Yummy vinarterta a big draw at Gimli’s Icelandic Festival

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This article was published 02/08/2015 (3805 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

GIMLI — It’s time to put the “selling like hotcakes” expression to bed and replace it with “selling like vinarterta cakes at the Icelandic Festival.”

Sales at Kyle’s Icelandic Vinarterta booth could not have been hotter, at the always-interesting street fair of Islendingadagurinn, a.k.a. Gimli’s Icelandic Festival.

Former Gimli resident Kim Trynacity, now a CBC reporter in Edmonton, was spotted buying three of the cakes.

“It’s my annual pilgrimage back home,” said Trynacity.

She even had vinarterta cake shipped by Canada Post to her wedding in Yellowknife when she lived there.

In addition to vinarterta being a delicious treat she grew up on, Trynacity said you can’t beat vinarterta’s practicality.

“It’s solid as a rock, and you can store it in the freezer, and it will last for years,” she said.

Kyle Robins is the Kyle behind Kyle’s Icelandic Vinarterta. His ancestors came from Iceland in the first migration in the 1870s and settled north of Gimli. Robins now lives in St. Adolphe.

Robins is a government employee by day and vinarterta baker by night. He’s been a regular vendor at the St. Norbert Farmers’ Market for eight years.

Making vinarterta is very labour-intensive. It’s a densely packed, 11-layer cake with six layers of dough and five layers of filling. Robins will make stacks and stacks of rolled-out layers of dough, then start to add fillings. Traditional vinarterta is made with a prune filling.

Vinarterta is the unofficial national pastry of the Icelandic settlement around Gimli that came to be known as New Iceland. As anyone who has visited Iceland knows, you can’t find vinarterta there. People there have completely forgotten it. If they do know what vinarterta is, they consider it a Canadian dessert.

One theory is the recipe may have its roots in Vienna, the “vin” standing for Viennese. It was in vogue in Iceland in the 1870s, when its masses started migrating to Canada. Robins offers vinarterta with prune filling but also breaks with tradition by introducing other fruits, all grown on his property in St. Adolphe. His alternate fillings include prune with brandy, prune with rum, raspberry, black currant, crabapple rhubarb and Saskatoon berry.

Robins sells almond-flavoured icing separately.

“There’s just an eighth to a quarter-cup of sugar” in vinarterta. It’s also egg-free, dairy-free and salt-free, he said.

A Citizens on Patrol Program officer at the festival was happy to see a booth dedicated to vinarterta.

“Every year, people ask where can they find good vinarterta. Now I know where to send them,” she said.

Two of Robins’ four children with his wife, Maya, busked to pass the time, playing fiddles.

“Because we’re always at markets on weekends, so the kids need something to do,” he said.

Meanwhile, local residents reported the fish flies were a problem right up until Thursday night, then disappeared just in time for the festival. The amazing Viking Village is back, featuring role-playing enthusiasts from across North America.

The 126th annual festival started Friday and ends Monday. It also includes midway rides, Icelandic and Canadian folk and jazz performers, fireworks and art exhibits.

There are also many interesting food trucks at the festival, such as the Simba Safari Grill and Gourmet Poutine, and three booths offering henna tattoos for $5 that wear off in about two weeks.

bill.redekop@freepress.mb.ca