Skagenröra or Swedish Shrimp Salad lightened up with non fat Greek yogurt and brightened with a hint of lemon juice and lemon zest. So delicious to pile atop rye bread for an open faced sandwich, in small phyllo cups for a fun summer appetizer, or on crispbread as part of a smörgåsbord.

If you’re on this page, it is officially week two of my Swedish Sandwich Cake series. This all started a few months ago when I posted a traditional Swedish sandwich cake to social media (rye bread, salmon, cream cheese, cucumbers, and herbs) and realized just how different these “cakes” were to most people. So many followers messaged me to share that they’d never seen anything like this and were excited to share what their sandwich cake would be made of (roast beef and cheddar, prosciutto and arugula with mayo, etc). This got me thinking - what if I recreated some infamous sandwiches in the Bay area and made them into sandwich cakes?

Swedish sandwich cakes are a dazzling and somewhat bizarre concept to most Americans, yet they’re incredibly popular (and tasty) during summer months in Sweden. Americans LOVE sandwiches and they love cake - so what’s not to love about combining the two? Traditionally, the cake leans more towards a cream cheese “frosting” with thinly sliced veggies, smoked salmon, hardboiled eggs, and tons of fresh herbs decorated around the cake. Truth be told, this version is tried and true and doesn’t need a facelift. But, I live in San Francisco - arguably one of the best sandwich cities there is - so I wanted to try something a little different.

It’s March in San Francisco, and the farmers market at the SF ferry building is bursting with citrus stands. This seasonal smörgås (or open-faced Swedish sandwich) celebrates local citrus and avocado alongside smoked salmon and salmon roe and comes together in minutes.

Time to make a Smörgåstårta aka a Swedish Sandwich Cake! This fun recipe is the adult equivalent of decorating a gingerbread house for kids. Let your creativity fly with cream cheese frosting, radish flowers, and sprout grass. What combo will you dream up?