Smörgåstårta – Savory Rye Sandwich Cake

Hey friends and happy midsummer! We spent midsummer eve at a friends house, dancing like frogs around a flower covered midsummer pole. It’s one of many weird traditions that we do in Sweden on this longest day of the year. Today we are off to Noma (as in one of the coolest restaurants on earth) to test their new plant focused menu that is launching next week. We’re very excited – obviously for Noma, but also for eating a fancy dinner together with zero kids around. Before we are leaving, I wanted to post this little recipe that we uploaded to our youtube a few days ago.

Just like frog dance, this savory layered sandwich cake is also a very Swedish thing. It is called smörgåstårta and is traditionally made by layering white bread with mayonnaise, creme cheese, whipped cream, dill, chives, shrimps, salmon and a bunch of other stuff. It’s basically like a sandwich gone wild. Even if we are not completely sold on the very heavy traditional version, there is something intriguing about the concept of a sandwich cake. So we made our own version, using rye bread and three colorful and fresh (but still quite rich) spreads in between. One green spread with avocado, dill and peas. One white spread with egg, sauerkraut and creme fraiche. And one purple spread with beans, beetroot and sunflower seeds. We cover it with cream cheese with a sting of horseradish and lots of finely sliced veggies and flowers. It looks great, is fun to make and really delicious. Sandwich cake FTW!

This is the perfect savory dish to make for a party, brunch or gathering with friends. You can easily half the recipe or make it vegan by skipping the egg layer and replacing the cream cheese with coconut cream. If you want to try a gluten-free version of this cake you could either simply use a gluten free bread, or bake 4 trays of our vegetable flatbreads (this option is a little time consuming but would probably taste amazing).

Check out this recipe video to see how we make it.

Smörgåstårta (Savory Rye Sandwich Cake)
Serves 12-16

Green Spread
300 g / 2 cups cup green peas
1 small lemon, juice
1 bunch dill, chopped
2 avocados, flesh scooped out
2 tbsp olive oil
1 large pinch salt

White Spread
6 hard-boiled eggs
250 g / 1 cup creme fraice or sour cream
2 tbsp capers
4 tbsp sauerkraut
a pinch black pepper

Purple Spread
1 cup sunflower seeds, soaked for an hour in water
1 x 400 g tin white beans, drained and rinsed
2 cooked beetroots, roughly chopped
1 small lemon, juice
4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper

Assembling
36 slices of sourdough rye bread (or bread of choice), thinly sliced
500 g cream cheese
1 tbsp grated horseradish

Decoration
1 avocado, sliced or shaped into a rose
1/2 cucumber, sliced thinly
1 small bunch of asparagus, thinly shaved
1 lemon, halved and thinly sliced
mache lettuce
chives, finely chopped

Start by making the spreads. Add all the ingredients for the green spread to a food processor and mix until smooth (or use a bowl and a hand blender). Taste and adjust the flavour to your liking. Transfer to a bowl and clean the food processor.

For the white spread, peel and roughly chop the eggs, place in a bowl and gently stir through crème fraiche, capers, sauerkraut and a little black pepper. Set aside.

Drain and rinse the sunflower seeds for the purple spreads and add them to the food processor (or use bowl and hand blender) along with beans, beetroot, lemon juice, olive oil and a good grind of salt and pepper. Pulse a couple of times until combined but still a little chunky.

To assemble: Trim any hard ends off the bread and line up the rye slices so you have a rectangle, 3 slices wide and 3 slices long. Spread the green spread evenly on top and then place another layer of bread. Now layer they white spread evenly on top. Place another layer of bread, followed by the purple spread. Place the final 9 slices of rye on top. Add cream cheese to a mixing bowl and grate in the horseradish. Whisk to make sure it’s incorporated, taste and add more if desired. Use a palette style knife to cover the cake with a layer of cream cheese. Decorate with an avocado rose, ribbons of cucumber, shaved asparagus, machet lettuce, slices of lemons, chives and flowers. Or whatever you think looks good.

Tip: You can make this cake 12-24 hours ahead and store in the fridge to let the spreads soak into the bread and soften it up a bit. Then add the cream cheese and decorations right before serving.