Skyrterta í hátíðarbúningi

Skyr dessert in holiday garb

"Skyrterta" actually means "skyr cake", but this "cake" is unbaked and is served in a large, shallow dish or something similar. It only takes a few minutes to prepare the recipe, but if possible it should be kept in the fridge for a few hours, then it tastes best.

I first got to know this type of "skyrterta" in the Icelandic Westfjords in 2015, but it is also common in other parts of Iceland.

Thanks to the decoration in the Icelandic national colors, this "skyrterta" also makes a special visual impression - just "skyrterta in holiday dress"!

Ingredients

200 g oatmeal cookies

50 g melted butter

400 ml whipped cream

1 tsp ground vanilla

1 tsp grated lemon peel

450 ml vanilla skyr

300 g fresh blueberries

6 - 8 fresh strawberries

Preparation

Crush the cookies in the blender. Place the biscuit crumbs in a suitable mold, mix with the melted butter and press into the bottom of the mold.

In a bowl, beat the cream with the vanilla, powdered sugar and grated lemon peel until stiff. Add the vanilla skyr and stir in gently.

Pour almost 200 g of the cream into a piping nozzle and set aside. Spread the rest evenly on the biscuit base.

Wash, clean and cut the strawberries into small pieces and wash the blueberries.

Distribute the strawberry pieces crosswise over the filling, use the piping bag to pipe small drops to the right and left of the strawberries and complete the flag with the blueberries.

Let the dessert set in the fridge for a few hours and then serve well chilled.

[Translated from here.]

A new Lopapeysa Icelandic sweater for my youngest

Icelandic sweater / Lopapeysa

Since we got our Icelandic house, I have (re-)discovered knitting with great enthusiasm and have been knitting for my entire family and other very special people for about five years now - primarily with Icelandic wool and with Icelandic-inspired patterns with round yokes.

In March 2023, I knitted a Viking-inspired lopapeysa for my youngest (child no. 4). I had seen the pattern for the round yoke in a knitting book; it was modeled after a classic Viking longship, with dragon heads on the bow and round shields on the side planks. I immediately fell in love with the pattern...!

Didn't he look cute, my little "Wickie"?!?

However, my youngest has definitely grown in the last 1.5 years – when he wanted to wear his lopapeysa on New Year's Eve, it was clearly too short in the arms and was already starting to show a bit of a belly. So, it's no longer the ideal fit, at least not for a warm sweater!

Then, in January, we went to the store in Reykjavík to buy new Léttlopi wool for our upcoming knitting project, and my youngest chose the colors for his new Lopapeysa himself.

He chose 9419 – "Hafblár," or "Sea Blue" – as his base color. He also selected 1702 ("Vetrarbraut" – "Starry Nebula") and 1412 ("Bleik samkemba" – "Pink Symphony") for the pattern.

And then I started knitting...

At the beginning of February, the new Lopapeysa for Child 4 was finally finished – he'd already put on his new sweater, but there hadn't been a presentable photo of Child 4 in his new Lopapeysa yet. We've now made up for that...!

So, child 4 is now back with an Icelandic sweater. He's happy – and so am I. The new Lopapeysa should fit for a while now!

[Translated from here.]

Gulrótar múffur með rjómaostafyllingu

Carrot muffins with cream cheese filling

My daughter's absolute favorite cake is carrot cake with cream cheese topping, very tasty and looks great as a multi-tiered, opulent cake.

This is basically the smaller everyday equivalent, these carrot muffins with cream cheese filling and crunchy sprinkles on top. Also very tasty!

The recipe is enough for approx. 18 muffins.

Ingredients

Ingredients for the muffins

100 g sugar

50 g brown sugar

2 eggs

320 g flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp cinnamon

1 pinch of salt

180 ml water

80 ml rapeseed oil

3 medium carrots

Ingredients for the filling

200 g cream cheese

40 g powdered sugar

1 tsp ground vanilla

Ingredients for the sprinkles

150 g flour

100 g sugar

100 g melted butter

1 tsp cinnamon

1 pinch of salt

Preparation

Preheat the oven to 400 °F (resp. 200 °C) upper/lower heat.

In a large bowl, stir together the white sugar, brown sugar and eggs.

Then add flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt and mix.

Add more water and oil...

... and process everything into a smooth dough.

Wash, peel and grate the carrots and fold them into the dough.

To make the filling, place the fresh cheese with the powdered sugar and vanilla in a small bowl and mix thoroughly.

Then add the flour, sugar, melted butter, cinnamon and salt to another bowl and knead everything by hand to form crumbles.

Cut the baking paper into approx. 4 x 4 inches (resp. 10 x 10 cm) squares. Then place it in the middle of a suitable glass and use the bottom of the glass to fold it into shape a little.

Place the baking paper cases in a muffin tray and fill them with the different ingredients one after the other:

Put a good teaspoon of dough into each mold, then put some filling in the middle and another teaspoon of dough on top of the filling. The mold should now be about 2/3 full. Then spread plenty of sprinkles on all the molds.

