The 60s hit is back!

It's my partner's birthday this week and I thought a cake was in order. I usually ask him what kind of cake he wants and have baked cheese cakes and carrot cakes in the past. This year, in the spirit of the project, I decided to conquer a food trauma I've been carrying around since the early nineties.

If you ever get invited to a graduation party, someone's 50^th birthday or, alas, a funeral in Finland, you'll be introduced to sandwich cake (voileipäkakku), the layer cake's savoury cousin. Wikipedia claims it is of Swedish origin but provides no source so I'm naturally sceptical. Well, whether it came on a boat or was concocted here, it is something every Finn is sure to have, if not eaten, been offered at one time or another. It's basically layers of bread and various types of fillings and garnishes. The bread is usually slices of a tin-baked loaf, so that they are more or less rectangular, sliced either vertically or horizontally. When using vertical slices, you put three or four side by side for every layer to create a rectangular cuboid (look at me using big words!). When using horizontal slices, you just layer them and sort of recreate the sliced loaf. The filling is usually fish or cold meat mixed with something creamy like cream cheese, crème fraîche, mayonnaise or the like and spices, herbs and/or finely chopped vegetables. The bread is moistened with stock, milk or lemon juice. The cake is topped again with something creamy and garnish which often reflects the main ingredient of the filling (fish or seafood for fish filling, ham or other cold cuts for meat filling, etc.).

The sandwich cake is said to have had its first peak of success in the 1960s which probably explains why my mum's generation usually considers it a must-have at any gathering. It's now sort of a retro thing (am I the only one who feels the word ”retro” has a slightly negative nuance to it when used to describe food?) and can be seen in various shapes and made with less-conventional types of breads and fillings. I've even seen a sushi cake with rice replacing the bread. Excellent idea, especially if you want it to be gluten free. I am, however, making a more traditional kind of sandwich cake because that's where it all began. Also, it's useful to have as a sort of starting point if any of my three readers wants to have a go at it.

But before I go to the recipe I'll go back to the trauma I mentioned. I was about 12 or 13, I think, when my maternal grandfather passed away. The memorial service was very traditional with an abundant cold buffet of layer cake, biscuits, ”pulla” (sweet wheat bun with cardamom - I'll come back to this later in the project), Karelian pastries with eggy butter (these will star in the project later too), salads, cured fish and, of course, the sandwich cake. I can't remember whether there was only one cake or two, both fish and meat, but they often come in pairs. Anyway, lots of food was left over so my grandmother packed a bunch of it for us to take home. My sister had been left behind because she was suffering from stomach flu and soon after the funeral I caught it. So I lay on the sofa in the living room when the rest of the family was enjoying all the food in the kitchen and all I can remember is that the smell of the sandwich cake (and it's not a smelly dish at all so it must be all in my head) made me nauseous. So whenever I saw a sandwich cake after that I'd remember the smell (which I probably imagined) combined with the memory of the nausea and was unable to have a bite. Only once when my brother made one with dark rye bread, smoked fish and eggs I tasted a bit and survived. I think a big part of the aversion was that mayonnaise used to be the filling of choice and I've never been a fan of shop-bought mayonnaise that just seems very greasy and unappetizing to me. Nowadays, mayonnaise is often substituted with fresher options or at least mixed with crème fraîche.

My partner, whose only food trauma is huge lumps of onion in grandma's summer vegetable soup (edit: fish soup - I remembered wrong!), is a fan of the sandwich cake so I decided it's time for me to get over my issues. He chose fish over meat and I decided to use cold-smoked rainbow trout and pair it with crème fraîche, dill and lemon – a classic combination I know he'll love. I prefer cold-smoked fish in this but you could use any fish that has a relatively strong flavour. Smoked mackerel would be excellent, I think. Instead of crème fraîche you could use cream cheese or a mix of one of the two and mayonnaise, if you prefer. The mustard is not a must but I think it brings a nice balance. Finns love mustard and the different varieties range from sweet to hot and everything in between. So any ”ordinary” mustard would do just as well, but I'd steer clear of the grainy kind in this case. Lemon pepper is quite common here but I remember it was not available in all supermarkets in England. If unable to find it you can substitute it with salt and pepper as there's already quite a bit of lemon in the recipe. Yes, I'm using a lot of lemon because the birthday boy is the kind who loves it so much he'll eat it like orange and then rub the peel and what's left of the pulp and juice in his hands so he can enjoy the smell for the rest of the day. If you're not quite as obsessed with it you could substitute the lemon & water moistening mix with vegetable stock, for example. I have not added salt as there's salt in the lemon pepper mix and in the fish but you should taste the filling and season if necessary.

