Runeberg tortes (Runebergintorttu)

1. Preheat the oven to 200 °C and butter a 12-hole muffin tin. Beat the soft butter with the sugar until fluffy, then add the egg and the sour cream.

2. Mix the ground almonds, breadcrumbs, flour and ground cardamom and fold them into the butter mixture.

3. Divide the batter between the muffin holes and bake for 15-20 minutes until golden; let them cool a little in the tin, then turn them out.

4. Bring the water and syrup to the boil and spoon it over the still-warm cakes to make them moist.

5. Mix the icing sugar with a few drops of water into a thick icing and pipe a small ring on top of each cake.

6. Place a teaspoon of raspberry jam in the middle of each ring and let it set.

Tip: Runeberg tortes were baked by Fredrika Runeberg as a favourite of her husband Johan Ludvig Runeberg, Finland's national poet, and today the whole of Finland eats them every 5 February, the poet's birthday. The original recipe soaks them in liqueur or punch; we make them with a non-alcoholic syrup. If you don't have a muffin tin, you can bake them in small paper cases.