Europe's news in English

COPY LINK

SEMLA

Why this hybrid cake has gone viral in Sweden

A Swedish pastry chef has made the controversial move of taking two of the most sacred baked goods in the country and combining them to create a provocative hybrid.

Published: 13 January 2017 11:38 CET

Why this hybrid cake has gone viral in Sweden

More controversial than it looks. Photo: Thimons Konditori och Bageri

Markus Ekelund of Thimons bakery in Nässjö combined two classic Swedish treats: the marzipan heavy princess cake (prinsesstårta) and the cream filled semla. The sugary monster of a result is the PrinsessSemla.

“I had the idea last year then worked on it. The idea was to combine the two most popular baked goods and make one thing from them,” Ekelund told The Local.

The hybrid has provoked strong emotions since the bakery unveiled it on their Facebook page earlier this week, receiving thousands of comments in response.

Some felt their wildest dreams had been fulfilled, like the commenter who wrote “Oh my, must taste!”. Others, such as a more conservative commenter who insisted “Against: Semlor are and shall always be semlor!”, were not so impressed.

Something tells us the bakery won’t be too bothered by the odd Facebook critic though. “We’re selling a lot of them. They’ve been really popular,” Ekelund revealed.

For any international readers visiting Sweden in the future, here’s why you should try one of the amalgamations according to the creator himself:

“It’s a little bit of both. So if you haven’t tried a princess cake, and you haven’t tried a semla, you get both in one thing.”

The cake definitely sounds more appealing than Ekelund’s previous attempt at a fresh take on the semla, which was 2016’s semoothie – a smoothie made out of semla cakes.

Swedes seem to have a particular thing for baking hybrid goods, beyond the standard cronut or doughssant. In 2015 The Local spoke to a Swedish cafe which made the equally controversial move of combining the semla with the saffron-filled lussebulle. Tempers flared.

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.

Url copied to clipboard!