The young baker
Last October my wife and I were offered to submit a cake recipe to a magazine in Iceland. This magazine, Vikan, has been published for over 70 years, and their 'cake' issue is probably a top five biggest seller in Iceland each year. The reporter, Ragnhildur Aðalsteinsdóttir (a Western Academy of Photography graduate), wanted a recipe and two photos - one of the cake and one of the baker.
After mulling it over, we decided to have our son bake the cake, a spiced chocolate sheet cake. Something simple enough for a ten year old to do by himself or thereabout.
A full page of baking.
What was supposed to be maybe half a page with two photos ended up as a full page with eight photos. I was very happy to see that, and got a preview through Skype from a few people before I was able to pick up my own copy back in Iceland.
Our kitchen is wide open, which enabled me to put up one light with a softbox in the living room, directing it into the kitchen.
Márus measuring sugar.
Pouring the batter into the sheet.
Oh, and here is the recipe, if you want to try it out.
The cake:
200 g margarine
2 dl coffee, brewed strong
3 eggs
300 g sugar
350 g flour
3 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tsp ground cloves
1 1/2 tsp ground ginger
Whip the eggs and sugar. Margarine and coffee heated together and added to the mixture. Dry ingredients added. Baked in a sheet for 15-20 minutes at 200°C.
The icing:
4 dl powdered sugar (icing sugar)
4 tsp cocoa powder
3 tbsp butter
1/2 dl coffee, brewed strong
1 tsp vanilla essence
Topped with shredded coconut.
And here it is!
Verði ykkur að góðu!
Winning photo in Boulevard magazine
Today I came across the May/June issue of Boulevard magazine, a free magazine here in Victoria. Each year, Boulevard holds a contest - Photo By - and selects a few winning photos. This year, I had one of the six winning photos. It's an old photo, taken in 2008 during sheep round-ups in Iceland.
A reporter from the magazine did a phone interview with me, so now I have a full-page tearsheet to show. It should be noted that I didn't take the photo of myself (that's the small black-and-white one, in case you were wondering); it was taken by my classmate Yulia Olshanova.
The Super-Sheep is definitely one of my favorites.
So, if you want, you can grab a copy somewhere in Victoria. Or read the scanned version right here.
Boulevard cover May/June 2010.
Oh, and by the way, there are a few facts which the reporter didn't get right. For instance, I never said that Iceland had declared bankruptcy, in fact I'm pretty sure I told him it had not gone bankrupt. And we didn't decide to come to Victoria after the banks at home collapsed, but before they did - we decided to stick to our plan regardless. But I guess facts must never get in the way of a good story, so I guess I won't bitch and moan about this ever again.