Is This Your Dream Cake?

Post Publication Blues

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Hello, happy Friday!

Before we get to this week's post, I wanted to say a big thank you to everyone who has bought themselves a copy of Small Batch Cookies. Seeing so many of you posting about it, baking from it, and simply enjoying it makes me so incredibly proud. I also wanted to remind all of you across the pond that the North American release is just around the corner on September 24th. I will also be visiting the US for a book tour in early October! Full announcement with all the details coming next week, but these are the dates for your diary.

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1st Oct - Minneapolis - Nordicware (Details tba, but this is an evening event.)

2nd Oct - Seattle - Book Larder 6.30pm in conversation with Lauren Ko @lokokitchen (ticket includes copy of the book)

3rd Oct - San Francisco - Omnivore Books 6.30pm in conversation with Liz Prueitt (free event, books available to buy)

5th Oct - Maclean, Virginia (Tysons Galleria) - Sur Le Table - details to be announced.

6th Oct - Washington DC - Bold Fork Books - In conversation Becky Krystal from the Washington Post 

8th Oct - NYC - details to be announced but VERY EXCITING and this is going to be during the day.

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Okay, back to this week's newsletter.

You might find this a little strange, but I have found this to be true, and it's not just me; other writers I have talked with have experienced the same thing. Post Publication Blues. Releasing a cookbook, or, I would guess, any creative endeavour, comes with a bit of a comedown. It’s a strange feeling; you spend more than a year building up to the point that the book is published, and then it’s kind of all over. The book is out in the world, and my job is basically done. If you are lucky, this feeling is delayed because you're kept busy with promotion and events, and if you’re even luckier, the book finds an audience, and you get to enjoy other people's enjoyment of the work you created. But when it is out of your hands and out in the world, the feeling inevitably changes a little. For me personally, it goes from being excited about the recipes, excited to get the book in people's hands, to being nervous about how the book will be received, nervous that it might not be reviewed enough, nervous that it won’t get enough press coverage, nervous that we might have missed typos or that an error might have snuck in during the edit. I am sure a therapist would say this is entirely normal, but I still find it funny that I go through this same emotional rollercoaster every time I release a book. Because of my nerves and anxiety, I decided this week to make something just for me, something that was the opposite of a cookie and something incredibly comforting.

Have you ever heard of Dream Cake? Not an individual's dream cake but the very popular Danish Dream Cake, or Drømmekage. This cake is traditionally made with a buttery sponge cake and topped with the most delicious of mixtures, a caramel layer made from butter, brown sugar, and coconut. It is a truly glorious confection, incredibly comforting, and maybe the best thing to be served alongside a big mug of coffee (it's what the Danes would want). This version of the cake is not quite traditional, but I hope any Danes reading will approve. I wanted to make a blueberry studded version, but the traditional sponge wouldn’t be the best type of cake for this because it’s likely the berries would have sunk entirely to the bottom of the cake, the sponge being too light to hold onto the berries. Instead, I went for a slightly denser, incredibly buttery cake to be a better carrier for the berries. The topping remains traditional because why mess with perfection?