Swedish Sandwich Cake by Lena

I have a guest blogger today! Lena, who blogs in Swedish here, is here to tell you all about the Swedish culinary specialty called sandwich cake, or "Smörgåstårta". I haven't manager to talk much about this before, because it's one of my dark secrets that I.. don't like it very much. I'm fairly alone in this, everyone else seems to love it and applaud loudly when they are served. I shudder, ashamedly, and take a small piece.

Lena served this one for her birthday and it was one of the best I've ever tried so I asked her to share the recipe with all of you. You can find it in Swedish here.



Smörgåstårta, or sandwich cake is often served at big parties, such as for graduations, birthdays or as a late night snack at a wedding party. The cake is basically a large sandwich with several different creamy fillings and then topped with vegetables, seafood, ham and cheese. My sandwich cake is made with a soft fluffy rye bread, which is a little more resitant to becoming soggy than the toast bread which is commonly used. For filling I used three very different spreads, it may sound strange to combine sweet fruit with shrimps but it works - I promise, and it is yummy.

I used the following for a cake that was about 16 x 32 cm:
8 rounds of soft rye bread, or if you like, use toast bread
400 g of skagen mix (see here for a recipe Skagen mix )
200 g soft cheese with smoked ham flavour (I used this one,
but any type will do)
a large can of fruitcoctail in juice
300 ml of cream

Cut the bread to the shape you like and divide it so that you can make three layers of filling. If you are using a bread that is a little bit thicker and the bread have a crust it could be good to cut away the crust so that the filling can soak in to the bread. Whip the cream, mix a couple of spoons of whiped cream with the soft cheese to make it even softer. Remove the juice and chop the fruit into small pieces, mix the fruit with the rest of the cream. Build your cake by putting the skagen mix on the first layer, followed by the soft cheese on the next, and finishing with the fruit on the last.

Cover the cake with plastic clingfilm and put it in the fridge over night. One valuable tip when filling your cake, more is better, a dry sandwish cake is not
tasty.

For garnish I used:
300 ml of cream
smoked ham, sliced
cheese, sliced
shrimps
tomatoes
cucumber
red grapes
salad

Rinse the vegetables and the grapes and leave to dry. Whip the cream and cover the sides and the top of the cake with a thin layer. Mount the sallad around the cake with the cream. Garnish the cake to your as you like, with one rule, you can not put to much stuff on the cake.

Enjoy!