Bakeland. Marit Hovland

I am a keen baker of cakes and breads. I’ve been baking since childhood, and have a special love of home baking. I’m not a trained pastry chef, but learned by doing. Before I knew I was going to be a chef, I was a stay-at-home mom to my small children for some years. Baking was part of our everyday life, and I would bake cakes more than once a week. For special occasions my children and I would make theme cakes using our imaginations and various homemade decorations. Since I didn’t know any techniques, I discovered everything through trial and error. Bakeland by Marit Hovland would have been my dream book.

When I first read Bakeland, I was mesmerized by all the amazing ideas Marit brings to life. She finds ways to bring nature into the kitchen, combining home baking with artful but nonprofessional decorating using natural ingredients. She lives up to a basic rule of mine: don’t use anything your grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food.

The recipes are relatively easy. Some are a little more complicated than others, but all can be accomplished by anybody with a passion for baking. Just read the recipes before you start, then follow the instructions carefully, and you will go on a journey with Marit that is fun and creative.

Marit’s inventions bring cake and cookie decorating down to earth without compromising on aesthetics or on flavor. Imagination is a big part of this baking book. I love the little meringue mushrooms, the green coconut Christmas trees, the strawberry macarons, the icing butterflies, and the cookies that look like birches—iconic trees here in the North.

The recipes are well tested and they work. I baked from the book with great joy together with my ten-year-old niece Mathilde, who also loves Bakeland. We’ve flipped through it numerous times and have a list of things we still want to make—treats to look forward to for every season.

Bakeland celebrates Nordic life in the way it is structured around the seasons. Seasons are very important in the Nordic countries. They define our everyday life. The light tells us which month we are in and what time of day, and we eat and live accordingly. Produce comes and goes with the seasons, which may be very short: berries are only in season for six to eight weeks, so we eat them every day while they last.

I love the way that light plays into these recipes, offering inspiration in terms of patterns and ideas—for example, the cookies with small clouds. Some of the decorations even have interesting echoes of Nordic painters.

Seasons are also about cold and warm temperatures. We tend to eat heavier things in winter than in summer; we need sweet things to get us through the dark winter months, and summer cakes to celebrate the light and the more welcoming weather.

I think we need a world in which more baking takes place at home, rather than just being something we watch chefs do on television. This book should be used regularly in the kitchen, its pages getting dusted with flour and spotted with icing. It could bring families together on a Saturday for a baking project. Or it could inspire a baking-themed birthday party, where the children bake the cake themselves.

Or you could just spend a day baking all by yourself, and your dream cake will come to life. I promise it is the best and most stress-free time you can have. For myself, when the world is running too fast, I go into my kitchen and bake a cake. Marit Hovland’s Bakeland has inspired new ideas that I am excited to explore. I recommend this book to anybody who bakes.

Bake with love,

Trine Hahnemann

Author of The Scandinavian Cookbook and Scandinavian Baking

HI!

It’s nice of you to come along to Bakeland, a place I hope and believe you’ll enjoy.

I am neither a professional baker nor a pastry maker, but I have always loved to bake, and the kitchen has been my playground since I was little. It’s a place where I can relax, have fun, and be creative.

As a child growing up in Norway, I was always welcome in the kitchen, both as a helper and to experiment on my own. It didn’t matter if the kitchen was covered in flour from floor to ceiling when I was done—creative messes were always welcome in my home! Over the years, I put my mixing bowls and measuring spoons to good use as I explored my curiosity, tackled new tasks, and learned new things.

I’m excited to have the opportunity to share my recipes with you, whether you’re a skilled pastry chef already or someone who enjoys baking for fun. What you’re holding in your hands is my very first book, a collection of baking recipes that I can truly call my own. Everything in it is mine: the original idea, the photos, and the recipes. As a professional graphic designer, I was determined from the start to take on the design and layout of the book myself.

Inspiration can be found everywhere. I always carry a notebook wherever I go—I recommend it. You never know when ideas will pop into your head. For this book, I have been inspired by all things beautiful in nature. I always say that I have four favorite seasons: winter, spring, summer, and fall. With my recipes, I invite you to come along on a splendid, tasty trip through an entire year of Norwegian nature!

In Norway, every season is beautiful, each in its own way. Winter, with its intricate snowflakes and ice crystals; spring, when everything in nature is reborn; summer, with its spectacular sunsets and fields of abundant wildflowers; and fall, the season of glowing colors and crisp air. Whichever part of the world you live in, you’ll find beauty in the changing moods and colors of the seasons. If you keep your eyes open when you’re out walking, you may notice—and revel in—tiny details you’ve never paid attention to before.

I have tried to use techniques and instructions in this book that anyone can follow. For many of the recipes, there are step-by-step illustrations, which show that although at first glance the desserts may seem advanced, they’re actually relatively simple. With a few tips and tricks,

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