Bake in a preheated oven at 400 °F (resp. 200 °C) upper and lower heat for about 10 to 15 minutes until the crumbles have turned golden brown (test with a toothpick!).

Let the muffins cool a little and then serve.

By the way, I baked these muffins for my colleagues, in a way the last little celebration of my 50th birthday last week. The muffins were well received - or as my colleague said when she got a second muffin: It tastes delicious for carrots!

[Translated from here.]

Ákall um aðgerðir

A call to action - World Glacier Day

As you can see - you don't see anything.

Here I have a photo of the Kaldidalur track, a road in the Icelandic highlands, between the Langjökull glacier and Ok. To the right of this piste you can see the foothills of Langjökull glacier. On the left side, behind the dark, steep mountain, lies the Ok, relatively inconspicuous.

With a size of around 900 km², Langjökull is the second largest glacier in Iceland . The Langjökull ice sheet lies on the Western Rift Zone, and at least two volcanic systems are partially beneath this glacier.

And the Ok?

The Ok (then Okjökull) used to be a glacier. Now the Ok is no longer a glacier.

Around 1900, the area of ​​this glacier covered an area of ​​almost 40 km². But by the 1970s there was only around 3 m² left. And the ice sheet continued to melt.

In 2014, Okjökull was officially declared "dead".

The ice sheet that used to be on the 1,177 meter high mountain no longer moves because the ice layer has become too thin and light. Nothing moves anymore. Geologically speaking, Okjökull is no longer a glacier, but rather just a shield volcano with a snow cap. The glacier has disappeared.

In August 2019, a plaque was erected here on Ok with a "Bréf til framtíðarinnar", a "letter to the future":

Ok is the first Icelandic glacier to lose its status as a glacier.

In the next 200 years all our glaciers are expected to follow the same path.

This monument is to acknowledge that we know

what is happening and what needs to be done.

Only you will know if we did it.

The numbers show - so far we haven't done it.

It is too late to save the Ok, but other glaciers could still be saved.

Climate researchers around the world are sounding the alarm - man-made climate change is continuing. Measurements such as those carried out since 1992 on Stórhöfði, the southernmost island of the Westman Islands, show that the amount of carbon dioxide in the air is constantly increasing; the currently measured values ​​are the highest in at least 2 million years. This is scientifically proven by ice core studies of the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets.

In recent decades, glacier retreat has accelerated worldwide, to varying degrees. The retreat of glaciers in Iceland is particularly serious: in the last 100 years, Iceland's glacier area has shrunk by 20%. Almost half of the decline took place in the last 20 years. If glacier retreat continues at this rate, most Icelandic glaciers will be gone before the end of the 21st century.

As the glaciers retreat, the glacial lakes expand and new lakes are created. Rivers change their course, the flow of the watercourses changes. Land uplift near glaciers is increasing. Mountain tracks become unstable and the risk of landslides and mudslides increases. The melting of glaciers also has an impact on the infrastructure, the supply of fresh water and energy to the population (see electricity generation from hydropower).

Now it's time to act.

The future of Iceland's glaciers depends heavily on the development of the climate and sea temperatures around Iceland. By reducing greenhouse emissions worldwide, it would still be possible to limit global warming and thereby reduce the loss of glaciers worldwide.

World Glacier Day on March 21st

In 2022, the United Nations designated March 21st as "World Glacier Day", the first time this day took place today on March 21st, 2025 .

Actions around this day are intended to draw attention to the effects of glacier retreat on people and ecosystems, and strategies are also to be developed to limit the effects of climate change and, if possible, at least improve local adaptation to the changing conditions.

For me it was an experience when I saw a glacier in Iceland for the first time in 2004. And today, when we have visitors, I love taking our guests to Sólheimajökull, a glacier tongue of Mýrdalskökull, to show them where this "island of fire and ice" gets its name.

If future generations are to continue to experience glaciers on Iceland in 100 years, we all have to act - I am personally convinced of that. Otherwise the other Icelandic glaciers will end up just like Ok, which is no longer a glacier.

[Translated from here.]

Iceland chocolate

Now that the hype about Dubai chocolate seems to be over, maybe I have something new for you - how about Iceland chocolate?

My husband surprised me with this very special Icelandic chocolate for my birthday.

A tribute to the flavors of the north

Just for fun, we thought about what would be “typically Icelandic” and what we could put in the chocolate. Finally we came up with licorice, dried fish and seaweed, maybe a little bit of sea salt..? Because I can't easily find these ingredients in Germany, I put off the idea for a while... but not my husband!

He then tried an “Out-of-IcelandGerman Edition” of Iceland chocolate, with roasted salmon instead of dried fish and nori (Japanese seaweed) instead of seaweed. He then had the recipe and instructions designed entirely by Chat-GPT using the specified ingredients. And then try it out! Successfully!

