient energy, that you can use to battle your friends. The aim of the game or battle as it is known is to spin your Monsuno core into the Combat arena and battle it out with friends! There are different modes of game play but the simplest one is defeating the other sides Monsuno by reducing their points to zero. This game is played using just your core and its strike card. Each game is started when both players say Monsuno Ready! The players take it in turns to try and attack the other players cores with their own core. If they miss  the core their turn is over. If once a core is released and the Monsuno is released then the other players Monsuno takes damage equal to the value of the Monsuno that is attacking.  Damage points are shown on the Monsuno figures. At first it was a little difficult for Callum to understand who to play the game but once I had shown him it a few times he understood and was away to play. We haven't tried any of the harder modes of game play yet but I'm pretty sure it wont be long before we are trying them out.

The Monsuno Strike Sector Combat Set allows for fast-paced Monsuno battle action anytime, anywhere. It is really quick and easy to set up as the four pieces snap together and apart folds up for easy transport. Included in the box is a on-the-go battle bag meaning you can easily take the Strike Selector with you and keep all your bits together. The Monsuno Strike Sector Combat Set is priced around £24.99 and available from all good toy shops. It is recommended for children aged 4 years plus.

The Wild Core is motorized and will bring chaos to any battle. Each Wild Core comes with an exclusive collector game card. A Wild core can spin for up to 20 minutes and can be used to The wild core has LED lights and can spin for up to 20 minutes. Wild Cores are priced at £14.99 and can be purchased from all good toy retailers. 

Each core opens out to reveal a character from the TV show. The 4 VS pack comes with 4 Monsuno Cores, 4 Action Figures and 12 Collector Game Cards! The $ Vs pack is priced around £24.99 and available from all good toy retailers. There are 32 cores in total to collect in four different styles.

Callum said he really likes the Monsuno toys and can't wait for his friends to come round so he can battle them! I suppose this is our next move in the way of toys for him as he is getting too big to play with the same toys as his little brothers. He has already started his Christmas list for Santa (yes I am wondering how big it will actually be come December) and has asked for more Monsunos so that he can collect them all and have bigger battles with his friends.

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Simple, yet decadent fish supper: pan-fried vendace

Vendace is a wonderful freshwater whitefish that you'll find all over the northern continental Europe. The Latin name is Coregonus albula, and although it looks quite similar to the Estonian "national fish" Baltic Herring (räim aka Clupea harengus membras) that belongs to the herring family, then vendace is actually part of the salmonidae family alongside salmon, char, trout, graylings and other freshwater whitefishes.You're most likely to come across vendace (also called European cisco) in the lakes of Finland, Sweden, Russia and Estonia, as well as some lakes in the UK, Poland and Northern Germany. When I say the lakes of Estonia, I mean Lake Peipus - and must sadly admit that vendace has been scarce in the local waters during the last years.

Imagine my excitement when I saw beautifully fresh vendace at the local farmer's market yesterday morning! I immediately bought some hot-smoked vendace for lunch, and almost a kilogram of fresh vendace for dinner. It's such a delicate and excellent fish that doesn't need much messing around. A quick bath in a seasoned rye flour, followed by frying in hot butter or oil - you'll find the "recipe" below. I served the fried vendace with a fresh tomato salad, and the meal was enjoyed by all, including the small kids.

A note on vendace roe. The dark orange-coloured vendace roe (rääbisemari/löjrom) is a true delicacy, and Kalix löjrom from  the Swedish Botnia Bay archipelago has even been granted a PDO (protected designation of origin) status by the European Union, just like Prosciutto ham from Tuscany or Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese from Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna. When the rather excellent roe of common/European whitefish (Coregonus lavaretus) cost 799 SEK (Swedish crowns) in a supermarket in Stockholm back in early June, then the vendace roe was almost double the price, 1490 SEK:


Sorry for the photo quality - it was a quick snap with my mobile phone.

Names in other languages: rääbis (Estonian), muikku (Finnish), ryapushka (Russian), löj (Swedish), corégone blanc/la petite marène (French), Kleine Maräne (German).

Pan-fried vendace



fresh vendace (calculate about 2-3 fish per person)
rye flour or oatmeal
salt
freshly ground black pepper
fresh dill, finely chopped
oil and butter for frying

Season the flour with salt and pepper, then roll the fish in the flour until evenly covered. Heat some butter and oil (or just one or the other) in a heavy frying pan over medium heat. Add the fish and fry for a few minutes on one side until dark golden brown, then carefully turn over and fry the other side for a few minutes again.

Garnish with a sprinkling of dill and serve with boiled new potatoes or potato mash, and perhaps a dollop of good home-made mayonnaise (be sure to click on the link if you haven't seen the cool Nami-Nami video recipe yet).

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Estonian cookie cake (küpsisetort)

Here's a true Estonian classic - a layered cookie cake. If you've been reading Nami-Nami blog, you may remember that an Estonian cookie cake was also featured at the festive spread we served for Average Betty few weeks ago. It's a popular cake on children's birthday parties and on September 1st (the day all Estonian kids go back to school).

