<<Disclaimer: Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>>

Hello everyone!

I'm a new member of this list. I was diagnosed with celiac in October
1994. I'm a native of Finland, now living in Boston, Massachusetts. My
celiac comes from my mother's side of family. My mother herself is not a
celiac but her sister is, also two of their cousins are,and I was the
latest addition.  But enough with babbling.

I want to send you all this delicious recipe of a coffee cake that my
American husband absolutely loves. I converted the measurements from the
metric system that I use, so the amounts aren't really exact but it
doesn't really matter, as long as they are 'almost' exact. Lots of butter
and sugar but so yummy and simple to make!

200 grams of butter, room temp. (roughly 13 tbs., so it's little less
than 2 of those 4 oz. sticks)
1 1/4 cups of sugar
3 eggs
1 cup potato starch ( I use Manischewitz's potato starch)
1 tbs baking powder
3 tbs vanilla extract
3 tbs cognac

1. Mix butter and sugar in a bowl until smooth and soft. Add eggs, one by
one, mixer in a slow speed.
2. Mix potato starch and baking powder. Sift potato starch into
butter-sugar-egg mixture. Blend well so that there are no clumps of
potato starch left.
3. Add vanilla extract. Mix in slow speed.
4. Add cognac. Mix in slow speed.

Pour mixture into a baking pan that has been buttered and powdered with,
say, rice flour (or whatever you may have!) Bake in the oven at 400 F for
about 35-40 mins or until done. The cake is done when you take toothpick,
stick it into the cake and the toothpick comes out 'clean'.

Also, I'll share with you some information about airlines. I've been
travelling with SAS quite often and the food there is ok.... it is mostly
cold vegetables and rice cakes and fruit for dessert. And it doesn't make
any difference whether it's lunch or breakfast time, the food is pretty
much the same. But the last time I flew to the US, I used Finnair. The
celiac food was excellent, I had a warm meal, real bread instead of rice
cakes and a delicous piece of almond tart for dessert! The personnel at
Finnair is also very much aware of this disease. Finnair tends to be a
quite expensive airline to fly with but if you can afford to treat
yourselves, it's worth the price. British Airways is said to be the best
in business (foodwise) but I haven't flown with them yet. Also, anybody
travelling to Helsinki (or Finland in general), at least on restaurant
chain called Rosso serves gluten free pizzas and other meals. The gluten
free portions are market on the menu and the menus are available at least
in English. There are Rosso restaurants all over the country, from
Helsinki to Rovaniemi and inbetween! The personnel in other restaurants
are in general well aware of the celiac disease so you can ask the chef
to prepare a certain meal without gluten.

Regards,
Minna Jordan @ Boston, MA