I spent many summers in Scandinavia as a child and, what’s more, as a child on holiday without the family, and so it represents for me some magical place of adventure, freedom and — though this I grew to appreciate more as I got older — beautiful food. It’s beyond time I went back. I did fantasise briefly about a summer holiday there this year, hoping that it would be somewhere not quite as sweltering as everywhere else, but I think extreme weather is probably impossible to escape anywhere, so I’m saving up a visit at a cooler time of year, and plan to summer Scandinavian-style at home, with help from Trine Hahnemann.
Amongst the beautifully atmospheric photos in Midnight Sun, there are plenty of recipes that remind me why I’m so drawn to the food there, and many that introduce me to new combinations: the perfect holiday mix! Among the recipes I’ve already bookmarked are the Sausage Rolls with Sweet-and-Sour Cucumber; Scandinavian Crispbread; Fragrant Summer Carrots; Crunchy Herbed Chicken Salad; Fermented Summer Cabbage; Strawberry, Elderflower and Mint Fizz; Marzipan Cake with Strawberry Cream; Pork Belly with Summer Mash; Lightly Cured Chicken; Lamb Shank with Lentils and Elderflower; and Yeasted Pancakes with Gooseberries. And the recipe I’m very happy to be sharing with you today is her Blackcurrant and Rose Roulade; it belongs to her Cake Table chapter, and of it Hahnemann writes “A cake table must always have a roulade, it’s practically a Danish law!” I’m more than happy to comply.
Extracted from Midnight Sunby Trine Hanhemann (Quadrille, £25).
Photography © Kim Lightbody 2026.