I suspect these are the main reasons for its popularity:
* There are just a few ingredients.
* It's pretty cheap and affordable.
* It's yummy :)
* There are endless variations - you can use different flavoured cookies, different cream, different decorations.
* The cake takes about 10-15 minutes to assemble, and every kid can make it, even small ones.

The cookie cake above was made with the help of my 3,5 year old daughter - she did all the cookie-dipping and cookie-placing, I was left with spreading the sour cream between the layers. And she's made this cake before - here's a family portrait taken in January - few days before our son's first birthday and few weeks before our daughter's third birthday:


Photo by Hele-Mai Alamaa (Pere & Kodu) as part for the cover story back in February. 

I make two main versions - one with halva and sour cream filling, the other with plain sour cream filling. That's right - plain, unflavoured sour cream - the cookies are sweet enough and there's absolutely no need to sweeten the cream that goes between the cookies. However, there are lots of people who add thinly sliced bananas between the layer, but I haven't tried that myself. I guess I like the classics remain classic :)

As far as the cookies go, you need rectangular unfilled cookies - either plain or chocolate-flavoured or any other flavour you like. The cookies shouldn't be more than 5-6 mm (1/4-inch) thick. In Estonia any flavour produced and distributed by Estonian Kalev or Latvian Selga would work, elsewhere you could try with Bahlsen Leibniz's Butter Biscuits, or LU's Le Petit Beurre biscuit cookies, for instance.

Sounds familiar? There's a similar, yet different popular cake in Germany, called Keller Kuchen (Cellar cake) or  Kalter Hund (Cold Dog), or radiokaka in Sweden, where butter cookies are layered with chocolate and coconut butter cream.

NB! Make this cake at least 4 hours earlier, preferably day before, so the sour cream has time to soften the cookies and make the cake more cakey. You can top the cake with chocolate glaze and decorate it just half an hour before serving.

Estonian cookie cake
(Kõige parem küpsisetort)
Serves 12 to 15

 

4 packets of square/rectangular cookies (180 g/6 oz each)
100-200 ml milk or coffee for dipping the cookies
750 g thick sour cream (about 20% fat content)

Chocolate glaze:
100 g dark chocolate
50 g unsalted butter
4 Tbsp double cream

To decorate:
crispy pearl sugar
fresh berries
coconut flakes/shredded coconut

Dip 12 to 15 cookies into the milk or coffee and place onto a suitable cake tray (I usually use 3x5 cookies or 15 in total, depending on your cake tray, you may prefer 3x4 pattern, resulting in 12 servings).
Now spread about a third of the sour cream evenly on top of the cookies. Continue with 3 more cookie and 2 more sour cream layers, finishing with the cookie layer.
Cover the cake with a cling film and place into the fridge to soften.

To make the chocolate glaze, break the chocolate into pieces and place into a small saucepan with butter and fresh cream. Slowly heat on a medium heat, stirring regularly, until the glaze is smooth and glossy. Spoon over the cake, spreading it evenly all over the top. (If using shredded coconut or pearl sugar for garnish, do it now, so it sticks into the chocolate glaze). Place back into the fridge to harden.

To serve, cut the cake into neat squares (or rectangles, if your cookies weren't square), or smaller slices, if you prefer. Garnish with berries, if you wish (I used the wonderful green variety of blackcurrants, Vertti, that I was talking about in a recent post).

Here's exactly the same cake, using chocolate-flavoured cookies and garnished with crispy pearl sugar granules:


Similar recipes in English-language foodblogs: 
Easy 7-layer cake  @ Steven and Chris
Kellerkuchen / Cellar cake  @ Light Recipes

Similar recipes in Estonian foodblogs:
Küpsisetort kohupiimakreemi ja banaaniga @ Sööme silmadega (Dagris)
Šokolaadine küpsisetort  @ Kiilike köögis (Anneli)
Kohupiimakreemiga küpsisetort  @ Siit nurgast ja sealt nurgast (Mari-Liis)
Vale-napoleoni kook  @ Kokkama Ragnega (Ragne)
Šokolaadi-toorjuustukook küpsistega @ Kokkama Ragnega (Ragne)
Hapukoorekreemiga küpsisetort @ Tassike.ee (Marju)
Küpsisetort  @ Magusad fotod (Marit)
Kohvimaitseline küpsisetort  @ Hea toit, parem elu! (Merit)
Küpsisetort @ Head asjad (Neve)
Halvaa-küpsisetort @ Maitse asi (Jaanika)

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Back To School With Clarks

I am one of those parents that dreads the end of the summer holidays, well that's a lie I love sending the boys back to school as I'm ready for the break and my house is ready to be put back in some kind of order. But I dread the time when it comes to buying school uniforms and shoes. There is so much choice and so many places to shop it can be a confusing time, an afternoon in town can leave even the most patient of parents tearing their hair out and I have to admit I've come close to losing both the plot and will to live when it comes to finding good quality school shoes in the past.

This year we were asked if we would like to go along to our local Clarks store and get some school shoes for Callum. We were sent a £40 voucher to spend on some shoes.

