Fat Cakes and Fudge in Norway

My big sister made the weirdest kind of fat cakes when we were kids, that is something that is still very clear to me. One of the reasons her fat cakes were so weird was that some days we didn't have yeast or other days there was no cooking oil so we fried them in butter. The results were not that good but it was edible and we always made fun of my sister as we ate so that made them tasty I guess.

How would I describe a fat cake? A piece of dough(usually rounded) and fried/deep-fried in oil, basically. I think. It can be just plain flour mixed with water or it can be flour, sugar, vanilla, eggs, milk and all the fancy stuff you can think of, depending on if you can afford them. They tasted best when there was really nothing at home and you some how found a can of flour then added some water and just fried it. If you were lucky enough and had some sugar, you would make 'sugar water' and have yourself a quick meal!

Some vendors sell fat cakes at school too and I know of some friends that are crazy about them especially fat cakes that have mince or fish in them , they are called 'curry bunnies'*not really sure if that'd how you spell the latter. Fat cakes make good business, especially at schools and are also served at funerals, traditionally. This is why some people refuse to indulge in fat cakes, or so to say. They apparently don't want to eat 'funeral food'.

A few months ago I had this urge to make fat cakes up here in Pasvik, I spoke to some friends and we agreed to get down to it. I was pretty nervous about how my fat cakes would turn out because I knew that sometimes when I made them at home, the shape would be horrible and the texture was not always okay. Although I kept thinking about how horrible they would be, I was somewhat excited to be sharing them with my friends.

Daniel was really eager to try fat cakes, he said, "dude, anything that's deep-fried is basically good food so?!"

As we got into the frying part, Daniel and Aiken basically took over the whole kitchen, I showed them how to fry one or two and they took the lead. The fat cakes looked horrible, really bad because I had not mixed the dough properly and to top it up, we couldn't get that nice round shape. The two of them still went ahead and had fun.

I basically just stood and watched how they made fat cake after fat cake while tasting one at a time and agreeing that it was really good. The fat cakes that were supposed to be round and smooth had weird shapes and had spikey-things on them, it was hilarious. I kept telling them that I would make up for this and show them that fat cakes can be better than that. The thing was, I wanted them to try real fat cakes because by the way they were tripping over the 'not-so-real' fat cakes, I could tell that they would go crazy over nicer-looking better-texture fat cakes. Or I was maybe just paranoid.

For Christmas aunt Iselin and I made fat cakes as dessert along with other biscuits and baked cookies. This time I added eggs and vanilla to the dough and that was probably the best fat cakes I had made in a while. I was scared that our guests wouldn't like them and that we would eventually have to get rid of them, but I was just overthinking as always. Our guests(family members of aunt Iselin's boyfriend), loved the fat cakes. I smiled when I saw that everybody was reaching for the fat cakes and saying how good they were. They tasted way better than they looked, trust me.

I still have to work on my fat cake making skills, I can make them.. just have to me them attractive, not those that scare people away. I know that my mom and sister make the nicest fat cakes, but then again they are usually the only ones that make them and practice makes perfect right?

Another thing, I made fudge the other day. Aunt Iselin and Reidar liked the fudge but as always, I was abit skeptical because it didn't have the texture I wanted. I melted it again and stirred for almost half an hour before it became almost perfect. Now I will be munching on my fudge for the next few days, have a piece of home with me. Plus, I look forward to making more and getting better at it. Who knows, you just might see me opening up a big business and they'll make a movie about me;

Queen and the Fudge Factory!

hearts, Queen