Michelle 7The Ikea Apple Cake (Sort Of)
April 22nd 2008 06:17
We go to Ikea every so often (since there's one maybe 5 miles up the road) just to eat. Well, I do buy stuff there, just really cheap stuff like laundry baskets and usually some sort of stuffed toy for my son. I know the furniture is really cheap, too, and I'm actually in the market for a few pieces when we move since a few of my old pieces are almost literally falling to bits and realy not worth hauling anywhere new. As for now, though, Ikea is just a place to get a cheap meal and eat it right next to a play area. I know that some fast food restaurants offer this as well, but not in our neighborhood they just want you to grab your burger and go knock off a liquor store somewhere else. 5 miles north in Ikea-land, though, is a whole 'nother world - well, probably because of this little thing called the University of Maryland which is just a bit south of Ikea. I guess they sell a lot of dorm furnishings. The really weird thing is, there are these new condos going up practically in the Ikea parking lot, and they start at $500,000. Haven't they heard that A) we're in a bit of a housing slump here and B) this is Prince George's county, folks, it ain't that gentrified. Try for $300,000, you might get it, but there still won't be a stampede to the door. Well, I guess if whoever buys the condos has to stretch to make the payments, they can furnish on the cheap, and without having to drive, even.
Anyway, last Sunday was my lucky day, Ikea-wise, since they finally had the blueberry cake I've been wanting to try ever since they had its picture in last year's catalog. It was really pretty good, too, a layer of blueberry jelly over a cream filling on an almond crust. And for $1.49, you can't beat it. I was wondering if I could find any copycat recipe approximating it, and no, I couldn't. What I did find was a whole bunch of people desperately seeking Ikea's apple cake recipe, and that's not actually in the public record either. I did find an "Ikea Friends" website, though, which confused me no end - the prices for the food items were given in dollars, but were slightly higher, and I'd never heard of Ikea Tampico and wondered why they'd have such a highly localized discount program. Well, it turns out the website is Singaporean - the fact that Seafood Hor Fun and Nasi Goreng were on the menu kind of sort of tipped me off. There is a distinct lack of "vinegar marinated green chilli on the side" at my local Ikea, that's for sure. This website did include a few recipes, though, and one of them was for an apple cake. It doesn't really look as if you'd get anything resembling the one they sell at Ikea, but it is an apple cake and is from an official (Singaporean) Ikea website (translations into US measurements and terms by me), so här du gå:
"Skånsk äppelkaka" (Apple Cake from Skåne)
Ingredients
1 3/4 cups grated dark rye bread
1/2 c. plus 3 tbsp. butter
2 apples
1 1/4 cups) sweetened applesauce
Method
Pre-heat the oven to 400°F. Grease a 9" round cake pan.Fry the bread crumbs in small batches in 1/2 c. butter. Grate the apples. Put half of the bread into the tin pan, spread with the applesauce and grated apple. Sprinkle the rest of the bread evenly on top.Dot the remaining 3 tbsp. of butter on top. Bake the cake for half an hour.Serve lukewarm with vanilla sauce or whipped cream.
Image from WIkipedia
Anyway, last Sunday was my lucky day, Ikea-wise, since they finally had the blueberry cake I've been wanting to try ever since they had its picture in last year's catalog. It was really pretty good, too, a layer of blueberry jelly over a cream filling on an almond crust. And for $1.49, you can't beat it. I was wondering if I could find any copycat recipe approximating it, and no, I couldn't. What I did find was a whole bunch of people desperately seeking Ikea's apple cake recipe, and that's not actually in the public record either. I did find an "Ikea Friends" website, though, which confused me no end - the prices for the food items were given in dollars, but were slightly higher, and I'd never heard of Ikea Tampico and wondered why they'd have such a highly localized discount program. Well, it turns out the website is Singaporean - the fact that Seafood Hor Fun and Nasi Goreng were on the menu kind of sort of tipped me off. There is a distinct lack of "vinegar marinated green chilli on the side" at my local Ikea, that's for sure. This website did include a few recipes, though, and one of them was for an apple cake. It doesn't really look as if you'd get anything resembling the one they sell at Ikea, but it is an apple cake and is from an official (Singaporean) Ikea website (translations into US measurements and terms by me), so här du gå:
Ikea in Singapore looks pretty much like Ikea anywhere else
"Skånsk äppelkaka" (Apple Cake from Skåne)
Ingredients
1 3/4 cups grated dark rye bread
1/2 c. plus 3 tbsp. butter
2 apples
1 1/4 cups) sweetened applesauce
Method
Pre-heat the oven to 400°F. Grease a 9" round cake pan.Fry the bread crumbs in small batches in 1/2 c. butter. Grate the apples. Put half of the bread into the tin pan, spread with the applesauce and grated apple. Sprinkle the rest of the bread evenly on top.Dot the remaining 3 tbsp. of butter on top. Bake the cake for half an hour.Serve lukewarm with vanilla sauce or whipped cream.
Image from WIkipedia
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