Any blog testing Scandinavian recipes must mention this cake, which goes by many names on the internet and in Scandinavian cookbooks. That cake is Kladdkaka, or Swedish Gooey Chocolate Cake, per Magnus Nilsson in The Nordic Cookbook. It was my husband's birthday recently, so it was a perfect excuse to make it.
I have made this recipe many times since starting my Nordic cooking adventure five years ago. It is easy to make, with few ingredients, and is extremely delicious. If you love chocolate this recipe is for you. It can only be described as the most chocolatey, chewy, gooey, brownie you could ever eat. It is so gooey it is like eating raw brownie batter without having to worry about salmonella. It is one of my favorite recipes to make now for birthdays and holidays since it is so simple, quick, and scrumptious.
The dough itself only needs one bowl which is great for easy cleanup. It is also extremely thick which may be alarming but it should be this way.
The only potentially unique ingredient that may be encountered in this recipe is vanilla sugar. I have made homemade vanilla sugar for the past several years, but this week I discovered Wegman's carries vanilla sugar packets. I suspect this is just vanilla extract mixed with sugar.
The first step is to mix the dry ingredients except flour. I usually do this while melting the butter. Then after combining those dry ingredients with the butter, sift in the flour. Then you put the batter into a buttered pan sprinkled with breadcrumbs. I often skip the step of sprinkling the pan with breadcrumbs as it turns out fine without it.
Once in the pan, make sure to smooth the batter down as much as possible, because as you will see below, the way it looks going into the oven will be exactly the way it looks coming out of the oven.
I used a springform pan, but I believe a cake pan would work just as well. I removed the sides to cool on a baking sheet, though it was not specified in this recipe.
Also not specified in the recipe was sprinkling the top with powdered sugar, but I did so to cover up the lines made by my spatula. This was my first time doing it but I have also seen this done by real Swedes, so I thought it would be worth a try. I am not sure how it could disappoint to add more sugar to chocolate cake.
This recipe gets five out of five Nordic spears from us. We love this recipe and encourage you to try it for yourself. To use the same recipe I did, go to page 356 of The Nordic Cookbook by Magnus Nilsson. You can also find similar recipes on the internet. I'd love to hear how it turns out for you.
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The Nordic Cookbook: Cardamom Cake (Kardemummakaka)
