Finnish Sandwich Cake

Basically, a sandwich cake is three layers of filling sandwiched between four layers of bread, and the whole thing is frosted and decorated. Traditional filling combinations are ham/egg/cucumber or different kinds of seafood, but you can do just about any combination that tastes good together; my wife Kate likes to make turkey/bacon/avocado version.

For a sandwich cake, you need enough sandwich bread to make four layers of the size you want, enough chicken broth to sprinkle or brush over each layer, 3 fillings, frosting, and finally, enough plastic wrap to wrap the whole thing. The quantities I give below for fillings and frosting are for a 2x2 cake. (So each layer of the cake would be 4 pieces of sandwich bread arranged in a square.)

1. Lay out enough plastic wrap to cover the whole cake.
2. Prepare a layer of bread by cutting off each crust that will touch another piece of bread, but leave the crusts on the outside of the cake alone for now.
3. Lay out the bread layer, sprinkle or brush chicken broth over it, and spread the filling evenly over the whole layer.

Repeat steps 2 and 3 for the next two layers.

4. Lay out the top layer, cutting the crusts in the same manner as the other layers. You can either cut off the outside crusts now, or do it just before you frost the cake.
5. Cover the sandwich cake with the plastic wrap and put it in the refrigerator overnight with a weight on top so the cake will become somewhat flattened. (A cutting board with a soup can on top works nicely as a weight.)
6. The next day, take the sandwich cake out, remove the plastic wrap, and cut off the outside crusts. If you haven’t cut off the outside crusts, do it now.
7. Frost the sandwich cake and then decorate it with pieces of whatever you used for filling. (For example, if you used ham, egg, and cucumber fillings, use rolled slices of ham, sliced boiled egg, and cucumber wedges or slices.)

There is a Flash slide show on the web that will show you pictures of the process described above: http://www.snellman.fi/flash/voileipakakku.html. It is in Finnish, but you can still watch it. (The slide show uses waxed paper instead of plastic wrap.)

The basic filling and frosting recipes are very simple. Remember, these are for a 2x2 sandwich cake, so adjust the amounts accordingly if you make a different size.

Filling
6 ounces (~30 grams) of finely chopped ingredient (meat/egg/whatever)
¼ cup (~4 tablespoons) of mayonnaise

Frosting
8 ounces (~150 grams) cream cheese
¼ cup (~4 tablespoons) sour cream or mayonnaise
½ cup (~2 tablespoons) chopped mixed herbs (dill, parsley, chives, etc.)

Then you adjust the recipes for the type of filling and for your own personal taste.

Filling and Frosting Variations

Here are some of the variations we have used in our sandwich cakes.

• For ham and turkey filling, we add 1 teaspoon of Dijon mustard (or other spicy mustard).
• For egg filling, we add 2 tablespoons of chopped fresh dill (or 1 teaspoon of dried dill) and ¼ teaspoon of salt.
• For cucumber filling, we cut the mayonnaise in half, but we add 1 tablespoon of chopped fresh dill, 1 tablespoon of chopped parsley, 1 tablespoon of chopped chives, 2 teaspoons of white vinegar, 1 teaspoon of sugar, and ¼ teaspoon of salt.
• For shrimp filling, we replace the mayonnaise with prepared cocktail sauce.
• For salmon filling, we use salmon fried with lemon and dill as the main ingredient and sour cream instead of mayonnaise.
• For seafood sandwich cake, we replace the ¼ cup of sour cream or mayonnaise in the frosting with ¼ cup of prepared cocktail sauce.
• Kate thinks the basic frosting is too strong, and suggests using half cream cheese and half sour cream or mayonnaise.

Experiment with changes to the basic recipes to find out what you like.

Notes for Poland

Since we currently live in Poland, we've had to make some substitutions for ingredients unavailable here.

• Cream cheese is apparently very American, and can be expensive and/or difficult to find in Poland. You can substitute twaróg sernikowy.
• We have found 10x8 cm sliced bread sold as tost; this is close in size to American sandwich bread.
• Our dictionary translates sour cream as kwaśna śmietana, but Kate uses serek naturalny as a sour cream replacement.

These recipes compiled by Sean and Kate Healy from personal experience, cookbooks, and internet recipes.

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The nice thing about this cake is that it is very customizable. We even found a version online that is a Tex-mex sandwich cake: http://www.kinuskikissa.fi/?p=608. This page is in Finnish, but you can look at the pictures and here's a translation of the recipe. This recipe is for a 3x3 cake, so adjust accordingly.

(The pictures on the site end with the cake wrapped in plastic and ready to be put in the fridge. There are pictures of the finished product as well, but no pictures of the cake being frosted or decorated. However, I'm sure you can figure it out yourself.)

Chicken filling:
450 grams finely chopped chicken
320 grams salsa
300 grams cheese dip (i.e., for tortilla chips)

Guacamole filling:
300 grams guacamole
1 chopped red pepper
(Do not mix; spread the guacamole and place the chopped pepper on top)

Frosting:
300 grams guacamole
150 grams sour cream

Decoration:
1 yellow pepper
cherry tomatoes
red onion
lettuce
tortilla chips
pea shoots

(I honestly don't know what "pea shoots" are; it's not a cooking term I'm familiar with. I can guess because I know what "peas" and "shoots" are, so I suppose it's the little leaves in the picture of the final product. Kate suggests cilantro instead, as it's more appropriate to the theme. Perhaps cilantro isn't generally available in Finland, and that's why the decoration instructions call for "pea shoots".)

This recipe uses a mixture of 1.5 dl water and 0.5 dl lemon juice instead of chicken broth. It uses half the chicken filling on the first layer and half on the third, with the guacamole filling on the middle layer. It suggests cooking the chicken in oil and seasoning with salt and pepper. It also suggests that you buy the cheese dip and the guacamole in a jar from the store; perhaps because Finns aren't generally familiar with how to make such things. Feel free to prepare the chicken however you want and to make your own dips.