Beatrice Ojakangas
Selected Bibliography
The Finnish Cookbook (1964)
The Great Scandinavian Baking Book (1988)
Scandinavian Feasts: Celebrating Traditions Throughout the Year (1992)
Light Muffins: Over 60 Recipes for Sweet and Savory Low-Fat Muffins and Spreads (1995)
The Best Casserole Cookbook Ever (2008)
Petite Sweets: Bite-Size Desserts to Satisfy Every Sweet Tooth (2009)
The Soup and Bread Cookbook: More Than 100 Seasonal Pairings for Simple, Satisfying Meals (2013)
Breakfast with Beatrice: 250 Recipes from Sweet Cream Waffles to Swedish Farmer’s Omelets (2018)
Beatrice Ojakangas (1934-) has been cooking since before she could read or write. She declared her first recipe “salt cake” because, as a child, she continued adding salt to cake batter because her mother told her salt enhances flavor. The cake was not a hit as it lacked sugar. The eldest child of ten in a family of Finnish background, Ojakangas has lived in Minnesota her whole life. She and her husband owned a restaurant in Duluth in the 1970s, but Ojakangas’ true passion is writing cookbooks.
Before publishing her first book, The Finnish Cookbook, Ojakangas traveled throughout Finland, gathering recipes. She has written twenty-six other books, though not all of them have to do with Scandinavian cooking. She also has a cookbook focusing on casseroles and one on desserts called Petite Sweets. Her book The Great Scandinavian Baking Book won a James Beard Award. A slow cooker cookbook may be in the future for Ojakangas, who continues to write to this day.