Vínarterta

The Original Icelandic Christmas Cake

For many exiled Icelanders, especially of the second and third generations in Canada and the USA, Vínarterta is their "Original Icelandic Christmas Cake", and they fondly remember how their Icelandic grandmother made this cake every Christmas according to her very special family recipe .


Ingredients for the filling

1 kg pitted dried plums
500 ml water
2 tsp ground cardamom
Juice of 1 lemon

 

Ingredients for the dough

approx. 1 kg flour
400 g margarine
500 g sugar
3 tsp baking powder
4 eggs
250 ml milk
2 tsp cardamom


Preparation

First prepare the filling:

In a medium saucepan, simmer the plums and water over medium heat, stirring occasionally. When everything becomes thick, add the lemon juice and continue cooking until everything becomes a thick paste.

Remove the pot from the heat, stir in the cardamom and puree the whole thing as finely as possible with the hand blender. Then let the finished filling cool down.  

Then make the dough:

Beat the butter and sugar until fluffy. Add the eggs and continue beating vigorously.

Add the flour, sugar, baking powder, cardamom and milk to the egg-sugar mixture and knead everything into a smooth dough.

Cover or wrap the prepared dough and chill it in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 375 °F (190 °C).

Knead the dough vigorously with approx. 250 g of flour, adding more flour if necessary until the dough no longer sticks too much.

Then roll out round cake bases in portions from the dough on a floured work surface and bake two bases at a time in the oven at 375 °F (190 °C) for about 8 to 10 minutes. The dough is enough for 9 to 10 baked cake layers.

A round springform pan can be used as a measure for the circle - but it's better not to bake it in the pan, otherwise the finished base will crumble too easily on the edge when you remove it from the pan.  

Spread the plum filling on the first, still warm base, place the next base on top, coat it again and place a new base on top. The top layer is then no longer coated with the plum mixture.

In total, the recipe and filling are enough for two cakes with four to five layers.

Then wrap the cakes completely in cling film and let everything sit in the fridge for at least 24 hours.

To serve, cut the cakes into thin strips about 1 cm wide and then cut them again every 4 cm to create rectangular, bite-sized pieces.

[Translated from here.]