Swedish Baking Workshop with IKEA

No recipe today, but instead an article about my first baking workshop for the Swedish brand IKEA! Of course, it was all about the #1 baking in Sweden: these lovely Swedish cinnamon rolls “kanelbullar”!

Photo Credit: Kweezine

As a food blogger being in Sweden for so many years now and totally in love with all sorts of Swedish baking, it was natural for me to give a new workshop* about it, this time for one of the biggest international Swedish brand IKEA! The event took place in Ikea Bordeaux in France and was co-organized by Kweezine, a French platform of culinary events.

Last Friday, I took the train to Bordeaux in France, where I was expected for the event. At the train station in Bordeaux, I met David Nguyen, the founder of Kweezine. He took me to a friendly informal guiding tour of the city and I immediately felt in love with Bordeaux. Beautiful architecture, great atmosphere, nice warm weather… it seems like a great city to live in!

Photo Credit: Kweezine

Doing a little brainstorming before the event, I suggested to make a little surprise at the workshop: not only I would bake the classic Swedish cinnamon rolls “kanelbullar” (recipe here), but I would even bake their variation filled with cardamom and shaped differently, the ones called “kardemummabullar” (recipe here). Again, when it comes to baking, nothing can stop me. Plus I have to admit that the ones with cardamom are my favorite ones, being a huge fan of this spice.

I took place in a show room kitchen located in the store in front of the customers passing – this culinary workshop was an exclusive event at Ikea, organized for its IKEA family members only. It appeared that there was an interest for the Swedish baking, since the workshop was full right after putting the add on their website.

Among the participants, I could see only cooking/baking lovers and even three food bloggers (Voyage Gourmand, Mon Bonheur Gourmand, Mandala – links at the end of the article), which immediately put the event on the next level and made it even more interactive and dynamic! We started the workshop with enthusiasm, great mood, and smiles.

The first recipe was of course the number 1 favorite in Sweden: the “kanelbullar”. I had prepared the dough earlier, as it needs to rise for a hour before using. So we started directly with the fun part: shaping them. As the technique is relatively easy, I soon invited the participants to take part in the baking process and they happened to be very creative, coming up with many possible twists of the recipe once you master the technique.

Photo Credit: Kweezine

The Swedish cinnamon buns turned out just fine. We put them in the oven and the entire IKEA store could soon smell this delicious taste of cinnamon, while the participants were impatient to try them.

Luckily, I had something to keep them busy in the meantime (even if the cooking time is not long at all – one other thing I love with this recipe): we started to bake the cardamom buns (or “kardemummabullar” in Swedish). I love everything in them: their delicate smell, their fancy and advanced (but still achievable) technique that gives them this so beautiful shape. You can find a picture that explains how to shape them here.

Lumir from the blog Voyage Gourmand – Photo Credit: Kweezine

Again, as the participants seemed very involved, I gladly invited them to take part in the baking process. We always learn much better by doing oneself, and it’s such a feeling when we can see the result of these lovely shaped buns! In the store, the customers were still passing, intrigued by this workshop that smelled so good and where people seemed to have such a great time, exchanging their ideas and laughing together.

Once the cinnamon rolls and cardamom buns were baked, we took a picture all together with the great Kweezine team (Louis, Alex and David) and the Ikea leaders that had enabled this event. One more smile for the camera before tasting this bite of Sweden. Between cinnamon and cardamom, it was difficult to choose, we heard many yummy sounds for the two of them!

Photo Credit: Kweezine

Through this event, I got lucky to meet three food bloggers as I mentioned earlier in this article, and I kindly invite you to visit their beautiful blogs as well: there was the very nice Lumir, from the fantastic blog Voyage Gourmand, Gaëlle and her great enthusiasm in everything, who is behind the blog Mon Bonheur Gourmand, and Anne, a energetic Brazilian woman who writes the blog Mandala.

I would like to thank all the participants for their fantastic energy and enthusiasm: you made this event a real success! And also a big thank you to the IKEA team who trusted us to organize such an exclusive event, providing us with all the logistic needed for the workshop. And finally, thank you to the team Kweezine, who invited me to animate this culinary workshop and who’s been such a great help during the preparation of the event!

Photo Credit: Kweezine

* the first workshop about Swedish baking was given for the French Food Blogging Fair in 2014, an event in partnership with Visit Sweden.