Swedish thin pancakes and "pancake cake"

I don't actually know if this cake only is made in Sweden, but anyway I don't think you'll find it in so many other places.

This cake is simply made out of a stack of thin pancakes with whipped cream and berries or jam between the layers. Top with more whipped cream and more berries, and you're done!

Our two daughters love this cake and it's a standing request for their birthdays in May and June, respectively. Our youngest one turns 16 today, and she turned into a vegan a couple of months back. Since the rest of the family prefer natural dairy to soy, I made two cakes.

For North Americans, a typical pancake is thick and puffy, whereas Swedish pancakes are thin. Swedish pancakes contains eggs but no baking powder or baking soda. Making vegan pancakes without eggs requires something to create a little volume, which brings the baking powder back on to the scene again.

Swedish regular thin pancakes

Makes about 12 pancakes
3 eggs
600 ml/2,5 cups milk (1,5–3 % fat content)
300 ml/1,2 cups AP flour
0,5 tsp salt
butter for frying

1. Beat the eggs with half the milk. Add flour and salt and beat until smooth (I use an electric handmixer). Add the rest of the milk and blend. Wait at least 15 minutes to let the flour swell.
2. In a medium hot to hot frying pan, add a little butter (about half a tbsp for each pancake). When the butter has melted and turned yellow-brownish, pour in a small amount of mixture in the pan -- the whole frying area of the pan should be covered, but only after you tip the pan back and forth.
3. If the pan is hot, the frying will only take a minute or so – stand by with a spatula, lift up the rim to peak under and be ready to flip over the pancake when its golden brown underneith. The other side will bake even faster.
4. If this turns out to very difficult and the pancakes keep tearing to pieces, you may need to add a little more flour to the mixture. Just be sure to blend thorughly after adding flour. (Remember that even if some pancakes are teared, you can still use the pieces in the cake!)
5. Repeat from 2. until you have used all mixture.

Vegan pancakes

Makes 8–10 pancakes
500 ml/2,1 cups soy milk, medium fat
400 ml/1,7 cups AP flour
2 tsp baking powder
0,5 tsp salt
50 g/1,8 oz milk-free margarine (can be excluded)

Follow the steps above to bake the pancakes (without the eggs obviously). You will find that these pancakes will turn out a little thicker.

Pancake cake

Now to the fun part – the cake building! The traditional pancake cake contains whipped cream and berries and/or jam, but basically you can use whatever you like for the filling – custard, chocolate mousse or lemon curd to name some examples. You could of course make savoury versions too, but my healthy conscience tells me that I should save pancakes to rare occasions, this is not the healthiest food in the book.

Today, for one regular and vegan pancake cake I used:

500 g/18 oz fresh strawberries
250 g/9 oz frozen, thawed natural blueberries + 1 tbsp sugar, mixed
1 small jar organic strawberry jam with high fruit content
Whipped regular or soy cream with a little vanilla aroma added
Some left-over custard (of course only on the regular cake)

Whipped cream goes here

A couple of layers done

This layer gets jammed

Wasn't there a strawberry there a minute ago?

Happy birthday, and watch out for the strawberry landslide!

Older sister wanted to place 13 candles instead of 16. Decided to place 16 after all, probably thinking about possible vengeance and personal health.