Introducing the smörgåstårta! If you haven’t seen one of these before, it’s a Swedish sandwich cake with layers of bread separating creamy fillings. I can’t remember where I first heard of them but I’ve been aching to make one for the longest time. If you run a Google image search you’ll be amazed at the wide range of incredibly creative smörgåstårtas out there. In the end, I decided to make the recipe from Saveur, which is filled with smoked salmon and smoked herring mousse. Read on to see what goes into making one of these party showstoppers!
After browsing dozens of smörgåstårtas online, the Saveur recipe won me over with the bread. I really wanted to make a round cake, but in most cases that involves cobbling together multiple pieces of rectangular-shaped bread and trimming it all into a circle. Baking a cake-shaped loaf of bread sounded like a much better way to go. It’s a light whole wheat bread and comes out of the springform pan in the perfect shape and size for a smörgåstårta.
After I took a deep breath and tentatively divided the bread into three mostly-equal layers (phew!) it was time to bring on the fillings. The recipe called for the bottom layer to be a mousse made with smoked herring, but since I couldn’t find it at the store I went with smoked trout. A layer of sliced cucumber went on top of the mousse, then it was on to the next tier: smoked salmon, a sweet mustard sauce and shredded romaine lettuce. All the while, I’m hoping and praying that I’ll like how this all tastes together because these were definitely some out-of-the-ordinary flavor combinations for me!
