Cycle 12 – Item 341
12 (Sun) December 2021
Vanilla Cake with Lingonberry Yogurt Topping
3.0
by me
at home
-Changgok, Sujeong, Seongnam, Gyeonggi, Republic of Korea-
with the Family
The cake was from another quick-fix baking kit from Beksul (see for example 12.019 Jailbreak Cake): batter powder and oil, just add an egg and water, zap in the microwave on high for 4 minutes. I can’t believe that it’s so easy.
I had intended to cut the cake into cubes and serve it undressed, as a self-service finger snack, but then inspiration struck. 10 seconds later, the topping was done.
The topping (does it qualifiy as icing/frosting?) was awesome. Thick and creamy, sweet and tangy – reminiscent of packaged “fruit on the bottom” blueberry yogurt, but richer. Paired very nicely with the cake.
[Fast forward to 13 (Mon) December. After reading a passive-aggressively titled article in the local newspaper featuring an interview with the “country retail manager” of IKEA Korea (see “IKEA changes how you live, and defends its delivery fees“), I dug a bit deeper on Wikipedia and found – much to my shock, dismay, and disappointment – that the brand was founded in Sweden, but the stores are now franchised globally by a company headquartered in the Netherlands, owned by a company registered in Luxembourg, controlled by a company based in Liechtenstein. WTF?!?! As an IKEA super customer, I thought that I was embracing the Swedish lifestyle, but I was actually chasing a branding scam.]
(See also KSCX)
(See also GLOBAL FOOD GLOSSARY)
(See also RESTAURANTS IN KOREA)
Yes it’s true that it IKEA is not technically a Swedish company.. I guess it’s not even a company at all, since it’s a Dutch FOUNDATION that owns the holding company that in turn owns the warehouses across the world… (se e.g https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stichting_INGKA_Foundation)
This complicated structure is still owned and controlled by the Kamprad family, and (most) product development etc are still done in the founding town of Älmhult in southern Sweden…
So I’m not really sure if the company structure (created either to avoid Swedish taxes or to make it impossible for the company to be taken over by outside forces, which would be the risk if it was a publicly traded company…) makes it a “Dutch” company…
Then you could actually argue that Absolut is not a Swedish vodka, since the brand has been owned by Pernod Ricard since 2008… The factory is still in Sweden though, and the ingredients are still taken from Sweden…
If IKEA is “controlled by the Kamprad family, and (most) product development etc are still done in the founding town of Älmhult in southern Sweden” and Absolut “factory is still in Sweden though, and the ingredients are still taken from Sweden,” I will accept that both remain Swedish in essence.
I still consider Land Rover to be essentially British, despite the Indian ownership.