Belated Birthday Party

It is tradition (Sweden is always about tradition) in the Sjöberg family that when someone has a birthday, a party is expected and all the family is invited. This is a whole new concept for me cos my family stopped having any sort of birthday celebrations when I entered my teens. Sure I've had dinner gatherings with friends to celebrate my birthday even until now but that's just another excuse for all of us to meet up and enjoy a good meal together. But with family? Hmm...a new and strange concept to me.

It doesn't matter how old one is, a Sjöberg (at least our branch of the extensive Sjöberg clan) is always expected to plan a party which is just another excuse for the entire family to gather which is also another unrelenting tradition in this Swedish family of mine.

So even though it was more than a month AFTER my actual birthday, I still planned my party like a good Sjöberg does but of cos me being me, I did it my way...which is definitely NOT traditional. But before the party, I was gonna experiment with my brand new Kitchen Aid stand mixer (my very expensive birthday present from husband dear) and baked cake after cake just to test out the machine and also to try my hand at frosting cakes.

My first attempt was a simple madeira cake (they call it sugar cake or sockerkaka in Sweden) in my new teddy bear cake tin and very simple lines of frosting to outline it's face and big belly.

Fine, I'm not the neatest of frosters or bakers but for a first attempt I thought it looked alright.

Husband dear said that the belly outline looked less like a belly and more like the male anatomy of the southern region. Hmm...upon hindsight I have to actually shamefacedly agree.
TOTALLY not my intention. Serious!!

My next attempt was for a full sized cake in my brand new heart shaped cake tin (yes,I went crazy cake tin shopping when I was in Singapore. There are no baking supply stores anywhere here!) I think this 2nd attempt turned out much better and the frosting tasted great too. I used a white chocolate frosting that used less icing sugar which made it fractionally less sweet. But found a cool trick to reduce sweetness in frosting. Just add some salt!

I actually really like frosting cakes although it takes a long time for me since I'm still just a beginner. There's a certain calming therapeutic sensation that comes with focus needed to frost. And husband loves the fact that whatever I bake is all for him.

But of cos all that baking and frosting was in preparation for baking my own birthday instead of buying one. A very untraditional thing to do. Plus the fact that it was banana cake (which one CANNOT find in any bakery here) with white chocolate frosting. But hey, my party is all about twisting tradition right?

And since I love butterflies, I decided to draw out a butterfly outline and put in colourful sprinkles just to give it some colour. It was either that or write out something. But I think my cake turned out quite pretty although one can tell it's an amateur job.

Birthday girl cutting the cake, another untraditional thing cos usually the person sitting closest to the cake cuts it but husband dear moved the cake to my side so I could cut it. Here I am, happily brandishing my knife next to MIL. See the fear in her eyes?? Hee!

So anyway, that was the cake for my party. Something else I did for the party was I actually kind of transformed the flat into a restaurant of sorts. I made 5 different Asian dishes, 2 types of rice and served it buffet style complete with condiments and sauces. And another thing that is strangely untraditional in Sweden? We had ice to go with the drinks. I know I know...you're thinking ICE?? But they don't have ice here. Nobody sells ice. We went to the supermarket to ask for ice and since it's such a rare request, we got it free.

Unfortunately I did not manage to get any pictures of the buffet table since it was quickly ravaged through. But the guests loved the food and even more the variety. Surprisingly, it wasn't as much work as I thought it would be. So the menu?

Chicken Rice
Steamed white rice
Prawns in plum Sauce (also known as Prosperity Prawns)
Oyster Sauce Beef
Pan Fried Breaded Chicken
Chicken Satay
Spicy Baked Chicken Wings

And after dinner and cake, we played PS2 although not for as long as we had hoped. Oh and the cat was thoroughly freaked out during the entire party and stayed well away from open spaces. Don't blame her.

So there we go, I'm a certified Sjöberg, parties and all, but with a twist. Always with a twist.