RUNEBERG'S TARTS

A nation's favorite poet is the man who composes its anthem, or the other way round, even if the language in which the poem is composed is actually foreign. Such is the case of the Finnish-Swedish poet Johan Ludwig Runeberg (1804-1877), who -in the years of national awakening- composed Finland's anthem.  Oddly enough, Maamme or Tales of the Ensign Stål that was performed as song in 1848 has been the national anthem of Estonia and Livonia as well. Its subject is the Finnish War of 1808-1809 in which Sweden lost all of its Finnish lands, as we discussed in the post on Tsar Alexander's cake.

Several people worked for the official edition of the Finnish national anthem. Runeberg himself, who composed the original poem in 1848; the German Fredrik Pacjus, who composed the music in the same year; the poet Julius Krohn, who translated the words from Swedish into Finnish in 1867; the poet Paavo Cajander, who made the official Finnish translation in 1889; the painter Albert Edelfelt, who illustrated the 1898 edition of Runeberg's long poem Tales of the Ensign Stål.

 

 

Ensign Stål - Albert Edelfelt, 1989

 

Like every other nation and rightly so, the Finns are very proud of their soldiers' courage not only in that war but also in the ones that followed and the name of Runeberg's hero actually means 'steel'. For me, the loveliest part is the way Maamme begins, which to a non-Finnish person's ears sounds absolutely like the Elvish speech in Tolkien's fantasy:

Oi, Maamme, Suomi, Synnyinmaa,

Soi Sana Kultainen!

Ei Laaksoa, Ei Kukkulaa,

Ei Vetäa, Rantaa Rakkaampaa,

Kuin Kotimaa Tää Pohjainen,

Maa Kallis Isien.

 

Within and outside Finland, the poet Runeberg is also known as the man whose spouse excelled in baking although it's not confirmed that Runebergintorttu (or Runebergstårta), a kind of special cake the poet was supposed to enjoy for breakfast, was actually developed by novelist, journalist and cookbook author Fredrika Runeberg who published her recipes in 1850. Runeberg tarts -which must be tall & thin, flavored with rum, baked in special moulds, and topped with raspberry jam that is encircled with a line of white icing- are sold at Finnish bakeries around the poet's date of birth on 5 February.

 

 

 

RUNEBERG'S TARTS

The following version is adapted from The Finnish CookBook by B. Ojakangas in that it uses less flour.

 

I n g r e d i e n t s

2 cups flour

1 cup ground almonds

1tsp baking powder

1 cup butter

1 cup sugar

4 eggs

1tbsp rum

red fruit jam

1/2 cup icing sugar

water

 

M e t h o d

Preheat the oven to 180C. Cream the butter and sugar, add the eggs and beat well. Stir in the rum, flour & almonds and keep beating. Divide the batter into 12, 18 or 24 individual baking tins and bake for 30 minutes or until golden. Leave to cool on a wire rack. Top each of the cakes with 1tsp jam. Mix the icing sugar with as much water needed to make a paste and encircle the jam topping with a line of this icing.