We arrived at the shop for midday as requested by the appointment that was made on our behalf in store. You can book an appointment online for your local Clarks store too, appointments are for 15 minutes and you can book more than one child at a time and all your appointments will be together, I think this is a great idea as it means you can go straight to the store at your allotted time and not be kept waiting in a queue - which lets face it if you have more than one child to get shoes for can be a bit of a nightmare especially if you have younger children to try and entertain too. Obviously you can still just walk into a store and be seen as you normally would.

Callum was really excited when he was asked to step onto the special machine that measures older children's feet. The process is pain free but gets an accurate measurement and takes literally 30 seconds to 1 minute to get a measurement. Callum's feet measured 1.5f. 

We were brought out 3 pairs of shoes in Callum's size. He tried all 3 on and even went for a walk around the shop to make sure they were comfy. He had a struggle picking a pair from the 3 as he liked them all. But eventually he decided upon a pair of Jack Nano Jnr Shoes. 

The shoes are made from black leather and are perfect for school, they also have a rubberised toe guard, and as any mum would know boys love to scuff the toes on their shoes almost immediately after purchase. The shoes fasten using 2 Velcro strips, this makes them really easy for a child to fasten and adjust them correctly.

The shoes are available from a size 10 and go all the way up to a 4. They also come in 4 different widths (E - H). The shoes are priced at £38. I think what swayed Callum to choose these shoes is the little Jack Nano figure that comes with the shoes. The toy is cleverly hidden in the heel of a shoe but can be seen in the heel underneath. Callum loves his little toy as does his brothers so he loves the fact that he can hide the toy from them.

Callum loves his new shoes and can't wait to go back to school to show all his friends his hidden toys! I on the other hand I'm quite pleased to say that I'm almost done with my back to school shopping. 

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Go MINI Stunt Launcher

Recently the boys were asked if they'd like to review the Go Mini Stunt Launcher from Golden Bear. As they were in the middle of the E.ON batteries not included challenge and as this toy doesn't need batteries it came at the perfect time for us to try it out.

Golden Bears Go MINI collection is one of the most exciting launches for boys this Christmas. There are four ranges and 17 cars to collect, each with its own name, fun features, and unique decoration there’s a Go MINI for everybody. There are 5 Stunt Racers (like the one we were sent) in the normal range and one exclusive Stunt Racer that is only available with the Stunt Launcher. 

The cars in the collection are extremely cute, each with their own personality and a stunt to match, the stunt launcher allows you to 'charge' the car by pulling back the handle (this was one of James' favourite bits when playing with the launcher). The rev counter clocks up every time you pull the lever back, then press the start button and watch the car race off along the floor.  The car we were send does a wheelie when you put into stunt mode. To put the car into stunt mode you need to turn a little dial underneath the car. 

The stunt launcher is priced around £19.99 and available from all good toy retailers, the additional cars are priced from £4.99. But you do not need the launcher to be able to play with the cars as they can be charged up manually by pulling them backwards.

James really enjoyed playing with the stunt launcher and as it doesn't require batteries it will never become one of those toys that stops being played with when i forget to replace the batteries.

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Coconut and Blueberry Cake

I'm on a blueberry mood just now. As I told in my previous post (baked blueberry cheesecake with a sour cream jelly topping, remember) we're having a very good year of blueberries and bilberries in Estonia just now, so the amount of blueberry dishes that are being cooked and baked in Nami-Nami kitchen just now is quite considerable (take note of these yeast rolls with blueberry, vanilla and curd cheese filling, for instance). And the season is not even over yet, although other lovely berries - tart lingonberries/cowberries, for instance, are ripening quickly.

This simple coconut and blueberry cake was featured on our table twice during last week alone. Simple, quick, tasty, and has already received positive feedback from my Estonian readers, so it comes with good recommendations. Because of its simplicity, I'd describe it as rather a midweek cake and not a fancy weekend affair.

Coconut and Blueberry Cake
(Kookoshelbe-mustikakook)
Serves 10
Adapted from the Swedish food magazine Allt om Mat.



75 g butter, melted
2 large eggs
100 g caster sugar
100 g all-purpose/plain flour
100 g coconut flakes (unsweetened)
1 tsp baking powder
a pinch of salt
half a lemon, juice and finely grated zest

Topping:
200 ml (about a cup) blueberries/bilberries
2 Tbsp (demerara) sugar

Butter and line the base of a 24 cm springform tin with parchment paper.
Mix the dry ingredients (flour, coconut flakes, baking powder, salt) in a medium bowl.
Whisk the eggs and sugar in your mixer until light, thick and fluffy. Gently stir in the melted butter and the dry ingredients, then season with lemon juice and zest.
Pour the batter into the cake tin. Scatter the blueberries on top, sprinkle with demerara sugar.
  

Bake in the middle of a preheated 175 C/350 F oven for 30 minutes, until the cake is fully cooked and light golden on top.

Cool a little, then cut into slices and serve.



More blueberry/bilberry recipes:
Blueberry and sour cream tart
Baked blueberry cheesecake with sour cream jelly topping
Blueberry and lemon friands
French blueberry tart
Blueberry pancakes
Baked semolina pudding with custard and blueberries
Blueberry syrup
Blueberry jam

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