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THE LOCAL RECIPE

CAKE

Welcome in the autumn with this Swedish tiger cake

With the colder weather coming in it’s time to bring out the comfort food. This recipe for Swedish tiger cake from food writer John Duxbury is the perfect way to greet the autumn.

Published: 23 September 2016 06:59 CEST
Updated: 23 September 2016 13:59 CEST

Welcome in the autumn with this Swedish tiger cake

Tiger cake and coffee, the perfect combination. Photo: John Duxbury/Swedish Food

Summary

Makes: 8-12 slices

Level: Very Easy

Time: 60 minutes (including cooking time) plus time for cooling

A wonderful fika classic enjoyed by people of all ages.

Ingredients

200g (7oz) butter, softened

220g (1 cup) caster (superfine) sugar

3 eggs

220g (1 3/4 cups) plan (all-purpose) flour

1 1/2 tsps baking powder

100ml (7 tbsp) milk or a mixture of milk and cream

3 tbsp cocoa powder

2 tsp vanilla sugar (or 3 tsp of vanilla extract)

Method

1. Pre-heat the oven to 175°C (350°F, Gas 4, Fan 160°C).

2. Grease and flour a 1½ litre (6 cup) loaf tin (pan).

3. Beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

4. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

5. Fold in the flour and baking powder and then stir in the milk/cream.

6. Remove around a third of the mixture (batter) and mix with the cocoa.

7. Add the vanilla sugar (or lemon/orange zest) to the remaining mixture.

8. Pour half the light mixture into the prepared tin (pan), then the dark mixture. Top with the remaining light mixture. (For a marbled cake, draw a fork through the mixture to produce marbled swirls.)

9. Bake on a low oven rack for around 50 minutes. Leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes and then tip out on to a wire rack. Slice when cold.

Tips

– This cake is sometimes also called marble cake. If you want to produce a marbled appearance, draw a fork through the cake mixtures to produce a swirling effect.

-For a more tangy cake substitute the vanilla with the grated zest of a lemon or orange.

This recipe was originally provided on food writer John Duxbury's Swedish Food website.

OPINION: Are tips in Sweden becoming the norm?

The Local’s guide to tipping in Sweden is clear: tip for good service if you want to, but don’t feel the pressure: where servers in the US, for instance, rely on tips to live, waiters in Sweden have collectively bargained salaries with long vacations and generous benefits.

SEE ALSO: What’s the tipping etiquette in Sweden?

But there are signs that this is changing, and the change is being accelerated by card machines. Now, many machines offer three preset gratuity percentages, usually starting with five percent and going up to fifteen or twenty. Previously they just asked the customer to fill in the total amount they wanted to pay.

This subtle change to a user interface sends a not-so-subtle message to customers: that tipping is expected and that most people are probably doing it. The button for not tipping is either a large-lettered ‘No Tip’ or a more subtle ‘Fortsätt’ or ‘Continue’ (it turns out you can continue without selecting a tip amount, but it’s not immediately clear to the user).

I’ll confess, when I was first presented with this I was mildly irked: I usually tip if I’ve had table service, but waiting staff are treated as professionals and paid properly, guaranteed by deals with unions; menu prices are correspondingly high. The tip was a genuine token of appreciation.

But when I tweeted something to this effect (a tweet that went strangely viral), the responses I got made me think. Many people pointed out that the restaurant trade in Sweden is under enormous pressure, with rising costs, the after-effects of Covid and difficulties recruiting. And as Sweden has become more cosmopolitain, adding ten percent to the bill comes naturally to many.

Boulebar, a restaurant and bar chain with branches around Sweden and Denmark, had a longstanding policy of not accepting tips at all, reasoning that they were outdated and put diners in an uncomfortable position. But in 2021 CEO Henrik Kruse decided to change tack:

“It was a purely financial decision. We were under pressure due to Covid, and we had to keep wages down, so bringing back tips was the solution,” he said, adding that he has a collective agreement and staff also get a union bargained salary, before tips.

Yet for Kruse the new machines, with their pre-set tipping percentages, take things too far:

“We don’t use it, because it makes it even clearer that you’re asking for money. The guest should feel free not to tip. It’s more important for us that the guest feels free to tell people they’re satisfied.”

But for those restaurants that have adopted the new interfaces, the effect has been dramatic. Card processing company Kassacentralen, which was one of the first to launch this feature in Sweden, told Svenska Dagbladet this week that the feature had led to tips for the average establishment doubling, with some places seeing them rise six-fold.

Even unions are relaxed about tipping these days, perhaps understanding that they’re a significant extra income for their members. Union representatives have often in the past spoken out against tipping, arguing that the practice is demeaning to staff and that tips were spread unevenly, with staff in cafés or fast food joints getting nothing at all. But when I called the Swedish Hotel and Restaurant Union (HRF), a spokesman said that the union had no view on the practice, and it was a matter for staff, business owners and customers to decide.

So is tipping now expected in Sweden? The old advice probably still stands; waiters are still not as reliant on tips as staff in many other countries, so a lavish tip is not necessary. But as Swedes start to tip more generously, you might stick out if you leave nothing at all.

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