As Swedish as sandwich cake

Pete and I had a craving for something very Swedish -smörgåstårta, the sandwich cake.  The first time I heard about it, I was not really in a hurry to give it a try.  I love cakes - the sweet, delicious ones.  This 'cake', in my mind, is NOT real cake.  This one is not made from flour, sugar and eggs.  And it's not garnished with buttercream, strawberries or chocolate.  This is a savoury cake.

From far, it might look like an ordinary cake but it's definitely not.  The cake is actually a huge sandwich with layers of bread and filling, covered with a creamy mixture of mayonnaise, cream cheese, sour cream and whipped cream.  On top of that, garnishes such as tiny prawns, slices of hard boiled eggs, cucumber, tomatoes, smoked salmon, cheese and roe or caviar are used to cover the cake.  These cakes can look quite pretty, actually.

Once I got used to the idea of a savoury cake, I was willing to try.  I can't remember now when I first tried it, but with that first bite, I got hooked.  I love sandwiches, so it was very easy to like it.  The whole thing was creamy but there lies the skill of the person making the cake.  The fillings in the layers should have a nice balance.  Here, the fillings are usually made up of egg salad, tuna salad, salmon and pate.  Some people put slices of lemon and kiwi and sprinkling of fresh herbs like parsley and dill to brighten up the taste.

The sandwich cake is usually served during special occasions here.  You can make them yourself or simply order it from a bakery.  There are speciality bakeries that sell these but they are expensive.  It could cost about 750kr (SGD 150) for a cake that serves 10 people.  You could also buy them from some supermarkets.

Pete and I decided to make one ourselves yesterday.  He has made them before but it was my first attempt.  The first thing we had to do was to get the ingredients.  They are all easy to find except for the bread.  They have a special type of bread for this.  Instead of slicing the bread cross-wise, the bread is cut length-wise.  The longer slices mean that you can build a bigger cake more easily.  We went to two supermarkets and two smaller stores and they all were out.  It made me wonder if Saturday is the day that people here like to make their sandwich cakes.

Anyway, in the end we bought bread that is semi-circular.  That is a much better option than the usual sandwich bread since it's more stable.  Using this bread, we would get a circular cake but it's fine.  I made egg salad and creamy chicken for the fillings.  The frosting was made with simply whipped cream and mayonnaise.  We decorated our cake with strips of cucumber, tomato and cucumber slices, prawns, salmon, lemon slices and roe.

Although it looks simple, we really love the look of it.  The bright red cherry tomatoes and the green cucumber make the cake look so beautiful and fresh.  The lemon slices also make it look nice, but most of all, the tangy juice lifts the dish.  When we cut into it, it didn't fall apart.  Best of all, it tastes good.  And as a bonus, since the cake ended up to be a huge one, we have leftovers to eat more of today! That means one or even two fewer meals to cook today.

(note: At the time of posting, I couldn't upload pictures of the sandwich cake but you can view them at my facebook page)