Copycat Palm City Wines “shrimp sub” Swedish Sandwich Cake

Pro tip:

Use thinly sliced Japanese milk bread to get that beautiful cake like presentation while creating a soft pillowy sandwich slice!

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.

Palm City Wines in the Outer Sunset has a very loyal following since opening in 2020. Their subs are next level and there is always a line out the door when they open. So many delicious varieties wrapped up in the coveted seeded hoagie from Rize Up Bakery, are we surprised? They also offer a ton of other menu items, such as marinated olives, mortadella “Mondays”, and baked goods. And let’s not forget the wine selection! 

I decided to take to Instagram to ask my followers to vote on which sandwich should be turned into a Swedish sandwich cake. Would it be the cauliflower sub or the shrimp sub? The shrimp sub took the lead, so here we are! 

Swedish sandwich cakes are best enjoyed within a few hours of making, but this one particularly should be eaten right away because of the potato chips.

Ingredients 

• 8 slices thinly sliced Japanese milk bread (most sliced bread will work, but you must try Andersen’s Bakery in Japantown!)

• 1 lb peeled, deveined raw shrimp 

• 1.5 cups thinly sliced romaine lettuce

• 1 thinly sliced hot house tomato 

• ¼ cup cherry or grape tomatoes for decoration (optional) 

• 1 medium bag of salt and vinegar-style potato chips 

• 1 cup mayo

• 1 tsp sweet paprika 

• 2 tsp old bay seasoning 

• 2 tsp hot sauce 

• 2 tsp prepared horseradish 

• 2 tsp lemon juice 

• 3 tbs Dijon mustard

• Generous pinch of salt  

Instructions - Ingredient preparation 

• Prepare the remoulade by mixing all of the ingredients from mayo through salt in a small bowl and chill until ready to use. Save half for extra sauce when building the sandwich cake, and half to toss the chilled and poached shrimp in once cooked.

  • Please note, you can tweak this a little to your personal taste, adding more paprika, more lemon juice, more hot sauce, etc. This sauce is forgiving as long as you have mayo, paprika, and some salt! 

• Prepare an ice bath for the poached shrimp to immediately stop the cooking 

• Poach the shrimp by heating a pot of water until barely simmering 

• Add the shrimp in and cut the heat

• Cover with a lid and poach for 90 seconds

• Immediately remove and add to ice bath 

• Pat shrimp dry and reserve 3-4 whole shrimp for decoration, then thinly slice the rest of the shrimp in half so the shrimp is intact, but half the thickness  

• Toss the shrimp in the remoulade sauce and set aside 

• Thinly chop the romaine lettuce, reserving a few larger slices for decoration

• Reserve ½ cup whole potato chips for garnish, and crush the rest of the bag 

• Thinly slice the tomato, optional to use cherry tomatoes halved as decor 

• Cut the crusts off of the bread using a bread knife so that all of the pieces are roughly the same size 

Instructions - Sandwich cake assembly 

• Set out all of your ingredients ready to use and position 2 pieces of bread on the bottom of a plate or serving dish 

• Start by spreading 1-2 tbs of the remoulade over the bread to coat

• Add a thin layer of the sliced shrimp in remoulade 

• Add a layer of crushed potato chips

• Add a layer of tomato 

• Add a layer of shredded romaine 

• Top with two more slices of bread, press down firmly but gently to bind 

• Repeat these steps 2x more, ending with slices of bread on top of the final layer 

• Decorate the top of the cake the same way, spreading remoulade on the service so ingredients can stick easily 

• Add larger pieces of lettuce, slices of tomato and pieces of cherry tomato, and whole/cut shrimp. 

• Sprinkle with leftover crushed potato chips and a pinch of salt, and you have yourself a sandwich cake

• *Feel free to get creative with how you decorate and what you use! You could also blend the remoulade with cream cheese to make more of a frosting consistency (it would taste great) and can introduce other herbs or vegetables as you see fit. It’s impossible to have a bad time when making a sandwich cake - have fun with it! 

Stay tuned for more SF sandwiches turned Swedish Sandwich Cakes as part of my Swedish Sandwich Cake series! …and check out my Instagram video on this recipe for a visual guide. 

Hope you enjoy 🍓