Author: Line West

Hygge is… Watering the Flowers

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  My toddler son was screaming and protesting – he was not ready to go inside. I let him stay in the backyard longer and he went to get his little blue watering can. As soon as he started watering the flowers he was in a zone of peaceful hygge. I believe he was even humming to himself. It was such a pleasure to watch him that I instantly felt the calm of this hygge event in the warm afternoon sun. That same evening after the kids were put to bed, instead of cleaning dishes I went outside and watered the flowers. It was a very nice feeling, just being outside on a quiet warm spring evening helping the flowers grow. There is something satisfying about watering plants. Perhaps because it reminds us to appreciate nature and its beauty. It brings happiness and a peaceful patience to watch plants grow and makes us feel like we are doing something meaningful and rewarding. If you truly take your time to enjoy the task of watering it …

Friday Cake: Danish Cinnamon Rolls

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Spring is here in full bloom with 85 degrees fahrenheit outside. I would never have thought I was going to call 85 degrees “spring weather” – those temperatures would be characterized as a “heat wave” in Denmark. Warm weather obviously calls for a different kind of hygge than wool socks and hot chocolate. But this does not mean that you cannot hygge when it is hot outside! It is just a different kind of hygge. It is almost more hygge with warm weather because it gets most of us outside and the outdoors is relaxing. Alright, enough talking – lets get to the cake;) The cake I have made for this week’s Friday hygge is Danish cinnamon rolls or Kanelsnegle as they are called in Denmark. I make them with a bun-like dough and not with real Danish pastry dough which needs to be rolled out so many times I have never even tried it. Besides, in Denmark you can just go to the bakery for the “real” danishes so why even bother making them …

Friday Cake: Coconut Lime Macaroons

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This week’s Friday Cake is ideal for Spring or Summer hygge outside on the porch or in your backyard. It is a fresh take on the classic Danish “Coconut Tops”/”Kokostoppe” with lime added to them. I used an adapted version of Mette Blomsterberg’s recipe (see link here: Kokostoppe med lime og marcipan) and a recipe on Soendag.dk (see recipe here: Kokostoppe klassisk opskrift). You can see my English version below. Lime and coconut really works well together but more importantly, these Coconut Lime Tops are ridiculously easy to make. Mix five ingredients together, form as tops, bake and dip in chocolate. That’s it. I think this will work quite well for me on those hot and humid Maryland Summer days that are here before we know it. Once again, my Friday Cake did not come out as perfect as I had seen on pictures but as my husband said: “Brown is where the flavour is”. And he was right – the flat ring of melted, caramelized sugar and coconut that formed around the tops was the tastiest …

Friday Cake: Marble Cake

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This week’s Friday cake is a classic from my childhood that my grandmother used to make. It is a chocolate/vanilla Marble Cake or as it is called in Danish “Marmorkage” because of the marbled pattern inside. Even though it is not an Easter cake it somehow reminds me of Easter. Maybe because it has a nice golden glow – or rather, it was supposed to be golden but as you can see on the photo my cake did not turn out so perfectly and got a little burnt. Browse the internet and you will see some nice Marble Cake pictures for sure! Burnt or not, it tastes delicious. Especially because this version has chopped dark chocolate in it. Taste it warm out of the oven and you will love it too! It is an adapted version of a recipe in the Danish magazine Hendes Verden. See “Hendes Verden” Marmorkage Recipe which is a version with orange added to it and I have seen another version with coffee mixed in with the chocolate. So this is only the beginning …

Friday Cake: Chocolate Biscuit Cake

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Finally Friday and time for some hygge, coffee and cake 🙂 Today’s cake is my first time making a delicious Danish cake called “kiksekage” or chocolate biscuit cake and I am excited it turned out well! It might also be a little hard to mess this one up since it is as simple as can be. I am almost certain this one is going to achieve international success one day, haha! Biscuits layered with a thick and rich chocolate cream – what’s not to like…? The recipe is an adapted version from the Danish interior design magazine Boligliv and you can find the original version on this link. Kiksekage Recipe Link Their website is worth a browse just for the sake of the beautiful photos from inspiring Danish homes. It is my favorite Danish interior design magazine.   Ingredients 300 gram (11 oz) dark chocolate (60-70 %), coarsely chopped 1 can sweetened condensed milk (400 gram or 14 oz) 35 gram (1.2 oz) butter 1 vanilla stick (or maybe you could try a little vanilla …

