Pastry Post-Doc: Icelandic Wedded Bliss Cake (Hjónabandssaela)

The Pastry Post-Doc has been a recurring feature on ETW, and now I am bringing it back on Fridays as a weekly feature – highlighting a dessert or other sweet treat (pastry or not) from around the world. This week I’ll be featuring the intriguingly-named “Wedded Bliss Cake,” or “Happy Marriage Cake” an Icelandic confection whose real name – Hjónabandssaela– translates to just that. Though not associated with weddings, the theory is that the name comes from the fact that it can be made with ingredients that are usually on hand in a Scandinavian pantry: oats, sugar, cardamon and rhubarb. Outside Oslo has a recipe to make your own rhubarb jam, along with the cake itself (pictured above).  If you don’t have rhubarb, you can probably substitute another flavor of jam or jelly – maybe the favorite of your significant other!