• Bullar
• Kakor
• Tårtor och bakelser
• Småkakor
• Dammsugare
• Biskvi

Bullar

Ah, bullar. The quintessential Swedish pastry. Traditional fillings include cinnamon, cardamom, vanilla, almond or even a combination. They might look somewhat similar to an American cinnamon roll, but they’re usually not as sweet, and no…there’s (usually) no icing here. Instead, you might find pearl sugar (also known as nib sugar) sprinkled on top.

However, nowadays there’s many more variants on the humble bulle – there’s sockerbullar (sugar buns) or solbullar (sun buns) which are filled with a vanilla custard and rolled in sugar, fruit-based buns like rabarber-bullar (rhubarb buns) and blåbärs-bullar (blueberry buns) and countless more than we could fit in. The short story? You can never go wrong with a bulle alongside your coffee.

There’s also a few special seasonal varieties, such as the semla. In Sweden, Shrove Tuesday is known as ‘fettisdagen’ (literally…’fat day’), and instead of pancakes, we eat semlor. They’re normally made of a cardamom bun that’s had it’s top cut off and then been hollowed out. Inside, they’re stuffed with a filling of marzipan, cream and the scraped-out bun filling. They’re then topped with more cream, and the top is put back on like a little hat.

Kakor

Kaka (cake) can mean a few different things to Swedes, depending on the specifics. If you’re thinking of the equivalent of say a sponge cake, then Swedes refer to this as ‘mjuk kaka’ (literal translation: soft cake).

One popular mjuk kaka often served at home for fika is sockerkaka (literal translation: sugar cake). Families often have their own recipe, but it’s typically made from flour, sugar, butter, baking powder, and a whole lot of eggs. It’s also often used as the base layers for a tårta, which we’ll get to in just a bit.

Another famous kaka is kladdkaka (literal translation: sticky cake). You might also see it translated as mud cake, since it’s a rich chocolate cake that has a crackly top and a gooey inside. Think of slightly underbaked brownies in a cake tin, and you’ve basically got a kladdkaka.

Tårtor & bakelser

Tårtor are usually differentiated from a kaka, though they’re usually both translated to cake in English. The details tend to lie in the complexity of baking a ‘tårta’, which is the name normally given to cakes that have layers of sponge and filling, as well as being decorated (with whipped cream, or marzipan, or icing, and so on). They’re often served for more special occasions of fika, like a birthday or your nameday.

One of the most well known tårtor is the princesstårta (literal translation: princess cake). Recipes vary, but typically the cake is made up of the following (going from bottom to top):

• a sponge base
• jam (raspberry is traditional!)
• another sponge layer
• vanilla custard
• yet another sponge layer
• whipped cream
• another thin layer of sponge (this is sometimes skipped)
• green marzipan (phew, we made it!)

Green marzipan is what signifies it as a princesstårta. If the marzipan is yellow, it’s known as a princetårta (prince cake), and if it’s pink, it’s called operatårta (opera cake).

A bakelser, on the other hand, is a tårta made in a single portion. Bakelser differs from a slice of a tårta, which would just be a tårtbit (cake bit). Therefore, a tårta might exist in both formats -as a whole tårta (intended for a group of people…though who are we to judge?) and a bakelser.

Småkakor

Småkakor (literal translation: small cakes) are a collective name for small biscuit-like baked goods that are made from a type of ‘mother’ dough called ‘mördeg’ (literal translation: tender dough), typically made up of flour, water, sugar, and butter. Think of them like the Swedish equivalent to biscuits, cookies, biscotti, and so on. They’re typically cute and small enough to eat in one or two bites. From that base dough, you can make many, many variations of småkakor – some are filled, some are plain, some are more decorated. They’re very commonly baked for fika at home, but you can also find bags of them for sale in most Swedish bakeries. Most importantly though, they’re all delicious.

Dammsugare

First things first, dammsugare means hoover. Yes, really. And yes, the Swedish word for hoover translates literally as ‘dust-sucker’. We’re quite a blunt language. They are usually made up of crushed biscuits, butter and cocoa powder that’s been mixed together, covered in marzipan, and dipped in chocolate. They’re also known as punschrullar (punch rolls) if they contain punsch liqueur. Their name not only refers to their appearance of older models of hoovers, but from the supposed practice of using up leftover biscuit crumbs in a bakery. They’re often a bit of a marmite-sweet treat, but we recommend giving them a go at least once, so that you know yourself if you love them or hate them!

