Semla

Instead of pancakes Swedes eat a semla (or several) on Shrove Tuesday. As a matter of fact a lot of people start eating them as soon as they have got over the excesses of Christmas, but we started yesterday with a repeat today.

A semla is made from a sweet bun with a bit of cardamom added to the dough for flavouring. To assemble you cut the top off the bun and stuff the bun with almond paste before adding a layer of whipped cream (preferably better whipped than mine today so that it does not escape down the sides of the bun) before popping the lid back on. Ideally there should also be a thin dusting of icing sugar on top but I decided that my kitchen had had enough icing sugar dusted over it yesterday and did without.

Yummy!