Family Meal Plan: Ms. Frizzle's Chocolate Birthday Cake + Experimental Shaken Cream + Berry Sauce

Swedish Sticky "Kladdkaka" (Chocolate Cake)

Happy & Healthy Cooking,

Fun-Da-Mentals Kitchen Skills

• bake :

  to cook food with dry heat, as in an oven.

• chop :

  to cut something into small, rough pieces using a blade.

• cream :

  to mix foods together until they become a smooth, uniform blend, like butter and sugar.

• juice :

  to extract or squeeze out the juice of a fruit or vegetable, like a lemon, orange, or carrot, often cutting open or peeling the fruit or veggie first to access its flesh.

• knife skills :

  Bear Claw (growl), Pinch, Plank, and Bridge (look out for trolls). 

• measure :

  to calculate the specific amount of an ingredient required using a measuring tool (like measuring cups or spoons).

• seal :

  to close tightly, keeping filling inside.

• shake :

  to rapidly and vigorously move a covered container filled with food up and down and side to side to combine ingredients and create a different consistency, such as shaking whipped cream to make butter.

• sift :

  to pass a dry ingredient like flour or sugar through a sieve to make it lighter and more even in texture.

• smash :

  to break up food into smaller pieces or squash food to flatten or soften it.

• wet vs dry :

  to mix wet and dry ingredients separately before combining them: dry ingredients are flours, leavening agents, salt, and spices; wet ingredients are those that dissolve or can be dissolved (sugar, eggs, butter, oils, honey, vanilla, milk, and juices).

• zest :

  to scrape off the outer colored part of a citrus fruit's rind (skin or peel) using a metal tool with small sharp blades, such as a zester, microplane, or the small holes of a grater (avoid the "pith," the white, spongy lining of the rind that can be bitter).

What is "Kladdkaka"?

• "Kladdkaka" (Klowd-koh-kuh) translates to Sticky Chocolate Cake in Swedish. It is sometimes called Swedish mud cake. It is a dense cake with a gooey interior, similar to a molten chocolate cake.
• The earliest origin story about the cake is that in 1938, when baking powder was difficult to come by, a Swedish woman, Gudrun Isaksson, created the cake by leaving the baking powder out of an American brownie recipe. It may have gained in popularity in the 1970s, though, when another Swedish woman had a similar cake in a Paris restaurant, brought the recipe back to Sweden, modified it, and published it in a magazine.
• The ingredients are flour, cocoa powder, butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla extract. It can be served with a dusting of powdered sugar, berries, ice cream, or whipped cream. 
• Kladdkaka Day has been celebrated in Sweden since 2008 on November 7.

Let's Learn About Sweden!

• Sweden is a constitutional monarchy, and its official name is the Kingdom of Sweden.
• Stockholm, the capital of Sweden, encompasses 14 islands and more than 50 bridges. Half of Sweden is covered with forests, and it contains around 100,000 lakes and 24,000 islands. 
• Sweden has one of the highest life expectancies in the world!
• Sweden has remained neutral in all wars since 1814, including World Wars I and II.
• Though Sweden is a member of the European Union, they use their own currency, the Swedish krona, rather than the euro.
• Sweden publishes every adult's yearly tax returns. This demonstrates the Swedish tradition of "jantelagen," or the "law of Jante," which is the belief that "no one is better than anyone else." Followed in Sweden and Norway, it is praised as a reason for harmony in society.
• Swedish blood donors get a thank you note when they donate blood and a text message when patients receive their blood!
• Ice hockey and football (soccer) are Sweden’s major sports.
• There are so many moose roaming around in forests in Sweden that they could form a very large city if they all gathered together!  
• Sweden has one of the most sophisticated recycling systems in the world. They even import waste from Norway to recycle it.   
• IKEA is a Swedish-founded company and has been the world’s largest furniture retailer since 2008.
• A common Swedish tradition is "fika" (fee-kuh), where Swedes enjoy a relaxed coffee break with friends. "Fika" is the word for the noun "coffee" and the verb "have coffee." The emphasis in the custom, though, is spending time with friends.
• Besides Kladdkaka, a popular Swedish chocolate cake, another well-known Swedish dish is Swedish meatballs, which is served with gravy, boiled potatoes, and lingonberry jam.
• Sweden is one of the biggest consumers of Mexican food in Europe!
• Swedish for, "It was delicious," is “Det var utsökt!” (DET-Var-OOT-Sik).

What's It Like to Be a Kid in Sweden?

• Swedish kids go to daycare (dagis), which feed into schools, so they often make at least one or two friends they will keep for the rest of their lives. 
• At the end of February, schools have a week-long holiday across the country. It's called "sportlov" or "sports law," designed to engage families in sports during the winter.
• Kids get a second yearly celebration in addition to their birthdays. What do they celebrate? It's called "Namnsdag" or "Name Day." A Name Day calendar lists one or two names on almost every date, and a child might get cake and a present or money to celebrate their name day.
• Swedish kids love books by Astrid Lindgren, a Swedish author. You might have read some of them, too, since she wrote the Pippi Longstocking books.
• On most Fridays, families stay home together to watch TV or movies and eat food that's easy to prepare, like tacos, pizza, chips, and other snack foods. Swedes call this "fredagsmys," which means "Friday coziness."