Biskvi

Biskvi are another small pastry that’s made of an almond macaron-like bottom, filled with a vanilla buttercream, and covered in a thin layer of (usually) chocolate. A variant called the Sarah-Bernandt biskvi (named after the French actress) swaps out the buttercream for a chocolate truffle filling. You’ll also find other versions, like white chocolate, raspberry and yes, of course…liquorice biskvier.

You can often find the normal (palm-sized) and mini biskvi (tea-spoon sized!) these days in bakeries…the only danger is eating too many of them.

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The story of fika is closely tied to Sweden’s history with coffee, which was introduced into the country in the late 17th century. However, it was primarily only a drink for the very wealthy. Back then, coffee was something of a luxury – half a kilo of coffee was equivalent to a year’s salary for a farm worker!

However, coffee began to spread in popularity throughout the country – in part because it was banned no less than five times between the 18th and 19th centuries. This was due to fears around its addictiveness, and a general impression that it was frivolous for the population to spend money on foreign, imported products. Unfortunately for the King and the politicans who implemented these bans, it had the opposite effect. Coffee and Sweden are a great example of people really wanting what they can’t have.

In the 19th century, coffee became more affordable, and its popularity increased further, regardless of class or rank. At the same time, Swiss migrants opened up Schweizerier (a style of bakery). As a result, Swedes started to enjoy drinking coffee alongside something sweet. This trend spread like wildfire, particularly at home. Whilst men more frequently visited coffee shops, it was unseemly for them to gorge on lots of cake. However, there was no such rule for women! It was a popular way for women to show off their skills as a good hostess by having coffee and cake parties at home…and the more cake, the better!

Kaffi to fika

The word fika itself comes from what Swedes refer to as back-street slang. In the 19th century, people used the words ‘kaffe’ and ‘kaffi’ interchangably for the word ‘coffee’. Overtime, the word kaffi split into two syllables, and then reversed. Eventually, it dropped the second ‘f’ to become the word ‘fika’ we know today. Kaffe is now the Swedish word for coffee, but some places still spell it as ‘kaffi’.

Seven types of cake

The trend of something sweet alongside your coffee cemented itself Swedish culture by the publication of the hugely influential Sju Sorters Kakor in 1945 to celebrate the end of rationing.

Its title translates to ‘Seven types of cake’, and is the best selling cookbook of all time in Sweden still to this day. The title is based on the recommendation of seven cakes being ideal for your fika party. If you serve more than seven, you’re a snob, or a show-off. But, if you serve fewer than seven, you’re stingy…

It doesn’t mean you have to have seven types of cake, of course. But maybe you could keep it in mind… you know, for that fika where you go all out. Just remember to send us an invite!

The post The history of fika appeared first on fikatrail.

Pronounced ‘fee-ka’, it tends to be synonymous with drinking coffee (or tea) alongside something to eat (usually sweet).

Swedes prefer not to translate the word fika. They don’t want it to lose significance and become a mere coffee break.

— sweden.se, part of the Swedish Institute.

That being said, scoffing a muffin with your to-go coffee on your rushed morning commute wouldn’t really fit what we’re going for here. This is reflected in the language that’s built up around the concept of fika – a fikapaus (fika-pause), kafferast (coffee-rest) or fikarast (fika-rest).

But, when it comes to fika, there’s no real hard and fast rules. If you prefer having something savoury and accidentally have your fikapaus turn into a lazy lunch, nobody will mind. Or you’re sneaking in a coffee break with your colleagues in between those boring meetings. Maybe you’re having a morning cup of coffee and doom-scrolling on Twitter before leaving for work. You say you were drinking coffee and ate a whole tin of pepparkakor with friends after midnight last night? Yeah, you guessed it – that still counts.

Want the TL:DR? In short, fika is so important to us Swedes because it’s a chance to take a break and enjoy the moment. Whether that’s with or without company, with something to eat or not – we leave that up to you!

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