Ingredients

200 g dark chocolate

40 g licorice chocolate

20 g smoked salmon

1 small nori sheet

1 pinch of Icelandic sea salt

Preparation

Prepare the smoked salmon:

Preheat the oven to 200 °F (resp. 100 °C) fan oven. Cut the smoked salmon into very small pieces, place on a baking tray lined with baking paper and let it dry in a preheated oven at 200 °F (resp. 100 °C) for about 30 to 40 minutes until the salmon is nice and crispy. Then let it cool down and grate it into fine crumbs.

Then prepare the chocolate:

Roughly chop the dark chocolate and let it slowly melt in a water bath while stirring constantly.

Crumble the nori sheet and carefully chop the licorice chocolate.

Add the nori crumbs, the grated smoked salmon and the chopped licorice chocolate into the melted chocolate and stir.

Then pour the chocolate mixture into the silicone mold and sprinkle with a little sea salt.

Then place the mold in the refrigerator for at least an hour and let it harden completely. Then carefully remove the chocolate from the mold.

Then wrap the chocolate in suitable paper.

-> A unique Icelandic chocolate - perfect as a surprise gift! (according to Chat GPT) 

And the taste...?

In fact, our Iceland chocolate tastes much more harmless than it sounds. It actually tastes surprisingly "normal" like sea salt chocolate - intensely like dark chocolate, until the fish taste comes through!

I actually think they're delicious, and so does my husband. Our test eaters had different opinions and at least our children were not immediately enthusiastic. However, the majority of them don't necessarily like to eat fish, which doesn't make it any easier for the Icelandic chocolate. But there were also people who voluntarily took a second piece of chocolate!

Overall - "special" is probably quite accurate, but I think it's definitely edible!

Here is the original template from Chat-GPT (in German):

And, would you like to try our Iceland chocolate yourself?

[Translated from here.]

Stórafmæli

A big birthday

It's been quiet here on the blog this week - I've been busy celebrating a big birthday in real life. I turned 50 this week.

Since the actual birthday was during the week, we really only celebrated with the family, all four children and grandchildren were here and we had a very cozy evening.

The “big celebration” came at the weekend.

Since I like baking, I came up with something: I would just invite you over for coffee and cake and let off some steam while baking cakes. And since I didn't want a typical birthday, I said that everyone in the family should please bring 2 to 4 surprise guests, just so that it would be a colorful, wildly mixed bunch.

I had planned for around 20 people, but in the end there were four cancellations due to illness, one additional guest came, but all in all it went well and we had a nice, loud celebration.

We had set up an old, discarded desk from the children in the living room and arranged the cake buffet on it.

I had let off some steam with baking the day before; I had actually planned one more cake, but I left it out. A dear guest brought a very tasty cheesecake as a gift! (You can see the cheesecake at the back of the picture, next to the carafe of iced coffee.)

Here in the picture of the buffet you can see the Sítróna bollakökur, i.e. lemon muffins or lemon cupcakes with thick icing on top.

On the second plate there is a sheet cake, an espressó sukkulaðikaka, an espresso chocolate cake. (As a precaution, baked with caffeine-free coffee powder because of the potential for children to eat with them.)

On the next plate you can see a 3-tier birthday cake, an Afmæliskaka. I baked this cake for my husband's birthday 1.5 years ago and last month "in small" as a surprise for a friend in Iceland. I thought it was delicious, so I made it again. I also like beautiful cakes!

I baked the cake here in three springform pans with a diameter of 8 inches (20 cm) - not quite large, but sufficiently filling thanks to the three layers and all the butter cream and the brittle (in this case almond brittle).

And of course there was also a gulrótarkaka, a carrot cake. When my daughter is there, there has to be carrot cake, it's her favorite cake! Here I baked a recipe with grated carrots and canned peaches, chopped almonds and a nice fruity cream cheese cream.

And as a “dessert” after the whole cake there was “Ostakaka í glasi”, i.e. “cheesecake in a glass”, which I had already tried last month. The dessert in the glass actually went down quite well!

Kósý kvöld - a cozy end to the evening

After some of the guests had left, we finally sat outside on the terrace with the lights on, wrapped up nice and warm with jackets and blankets, and talked about God and the world. A nice end to the day!

How do you actually like our “table decoration”? This is a sweet potato that was left in a box in the basement at some point and has been sprouting properly ever since. I thought the potato looked really good as a “arrangement” on the table!

Afmælisgjafir - birthday gifts

I also received many nice presents for my big birthday, thank you again to everyone!

My husband and my daughter had a similar idea for gifts - but both implemented them very differently.

My husband recently took a photo of me: I'm standing on our terrace in the evening and looking up in amazement and the northern lights are dancing wildly in the sky above me. I love the picture, I think it's really beautiful! You can see the original cell phone photo here in the picture on the left.

My husband and daughter also noticed how much I like this picture. So my husband gave me a print of it as a photo canvas for the living room.

And my daughter, inspired by this photo, implemented the whole thing artistically and painted me a picture. Me under the northern lights. I think it's so beautiful!

In this sense:

Happy birthday to me! Thank you very much to everyone who came or who otherwise thought of me. I had a really nice birthday! Takk fyrir!

[Translated from here.]