Friday Cake: Lemon Cake

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Friday is back and it is time to get in the mood for the weekend and hopefully lots of hygge! These last couple of days the bright Spring sun has been hiding behind grey clouds. So my daughter and I have decided to make a little piece of sunshine in a cake. Here is our lemon cake as yellow as the sun and the daffodils. Its tartness will energize you and bring that Spring vitality back! I love cakes that you have to cut. They just seem more hyggelige because they are ideal for sharing and togetherness – unless you plan on eating the whole thing by yourself of course… My mother-in-law remembers how lemon cake was one of the cakes they had at the coffee table on the farm on Funen in Denmark. The recipe is based on one of those old family recipes and I have just made a few adjustments to it. Originally the cake is baked in a bread form but I think a round cake will give more of that sunny feeling …

Review: The Little Book of Hygge

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I began reading Meik Wiking’s The Little Book of Hygge in the waiting area of my daughter’s dance class and it instantly brought me to the country of beautiful design homes with the perfect hygge lighting and warm drinks on dark winter days. That is what hygge is all about! Transforming an ordinary event like waiting at a dance class into something pleasant that brings us a dose of simple pleasure and appreciation of life every day. Hygge can be found in most places, even in your work place by bringing in i.e. a nice couch for meetings, creating traditions of cake or shared meals on Fridays or just some flowers or tea candles on darker days. The Little Book of Hygge is definitely one of my new favorites – a classic that shall always stay on my book shelf for my Danish-American husband, children and myself to be reminded of the best part of Danish culture, hygge. Just by looking at the cover and browsing through the beautiful simple illustrations you somehow feel hygge. As a …

Friday Cake: Dream Cake

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It is almost the weekend and therefore a great excuse to bake a good old Danish hygge cake. Danes often share Friday cake at their workplace or bake for family hygge on the weekends so I am going to bring this tradition to my blog by introducing a Friday Cake series. For the next several weeks every Friday you will get a recipe for one of those delicious Danish cakes that are perfect for enjoying some hygge with family, friends or co-workers. This week’s Friday Cake is Dream Cake (Drømmekage). I have been craving this cake since my post about hygge, coffee and cake and I honestly do not think I have had Dream Cake since I was about 12 years old. Class mates would regularly bring in Dream Cake for the “the class’ hour” (klassens time), a time once a week where we had cake and story time together in class. As you can see in the photos, I have already had a nice piece (or two) of Friday hygge and I was not disappointed with my reunion with Dream Cake! It …

Review: The Year of Living Danishly

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Helen Russell, former Marie Claire editor, is not exactly jumping up and down with excitement when her husband is offered a job at Lego in rural Denmark. As a Londoner she is used to the busy and eventful city life and Denmark has never been on her list of places to live. Discovering that Denmark has been ranked the happiest country in the world 40 years in a row, suddenly she sees a chance to report on a very popular life style topic – happiness – and maybe even find more of it in her own life. So she ventures out on “the happiness project” for one year in Southern Jutland, Denmark, together with her husband and dog. Of all times they arrive in the beginning of January while the country is dark from 4 pm-9 am and everyone stay inside because of the snow, cold and darkness. It is a year full of challenges and Helen is not immediately met by happiness. But she soon falls in love with Danish pastry (in the beginning she …

Hygge, Coffee and Cake in the Good Old Days

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The old photograph above from the early 1900s captures the essence of what hygge (togetherness/coziness) is. My Danish mother-in-law found it in an antique store in a town called Ørbæk on the southern Danish island Funen where she is from. Growing up on a farm on Funen she experienced this kind of hygge herself. She told me that they used to get coffee and cake three times a day! First at 11 am they would have coffee and cake, then at 3 pm they would have coffee, cake and cookies and at 8 pm they would have coffee, cake and cookies again!! And they did not just eat a piece of cake while doing something else. No, the family would sit down together for coffee and cake three times daily and of course also for the three main meals! Imagine all this togetherness/hygge throughout the day? I cannot help but wonder how they found time for this but maybe that would be the case if we got rid of all electronics? I bet the total …