Cinnamon roll
The most famous of all Swedish cakes outside Sweden, the classic cinnamon roll (cinnamon bun) is the symbol of Sweden abroad, no doubt helped by the fact that Swedish furniture giants IKEA stock frozen buns in their food stores for customers to bake off at home.
Forget American tear-apart cinnamon rolls baked in a pan and slathered with cream cheese frosting: a classic Swedish cinnamon bun is baked individually using a yeasted dough spread with cinnamon sugar and butter. The dough is then rolled up, sliced into strips which are then stretched out and knotted into buns, baked, glazed with sugar syrup and sprinkled with pearl sugar.
Home-made varieties skip the stretching and knotting step, rolling the cinnamon-sprinkled dough into a spiral instead which, although less traditional, tastes just as good.
Cinnamon buns in Sweden often include a small amount of Sweden’s favourite spice: cardamom. If you’re a fan of cardamom, try ordering the cinnamon roll‘s even more Swedish cousin, the cardemumma bull or cardamom bun, which skips the cinnamon entirely and goes all-out on cardamom instead.
Sweden celebrates cinnamon bun day (the cinnamon bun’s Day) on October 4th.
Photo: Lieselotte van der Meijs/imagebank.sweden.se
Chocolate ball
A great option if you want a smaller cake for your coffee, the chocolate ball or ‘chocolate ball’ is a perfect accompaniment to coffee – some recipes even call for mixing cold coffee into the batter.
They aren’t baked and are relatively easy to make, meaning they are a popular choice for parents (or grandparents) wanting to involve children in the cake-making process.
Chocolate balls are a simple mix of sugar, oats, melted butter and cocoa powder, with the optional addition of vanilla or coffee, or occasionally rum extract. They are rolled into balls which are then rolled in desiccated coconut (or occasionally pearl sugar), and placed in the fridge to become more solid.
Some bakeries or cafés also offer date balls or raw balls/raw balls (date or raw balls), a vegan alternative made from dried dates and nuts blended together with cocoa powder.
Chocolate ball day (chocolate ball day) falls on May 11th.
Photo: Magnus Carlsson/imagebank.sweden.se
Princess cake
The lime-green princess cake or ‘princess cake’ may look like a modern invention with it’s brightly-coloured marzipan covering, but it has been around since the beginning of the 1900s, and is named after three Swedish princesses, Margareta, Märta and Astrid, who were supposedly especially fond of the cake.
The cake consists of a sponge bottom spread with jam, crème pâtissière and a dome of whipped cream, covered in green marzipan and some sort of decoration, often a marzipan rose.
Princess cakes can also be served in individual portions, small slices of a log which are then referred to as a princess cake.
Although the cakes are popular all year round, in the Swedish region of Småland, princess cake is eaten on the first Thursday in March, due to this being the unofficial national day of the Småland region (as the phrase first Thursday in March is pronounced first tossdan in mass in the Småland dialect).
Since 2004, the Association of Swedish Bakers and Confectioners has designated the last week of September as princess cake week (Princess cake day).
Budapest bagelse
Belonging to the more traditional cakes, a Budapest bagelse or “Budapest slice” is a type of roll cake or “roll cake” similar to a Swiss roll, consisting of a light and crispy cake made from whipped egg whites, sugar and hazelnut, filled with whipped cream and fruit, often chopped conserved peaches, nectarines or mandarines, and rolled into a log.
The log is then sliced into individual portions and drizzled with chocolate, then often topped with whipped cream and a slice of fruit.
Despite its name, the Budapest slice has nothing to do with the city of Budapest – it was supposedly invented by baker Ingvar Strid in 1926 and received the name due to Strid’s love for the Hungarian capital.
Of course, the Budapest baking also has its own day – May 1st.
Cinnamon buns (left), chocolate buns (centre) and biscuits (right). Photo: Tuukka Ervasti/imagebank.sweden.se
Biskvi
Another smaller cake, a bisque (pronounced like the French biscuit), consists of an almond biscuit base, covered in buttercream (usually chocolate flavoured), and dark chocolate.
Different variants of biscuits exist, such as a Sarah Bernhardtnamed after the French actress of the same name, which has chocolate truffle instead of buttercream.
You might also spot biscuits with white chocolate, often with a raspberry (raspberry) or citron (lemon) filling, or even saffron biscuits around Christmastime.
Chocolate bisque day is celebrated on November 11th.