Hjónabandssæla frá Litlibæ

Photo: Litlibær in autumn 2016

Happy Marriage from Litlibær

This typical Icelandic cake is called "Hjónabandssæla", which means "happy marriage". There are several explanations for the name of the cake - perhaps because it is easy to make and gets better the longer you let it sit. Or maybe because there are as many different recipes and variations for this cake as there are recipes for a “real happy marriage”.

I got this recipe for "happy marriage" during our stay in Iceland in July 2018 from Sigríður Hafliðadóttir, who runs the old Litlibær peat house with her husband Kritsján and her family in the summer and provides guests there with really delicious waffles, cakes, jams and drinks spoiled.

I translated the recipe as literally as possible. However, I had to wait until I got rhubarb again to try it out so that I could make rhubarb jam for a Happy Marriage cake according to Sigríður's recipe.

When baking, however, I didn't completely follow Sigríður's recipe; I replaced the oat flour with soft oat flakes because I simply can't find oat flour in the usual grocery stores here. And I didn't grease the mold with butter, but lined it with baking paper. Oh, I used 3 to 4 large tablespoons of rhubarb jam, just based on how I felt.


Ingredients

200 g brown sugar
280 g flour
150 g oat flour
1 tsp baking soda
240 g margarine
1 egg

Butter for greasing the baking pan

Rhubarb jam


Preparation

First preheat the oven to 350 °F (180 °C) upper/lower heat.

In a large bowl, combine sugar, flour, oatmeal and baking soda.

Then crumble the margarine into small pieces and add the egg...

...and knead everything thoroughly.

Then divide the dough into three parts - knead the first two parts again and place them in a well-greased springform pan.

Spread with the rhubarb jam.

Then roll out the last third of the dough and cut it into approx. 1.5 cm wide strips...

...and place the strips on the jam.

Then bake the cake in a preheated oven at 350 °F (180 °C) upper and lower heat for about 45 minutes.

Bon appetit!

[Translated from here.]