Boston Cake ‒ Bostoninkakku

Random facts about Finnish coffee culture #4:Coffee parties are predominantly a female territory. In the 18th and 19th centuries they were a very important form of social gathering among upper class women. Later on, meetings of women's organizations centered around them. These parties joined women from all social classes and organizing one became a showcase (plus a competition) for many women. Important project regarding schooling, worker's movement and prohibition law were plotted in these parties, so they were by no means mere knitting occasions.

This is the last MoFo recipe using the pulla dough, or at least the last one I've planned. Though the name refers to Boston, this is quite a traditional Finnish cake. There are lots of place names referring to far away places and they all seem to originate from the same time period, when common folk started hearing news from those places. I bet someone remembered there was some talk about the Boston tea party and thought that sounds like a delightful and a bit upper-class tag for a cake.

Boston cake is basically a heap of ear buns. The most common version even has the same cinnamon filling, but different jam versions are also common. I however decided to use vanilla paste which you normally see in another similarly named pulla type, Dallas pulla, plus some nuts. Dallas pulla usually looks a lot like quark pulla and is a fairly new type, probably named after the TV show popular at the 80's. The vanilla paste recipe is from Saara Törmä's cook book Saa vaivata.

- half a portion of pulla dough
- 1.5 dl oat milk
- 0.5 dl sugar
- 0.25 dl corn starch
- 25 g margarine
- 1 tsp vanilla sugar
- 1.5 dl crushed nuts
- coarse sugar to decorate

Prepare the dough as normally. While it rises, prepare the vanilla paste. Mix the sugar and the corn starch in a sauce pot. Add the milk and start heating up, careful to stir all the time. Keep stirring until the liquid thickens. Keep on the heat for couple of more minutes. Add the margarine in small pieces. Refrigerate.

After the dough has risen, knead for a while to get any extra air out. Roll the dough into a square of about 30x60 centimetres. Spread the vanilla paste on the square and sprinkle with most of the nut crush. Roll the square as if you were making a Swiss roll. Cut it into chunks. Lay the chunks into a small, round and buttered cake tin (the kind with a loose base is handy with this). Sprinkle with more nuts and coarse sugar. Cover with a towel and let the cake rise for at least half an hour.

Bake in a 200°C oven for 30-35 minutes. Serve at a sophisticated coffee party with a Boston-like aura.

Nutritional values / 2144 g:
energy 6255 kcal
fat 200 g
protein 169 g
carbohydrates 941 g
fiber 57 g