Yumi Yumi

A coffee cake, defined: Are you in camp No 1 or No 2? I tend to go with number two - I think that's also how coffee cake is usually defined in the UK (evidence: Mary Berry's coffee cake in The Telegraph  has coffee in the batter and in the icing/frosting). However, about half of my readers hail from across the pond, and there definition No 1 seems to be more common (evidence: The Pioneer Woman's " the best coffee cake ever " has no coffee in it; you won't find any coffee in Martha Stewart's 12 favourite coffee cakes either). I'm not sure how coffee cake is defined in down under. Anyone? In any case, here's a cake I've baked no less than four times during the last week - twice for my family and friends, and two cakes for the pop-up café on Saturday. Although modest in appearance, I love the strong cinnamon flavour and the moist crumb, and the just ever-so-crisp caramelised sugar topping. I warn you - it's rather sweet, so my Estonian read...

Six Estonian foodbloggers - Aire , Britt , Liina , Marju , Silja  and yours truly - are setting up a pop-up café at the Viimsi Farmers Market this Saturday. It's not the first time - in September 2011 and September 2012 we opened a pop-up apple cake café ( õunakoogikohvik, you can see some photos here ) at the same market, and the organisers - Museum of the Coastal Folk - asked us to come and serve our creations at their newest special event, Viimsi Fish Day ( Kalapäev ). We were happy to oblige :) Kalapäev focuses on fish in general, and on the culinary uses of a very invasive species, round goby (ümarmudil) in particular. There are several workshops and events throughout, and our pop-up café (or fish buffet, as we've called it this time) is open between 10-14. The menu is varied and rich - we have various quiches (cottage cheese and smoked sea bass, fresh salmon and broccoli, nettle and smoked fish), tuna-filled profiteroles, salmon muffins, Estonian-style fish and chips...

... then you should head to the Rotermanni Quarter this Friday and Saturday for Estonia's first cheese festival :

My beloved maternal grandmother Senta turned 93 last week. NINETY-THREE. The digits 9 and 3 bother feature in my current age as well, meaning I have known my dear grandma for 39 years in total. She gave birth and raised five children - 4 girls and 1 boy. Now, at the age of 93, her family consists of 5 kids, 11 grandkids, 11 great-grandchildren and one great-great-granddaughter. She had to feed and raise the kids, run the whole household consisting of cows, sheep, poultry (all that in addition to having to milk all the cows in the big sovhoosilaut or a collective farm). And once the kids were all adults, she regularly had to take care of her 11 grandchildren who spent weeks at the countryside during each summer. A remarkable woman, and it's only recently that her mental and physical health has been failing her. She's a role model to me in so many ways (so is my paternal grandmother Adeele, who'll be 92 in September, but in very different way :)). Here's a photo of my g...

Photo by Juta Kübarsepp for Nami-Nami/Kodu ja Aed, 2013 I know all my far-away readers - at least those on the Northern hemisphere -  are feasting on rhubarb and early strawberries already, but neither one is ready for consumption here in Estonia just yet. The local rhubarb should be ready in a fortnight or so, strawberries in 5-6 weeks. Until then I'll resist buying the imported stuff. Pineapple, however, doesn't grow locally anyway, so I must buy the imported fruit if I want to enjoy some. Here's a quick dessert idea, originally popularised by Jamie Oliver. You'll find the recipe for " Pukka pineapple with bashed-up mint sugar " - that so Jamie, don't you think? - either in his book Happy Days with Naked Chef or on his website . I've been making this for years, and it's not the first time it's been mentioned here on Nami-Nami - I was served at our 2009 Easter Brunch . A great idea, really quick, and again, suitable for many popular diets (...