Cheryl Marie Cordeiro

Sockerkaka or Sugar Cake, is one of Sweden’s most popular cakes to serve, whether at tea or birthdays.
Photo © J E Nilsson and C M Cordeiro-Nilsson for CMC 2010

It’s difficult to forget the things that you’ve grown up with, such as the blue pleated pinafore, walking through void decks, eating potong ice-cream bought from the streets, and having HDB heartland bakery butter sponge cakes when you want them. Oh! What it is to have a sponge cake or a chocolate cake when you need it in Sweden!

And when in need of a sponge cake fix today, I fingered the bookshelves in the pantry and landed upon some traditional Swedish recipes for cakes. My favourite book being this lightweight, Sju Sorters Kakor or Swedish Cakes and Cookies that has now been translated into English by Melody Favish.

It takes less than twenty minutes to batter this up, another 40 minutes in the oven on a low shelf and voila – a piece of heaven!

The Swedish Sugar Cake is basic and versatile. So versatile, you can almost bake it in any flavour you like. Today, it was lemon and cardamon for me, since Christmas is definitely in the air here in the city and the smell of cardamon in baked cakes or breads is simply heaven in the kitchen!

Here’s what you’ll need:

50 gram butter or 100 ml (1 dl) of canola oil
2 large eggs
2 dl sugar
1 dl milk or water
2 1/2 dl flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp vanilla essence
Rind from 1 small lemon
1 tsp ground cardamon

Begin by whisking the eggs and sugar. Then pour in the milk, melted butter or canola oil. Blend till smooth. Add in the sifted dry ingredients to the batter and stir in the lemon rind. Pour the batter into a buttered and floured baking tin, and bake for ca. 40 minutes at 175 deg C.

This weekend was not one of the most relaxing weekends, having had to tend to more than a few last minute details before my year end travels. I needed cake.

It was a relief that this cake didn’t take too much time out of all things I had to look into this weekend. The kitchen smelled wonderful, together with a steaming hot cup of coffee, it was all that was needed to make a Sunday, perfect!