This month for my Gay Lea post the theme is multi-cultural recipes, which is perfect with all the summer festivals going on this month all over the place and all the great food from all around the world you can usually find at those. I started thinking about multi-cultural dishes and all the great Gay Lea Dairy products and how they might fit together and the first thing that came to mind was Scandinavian food. I’m not really of Scandinavian decent, but my grandmother was born in Iceland, which is kind of the same part of the world, right? I also used to really love that show “New Scandinavian Cooking”, so I decided that I would finally do a little experimenting with that type of cooking. 🙂
I came across a recipe for Ostkaka, which is a Swedish cheesecake and I thought it sounded perfect. This type of cheesecake is totally different from the American cheesecake that we’re all used to. It’s much less sweet, super super simple to make, and it’s made with cottage cheese! This type of cake is enjoyed during Swedish celebrations year-round, but it’s particularly popular for mid-summer celebrations. It can be served hot or room temperature, but room temperature is usually more common at this time of year.
I kid you not, this cake probably took me about a minute and a half to throw together, so I think it’s definitely going to be a new favorite. Plus, I love how interesting and different it is, and that it can be a great conversation starter if you’re serving it to friends!
Here’s what you’ll need:
-1 1/4 cups Gay Lea Nordica 4% Creamed Cottage Cheese
-2 eggs
-1/4 cup sugar
-1/4 cup ground almonds
-3 tbsp rice flour
-1 cup half and half
-fresh strawberries to garnish (or other seasonal fruit)
Preheat your oven to 350 and lightly grease an 8 inch round cake pan.
Whisk together the eggs and the sugar then add in the rest of the ingredients (minus the strawberries) and stir to combine.
I used the Gay Lea 4% creamed cottage cheese for the extra richness, but you can use any type of cottage cheese you like for this.
Dump the mixture into your cake pan and bake for about an hour and 20 minutes, or until the cake is golden and has risen in the middle. It will settle back down again after you remove it from the oven, but that’s OK! I love all the crinkly, crackly edges!
This cake is one of those neat recipes that tastes like it has a lot more sugar in it than it really does. I think it’s because those ground almonds add such a nice flavor that you don’t really even miss the sweetness. For a true midsummer experience, make sure you garnish your cake with some in-season local fruit to go along with the local Ontario cottage cheese in the cake from Gay Lea!
When I was testing this recipe out before I made it for this post, I found that it was easiest for me to just leave it in the pan and serve it up casually just like that. I do see that some people turn theirs out onto a platter, but I always felt like it was so delicate that it was a little bit of a risky move to do that. But feel free to do that if you’re feeling brave!
Have you tried Swedish ostkaka before?
I created this blog post as a paid ambassador with Gay Lea Foods and PTPA. All opinions and advice are my own as always!
Courtenay Hartford is the author of creeklinehouse.com, a blog based on her adventures renovating a 120-year-old farmhouse in rural Ontario, Canada. On her blog, Courtenay shares interior design tips based on her own farmhouse and her work as founder and stylist of the interior photography firm Art & Spaces. She also writes about her farmhouse garden, plant-based recipes, family travel, and homekeeping best practices. Courtenay is the author of the book The Cleaning Ninja and has been featured in numerous magazines including Country Sampler Farmhouse Style, Better Homes and Gardens, Parents Magazine, Real Simple, and Our Homes.