Vínarterta - Icelandic Celebration Cake

Unbalanced

% Daily Values based on a 2,000 calorie diet

Step 1

Heat water and prunes in a large saucepan over medium heat. Cook until the prunes are very soft and water is evaporated, stirring occasionally- approximately 30 minutes. Once the prunes are very soft, mash them with a potato masher or blitz them through a food processor. Add lemon juice, cardamom, vanilla, sugar and cinnamon and stir well. Set aside.

Step 2

Preheat the oven to 350.

Step 3

In a large bowl or stand mixer, cream the butter and sugar together. Beat in eggs one at a time.

Step 4

In a small bowl, mix together the milk, vanilla extract and almond extract

Step 5

In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, cardamom and baking powder.

Step 6

Add a third of your dry ingredients to the creamed butter bowl and mix well. Then, add a third of the milk mixture to the butter bowl and mix well. Continue to alternate adding dry ingredients and wet ingredients to the butter bowl until everything is mixed together.

Step 7

Split dough into 7 even balls. Roll dough out on to a floured surface until roughly ¼ inch thick or thinner. Gently place your dough square/circle on to a baking sheet. If you have two baking sheets, you can bake two layers at once, cutting down your cooking time. I like to put the dough on the cookiesheet and roll it there to get the thinnest I can.

Step 8

Bake each layer of dough for 10-12 minutes, until firm, but not browned. Keep an eye on the corner edges as they typically brown first. You want the entire layer to be white with no brown, the timing takes practice. As they are baked, gently transfer each to a wire rack to cool completely. They should have a firm, cookie-like consistency.

Step 9

Once all your 7 layers are cooked you can start to put them all together! Place one cookie layer down on a piece of wax/parchment paper. Using a spatula, gently spread a layer of the prune mixture over the cookie, getting as close to the edges as possible. Place the second cookie layer overtop and do the same. Repeat this until you have one cookie layer left and place that on top but do not cover your top layer with the prune mix.

Step 10

Wrap the cake in plastic wrap and/or tinfoil and store in a cool, dry place for at least 3 days or up to 4 weeks, until ready to serve. The longer you let it sit, the softer your cookie layers will be. I like trim the four sides so they "look pretty" before storing and nibble on these trimmings.🙂 To serve, slice into slices or squares.