Sweden’s Sandwich Cake - Smörgåstårta

When you think of a cake, what comes to mind? Chocolate icing? Cream, jam or sprinkles?

Now, Google “Smörgåstårta” and tell us what you think it is. Is it a cake? Is it a sandwich? Well, technically — it’s a sandwich cake. Everyone’s favorite face on Great Big Story, Beryl, spoke to pastry chef Johan Sandelin-Järnåsen who spills the beans (or should we say, spreads the mayo?) on what makes this unique and wonderful dish so popular. With Johan’s guidance, Beryl then makes her own version and puts this cake to the test.

Would you eat this dish?

0:00 Intro
00:25 Google smörgåstårta
00:51 Cake or a sandwich?
01:30 Finding this dish in NYC
01:49 How to make smörgåstårta

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#Food #Sweden #Smörgåstårta

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[LukasInTaiwan]

As a Swede, there literally isn’t anything better than Smörgåstårta!❤

[kombinatsiya]

Smörgåstårta is one of those things that's crazy expensive to eat at a restaurant but actually quite reasonable to make yourself.

[lndtbs]

I'm Swedish and you pretty much nailed it, making it the day before is essential as the bread really needs to soak up all those juices and flavors. Otherwise it'll just be dry and flavorless. You can serve this to any Swede and they'll instantly accept you as one of their own.

The best part about smörgåstårta is that there are no hard rules on how to make it. Anything savory goes! The traditional way to make it is with seafood (and lots of shrimp in particular) for sure but if you don't like seafood you can make one with roast beef or whatever - it's your smörgåstårta! You'll find infinite varieties here in Sweden and they're all great.

I definitely encourage people to try it, it's not even that hard to make.

[moaahlgren]

Such a classic! And only the sky is the limit for fillings realy... tunasallad, chickensallad, creamy liverpate filling or variants with cheese... anything goes realy.

[emeliesolli]

It’s fun as a Swede see foreigner try it, both as some may see the concept for the first time, or describing similar regional dishes!

Smörgåstårta is a great option for when you want to have guests, and you want to have an informal reception, where guests can trickle in and leave or you just don’t want to have a sit down meal with table settings. It’s severed cold so you just take it out of the fridge, and it’s easy to eat even with disposable plates and plastic cutleries. So it’s gooey in that way that a flimsy paper or plastic fork will do to eat it.
And it feels a little festive as it’s topped with delicious stuff. You can make or order whole plates of the cakes and guests and serve themself so you get to mingle and interact with everyone.

You can make it a bit ahead of time. Like a ready make cake can sit in fridge for 24h with it not getting bad. Also you could prepare parts, like if you are serving many you can make everything but the topping/decoration until hours before serving if you worry shellfish would go bad or fresh veggies to look sad if it’s sat waiting a couple of days.
When I tried working at a cafe as school kid, they did just that, had the bread and filling made ahead of time delivered from the central bakery the day before and in the morning just added the outer layer mayo and the fresh salad, veggies, eggs and shellfish on it.

[jernulf]

That smörgåstårta you made looks amazing. It would absolutely impress a Swedish friend if you have one!

[GreatBigStory]

What unique food combinations do you love? 😊 Tell us your favorite frankenfood! 🍽 👇

[SimonBertilsson]

Perfect pronunciation of Skål
Smörgåstårta is the best 🙂

[victorcast]

We have it in Brazil and it's delicious! We call it Bolo salgado de pão de forma e frango (Loaf Bread Salty Cake) or Bolo Salgado for shorts. We also use seafood, but it's possible to find it with mozzarela cheese, tuna, chicken, ham, and different vegetables. A staple on kids house parties from the 80's that is slowly dying unfortunately, but I personaly still love it.

[Currywurst]

Swede here. I love to make a good smörgåstårta from time to time. It even has its own day (Nov 13th). First time I see edamame beans on one though, creative touch there Beryl! A similar dish from eastern Europe that I really enjoy is dressed herring, colloquially known as herring under a fur coat. It is a layered salad composed of diced pickled herring covered with layers of grated boiled eggs, vegetables (potatoes, carrots, beetroots), chopped onions, and mayonnaise.

Swede here, totally approve! It looked absolutely delicious 🤤

[UnlimitedFlyers]

GREAT BIG STORY IS !!!! And Beryl is making food documentaries for it again! DOUBLE

[laka]

I always requested having smörgåstårta as oppose to a traditional cake on my birthdays growing up as a child. These days I make it on my own in celebration of midsummer or whenever I crave it. If I could only eat one thing for the rest of my life I would without a doubt choose smörgåstårta :)

[flemess]

Here in Brazil we have Torta Salgada ("savory pie"), which is the same idea: use bread as dough, but with shredded chicken as filling, covered with mashed potato and decorated with fresh herbs and vegetables. It was very common when I was a kid, not so much today.

Seafood, huh? Maybe I will go on a trip down memory lane, and to the grocery shop. 😋

[ricoismydaddy]

I love this channel so much!! Been here since you guys left and I’m glad you are back

[Gwenecko]

I've never wanted to eat Swedish food more in my life than right now

[poromise]

I make one that has white bread, whole grain bread and black rye bread, and contains a bunch of smoked salmon, eggs, pickles, a ton of cream cheese, sour cream, and a bunch of other things as well. It's quite a weird combo of flavors but it might be my favorite food ever. I can demolish a 1.5 kg cake in a day, easy.

[rasmus]

The way she said "Skål" at the end was perfect, sounded suspiciously 100% swedish

[aprilzek]

I'm so glad you're back on GBS, Beryl!

[marna_li]

Both Sweden and Denmark has this tradition of eating sandwiches. I don't say we eat it a lot of it, but we also have Räkmacka (Shrimp sandwich) which is like the little brother of Smörgåstårta. In most cases the type of bread varies. If it is soft bread or rye bread. In Denmark, they have "smørrebrød" which takes lunching with sandwiches to another level. It is small pieces of rye bread with butter and various stuff on top. Either meats or fish. My favorite is roast beef and remoulade. It does get cheaper making them yourself.