I put way more effort into this than normal cake!

You may recall that thanks to Perk!er, I discovered cake I was allowed for breakfast in the form of Gingerbread Porridge. Then I got all of a wobble, when Orgran introduced me to cake for dinner with their indulgent Cornbread. Well, dear readers, I can report that I have made it a cakey trinity, a triple layer of cakey meal goodness. Thanks to snooping on the Fria site I have discovered a way to eat cake for every meal of the day. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you The Lunch Cake, or as it is known in Sweden: a Smörgåstårta.

Lots of googling revealed many retro wonders in the world of sandwich cake design. I can’t help but think that someone in Sweden dreamed this up at a 1970s dinner party in an addled haze of prawn cocktails, black forest gateaux and large helpings of hallucinogenics. This is totally not the type of thing that style magazines have in mind when they talk about how chic Scandinavian design is! The traditional fillings of a sandwich cake seem to be smoked fish and eggs, but really your imagination can run wild. This isn’t your every day lunch, so I decided to give it a go as my Sunday project by making a mini Smörgåstårta using those dinky slices of Fria bread just for me (and the slightly bemused Gluten Eating Husband).

For a cook who is more used to a ‘chuck it in and hope it works’ methodology (I have even been known to make my packed lunch the night before without defrosting the bread for laziness) I applied uncharacteristic patience. I spent a long while preparing my fillings and decorations before the assembly. The ingredients I opted for were:

• Slices of Fria Fiber bread cut into rounds/squares -you could use any bread, but the seeds added a nice texture and I would recommend one without holes! Remember to keep the crusts for breadcrumbs!
• Egg mayonnaise with spring onions
• Salmon with a tomato & paprika dressing
• Smoked ham
• Cucumber
• Prawns
• Low fat cream cheese mixed with half fat soured cream for the icing
• Anything I could find in the vegetable drawer for decoration

It’s like a cake, but a sandwich! CAKE! That’s actually a SANDWICH!

This was gleefully assembled over the course of half an hour using a ‘one prawn for me, one for the cake’ method that is marginally more acceptable when you are using sandwich ingredients instead of raw cake mix. Luckily this meant I was full by the time it was completed as best results apparently come from letting it all squidge together in the fridge for at least two hours before demolishing. I have a bit of a fear of soggy bread, so made it to one hour before letting loose with a fork.

The result? Creamy, indulgent and lots of fun – even with the low-fat alternatives I used. It’s not a packed lunch sandwich as it’s like eating a cream cake – requires a fork and will get all round your mouth. Definitely something I would consider making in big version for an afternoon tea party! And the bread? Well – the mark of a good GF loaf is when it complements the sandwich, but noone notices it was gluten free. This one fit the bill perfectly.

GF Nomability? Nio! (9/10) I’m booking a ticket to Stockholm any day now…

When sandwich imitates cake; and cake imitates art.