The garnish can be whatever you fancy – your imagination is the limit. I chose cucumber rolls and little trout rosettes with finely chopped yellow bell pepper, chives and pea shoots.

Important note: you need to rest the filled cake in the fridge overnight (or 12 hours) so start preparing the day before. You can also freeze the cake: just fill it, wrap it carefully and then defrost in the fridge for 24 hours before decorating.

SANDWICH CAKE WITH FISH (KALAVOILEIPÄKAKKU)

Ingredients

Loaf of bread or a bag of sliced toast (either five long, horizontal slices of loaf or 15 ”normal” slices)

¼ dl of lemon juice + ¾ dl of water for moistening the bread

Filling

400 g cold-smoked fish

200 g crème fraîche

3 tbsp lemon juice

2 tbsp Dijon mustard

1.5 dl finely chopped dill

2 tsp lemon pepper

Topping

200 g cream cheese (flavoured or natural)

75-100 g cold-smoked fish

cucumber

chives

yellow bell pepper

pea shoots

First, make the filling. Chop the fish finely. You can use a food processor if you like but as I only have a blender that can barely manage a smoothie I like to use a knife – I enjoy knife work. Plus, with a food processor you run the risk of almost puréeing the fish and I prefer it to retain some texture. Mix all the ingredients for the filling in a bowl and set aside.

Cut the crust off the bread. This is hard for me as the crust is often the best part of bread but for this recipe the bread needs to be uniform without harder or chewier bits. Don't waste it, though. Make breadcrumbs!

Lay two sheets of baking parchment or greaseproof paper on the work surface so that they overlap by a few centimetres. You'll need a layer of paper of about 40 x 50 cm. Place three slices of bread side by side (or one horizontal slice). Mix the lemon juice and water and moisten the bread lightly with a pastry brush. Don't soak the bread!

Here's one I made earlier.

Spread ¼ of the filling on top of the layer of bread. Try to cover the entire surface without going over the edge and make it as smooth as you can to ensure a level cake. Then add another layer of bread, moisten and cover with ¼ of the filling. Continue until you have used all of the filling and all of the bread. At the end, you should have five layers of bread and four layers of filling.

Wrap the cake tightly in the baking parchment or greaseproof paper and either put in a plastic bag or wrap in cling film and let it sit in the fridge for 12 hours or overnight. At this point you can also pop the thing in the freezer to be used later. Just defrost in the fridge for 24 hours before decorating. Easy peasy.

When ready to decorate, unwrap the cake and place on a platter or board. Soften the cream cheese a bit in a bowl. At this point you can add chopped herbs or spices in the cheese. I'm using cream cheese with chives. Spread the cheese all over the cake, sides and top. You can smooth it with a spatula or a palette knife or leave it more uneven, if you prefer. Then release your inner artist – go symmetrical or haphazard, be decadent and generous or sparing and minimalist, whatever strikes your fancy. I used finely chopped yellow bell pepper and chives to create a striped top and decorated it with little rosettes made from slices of cold-smoked trout and rolls of cucumber (sliced with a cheese slicer – a vegetable peeler should work too) with lovely twirly pea shoots garnishing the sides. Enjoy on its own, as a part of a buffet, or with a side salad and a glass of dry white wine.

Top tip: I had a little filling left over and it was delicious with some rye crackers!

Happy birthday, luv. <3