Easter, An Island Fortress and Russian Kulich

Easter weekends are notorious for bad weather, but on Saturday the sun shone and we decided to go for a walk around Suomenlinna Island. The Island features a fortress that was build during the last half of the 1700s and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is only a short 15 minute ferry ride from the Helsinki Market Square Quay.

The island looked much as we expected, with grassy knolls and a large population of noisy gulls and geese. It was very pleasant to walk around the shore and structures and play with our cameras. You can take some interesting shots of the city from the island too. It is a popular place for day trips and there are quite a few museums, restaurants, cafés and a brewery.

We may make a habit of going there for lunches in summer when it should be very green with welcome sea breezes. Considering it is a world heritage site, we thought that the Finnish authorities should also make more effort to remove some building rubble and old broken equipment from the island. It would only improve its appeal. A beautiful aerial view of the island can be seen on the Virtual Finland website.

At about 3pm on Saturday afternoon a wall of fog moved in from the ocean and raced the ferry back home to Helsinki.

Easter shopping was also different for me in Finland. No shelves upon shelves full of hot cross buns and we were surprised that you could buy real eggshells filled with chocolate and painted in bright colours. The hole in the shell was sealed with a little coloured paper flower.

I decided to give the hot cross buns a miss and bake a Russian Kulich for Easter as a tribute to my Russian friend, Natalia. She was born just across the border from we were are living now, in Karelia. I miss the Friday afternoon lunches we used to spend at the Opera Bar on the waterfront at the Sydney Opera House. We spent long sunny Friday afternoons eating those exquisite Ceaser Salads, that only the Opera Bar makes, and swapping tales of our lives in all the countries we have lived in. After a glass of crisp white West Australian wine we believed we could solve the world's problems. Happy memories. Happy Easter, Natalia.

Russian Kulich

I have never baked a kulich and got my recipe from Beth Hensperger's Bread Bible. The only change I made was to macerate the fruit in cognac instead of brandy.

It took all day to make the Kulich. It rises very slowly but rewards you with a featherlight crumb for your patience. It was delicious eaten with pasha. It made equally tasty toast with butter for breakfast the next morning.