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MIDSUMMER

Recipe: How to make a Swedish strawberry cream cake

Whether served on Midsummer or just as a tasty summer dessert in general, this strawberry cream cake is a classic. Swedish food writer John Duxbury shares his recipe.

Published: 23 June 2021 06:59 CEST
Recipe: How to make a Swedish strawberry cream cake
Strawberry cream cake is a Swedish favourite. Photo: John Duxbury/Swedish Food

Strawberries are one of the most popular fruits in Sweden and Swedes believe they are the best in the world. The cold climate and the long summer days are said to pack in extra sweetness and flavour.

This cake is a midsummer classic. A glorious cream cake filled with fresh strawberries and served with more strawberries on the side. It is one of the highlights of summer in Sweden! There is no single recipe for the cake, but it always involved at least two layers, custard and lots of strawberries and cream! The cake base can be cooked in advance, leaving decoration to the last minute. If you are in a rush you can use a good quality shop-bought vanilla custard instead.

Summary

Serves: 12

Preparation: 20 minutes

Cooking: 40 minutes

Total: 60 minutes

Ingredients

Cake

4 eggs

200g (0.9 cups) caster sugar

50g (0.4 cups) plain white flour

80g (0.4 cups) potato flour

2 tsp baking powder

breadcrumbs for the cake tin

Filling

1 egg yolk

1 tbsp icing sugar

1/4 tsp vanilla essence

150ml (3/4 cup) whipping cream

250g (8 oz) strawberries

Decoration

250ml (1 cup) whipping cream

250g (8 oz) strawberries

Method

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

2. Generously grease a 23cm (9in) round cake tin and coat with breadcrumbs.

3. Beat the eggs and sugar until light, creamy and airy.

4. Mix the flours and baking powder, then fold into the mixture.

5. Pour the mixture into the cake tin and bake on the lowest rung for approximately 35-40 minutes, until an inserted skewer comes out clean and the cake is just beginning to come away from the sides of the tin.

6. After two or three minutes, turn the cake out on to a wire rack. Let the cake cool completely.

7. When cold, cut the cake in half horizontally.

8. Make the filling (called vanilla whip) by whisking the egg yolk, one tablespoon of icing sugar and vanilla extract together until thick and creamy (about one to two minutes when whisked by hand).

9. Whip the cream until it forms soft peaks and then gently fold it into the egg and sugar mixture. Spread it over the bottom cake layer.

10. Crush the sliced strawberries lightly with a spatula or a flat side of a knife and place them on top of the vanilla whip. Place the other cake layer on top.

11. Whip the cream for decorating until fairly stiff and spread over the top and sides of the cake. Decorate with strawberries.

12. Serve with lots of extra fresh strawberries and enjoy.

Tips

– Use a non-stick spring form cake tin if you have one. It makes it so much easier to remove the cake from the tin without breaking it.

Recipe courtesy of John Duxbury, editor and founder of Swedish Food.

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FOOD AND DRINK

OPINION: Are tips in Sweden becoming the norm?

Should you tip in Sweden? Habits are changing fast thanks to new technology and a hard-pressed restaurant trade, writes James Savage.

Published: 5 April 2024 13:59 CEST
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. 

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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