Monday, October 5, 2026

Haustlitir á Íslandi

Autumn colors in Iceland

For me, it was back to Iceland yesterday with the youngest offspring at the start of the school holidays.

The last period in Germany has been very busy for us, and in my main job it is currently extremely stressful.

Therefore, I am pretty wiped out at the moment - last night I fell into bed at 9 pm and today I only got up again around half past 9. (Even so, I haven't really slept well.)

Tomorrow I have to work again, but today is simply all about peace and coziness. Lots of doing nothing.

So I just took a very little 'walk,' just a bit around the property, and enjoyed the beautiful autumn colors here.

The autumn in Iceland is shaped by rapid changes in nature, by magnificent colors, by the first snow on the mountains and by shorter days and longer nights.

According to Veðurstofa Íslands, the Icelandic Meteorological Office, the four seasons spring, summer, autumn, and winter here do not each last 3 months, but summer and winter each comprise 4 months, while spring and autumn are both only 2 months long. But that really corresponds to the perceived reality here - it is a long, long winter (December to March), then suddenly spring (April and May) and immediately after that real summer. And the summer (June to September) is also long here, then there is - for a short time - autumn (October and November) and then the long, dark winter starts again. No wonder that the Vikings here had at all only two seasons knew - winter and summer!

It isn't particularly sunny today, but the magnificent colors of nature in the short Icelandic autumn still shine beautifully!

No matter whether they are the last red leaves of this plant here in the pot next to our parking lot, ...

... or the bright yellow glowing trees at the neighbors'.

By the way, we currently have roadworks; our path is being newly gravelled on behalf of the homeowners' association. However, the work is progressing quickly!

Well then, back into the house again!

There is someone standing and waving - I am already expected!

Translated from here.

Karamellukaka

Caramel Cake

Here I have a recipe for a caramel cake for you, which I baked last month for my husband's birthday. The cake was really well received - sweet, thick cream, but overall not too heavy or too sweet thanks to the fluffy layers..!

The cake actually consists of two light, airy layers of pale sponge cake, plenty of sweet, thick caramel cream, and finally decorated as desired. I used salted caramel brittle, for a crunchy, crispy moment while eating with a slight salt note, as a contrast to the fairly sweet caramel cream.

Here I then decorated the cake with birthday candles - after all, it was also a birthday cake!

Ingredients

Ingredients for the dough

200 ml of milk

180 g melted butter

300 g flour

1.5 tsp baking powder

3 eggs

280 g sugar

ground vanilla or vanilla flavoring

Ingredients for the cream

70 g butter

250 g brown sugar

100 ml whipping cream

1 tsp ground vanilla or vanilla flavoring

200 g powdered sugar

40 g soft butter

Preparation

Preheat the oven to 180 °C top and bottom heat.

Whisk eggs and sugar in a bowl until frothy.

Add flour and baking powder and stir.

Add the milk and the melted butter, ...

... also the ground vanilla, vanilla flavoring, etc., and mix everything into a smooth dough.

Pour the batter evenly into two springforms lined with baking powder (diameter 20 - 22 cm), ...

... and bake in the preheated oven at 180 °C top and bottom heat for about 20 minutes, until the bases have turned nice and golden brown.

For the cream, gently heat 70 g of butter and 250 g of brown sugar in a pan over low heat for just under 10 minutes.

Pour in the cream and stir for 1 minute. Then remove the pot from the heat and let everything cool down a bit.

Add the powdered sugar and the soft butter and mix everything thoroughly into a uniform cream. The cream should have a nice thick consistency. Then let the cream cool down a bit.