We were going to a party on Saturday night and everyone there was supposed to bring something baked and delicious. I made some pretty fab coconut cupcakes frosted with a lemon icing (from VwaV). As a present for the birthday girl I bought a nice stoneware jar, light blue with polka dots and filled it with simple checkerboard cookies. I spent the day slaving away in a hot kitchen, no time to wash my hair, put on make up or be fancy in any way. Although I did make up for that later, the photo shows a less charming me.

First a photo of the cupcakes. They were lovely and Alex ended up eating about a third of them.

It never ceases to amaze me just how vegan friendly some of our old Swedish cookies are. I KNOW you have checkerboard cookies in other countries too, but it’s also a very Swedish thing. Many recipes are so simple, no eggs, no milk, just butter/margarine. Hey, that’s almost too easy! I flipped through a Swedish cookies and cakes classic, we’ve had it in my home since forever. In Swedish it’s called Sju sorters kakor. Not long ago they translated the book to English, it’s called Swedish Cakes and Cookies. This recipe is from that book, the only thing I changed was the margarine, mine’s vegan, theirs isn’t. It’s one of those recipes that doesn’t even belong to a certain author or anything anymore, it’s so old and well used it’s public property now. They’re not terribly sweet, but they’re lovely with coffee or tea.

Swedish checkerboard cookies: makes LOTS and LOTS!

• 450 - 500 ml (1 3/4 cups + 2 tbsp - 2 cups) wheat flour
• 100 ml (1/3 cup + 1 tbsp) sugar
• 200 g (2 sticks) vegan margarine

• 2 tsp vanilla sugar or 1 tsp vanilla essence (but make sure to use a little more flour!)
• 2 tbsp cocoa powder

Mix together the sugar, margarine and flour until it forms a ball. (Kind of like when you’re making a pie crust). Divide the dough in two parts and mix each part with a flavouring. One of the doughs with cocoa and the other one with vanilla. Divide each dough into two pieces and roll them out to two rolls (I made three of each because I am hardcore!). Put two different coloured rolls next to each other and put two more on top of that making a checkerboard pattern. Press it a little so the doughs stick together and wrap it in plastic film. refrigerate for a little while. Turn the oven on to 200C (390F). Take the log out of the fridge and cut into 3-4 mm (1/6 inch or so) slices. Put on a baking paper on top of a baking tray and bake in the oven for about 10 minutes. Let cool. Enjoy!