Tag Archives: Swedish dumplings

Body Cakes (Kroppkakor)

body_cake

I have never participated in a Body Cake competition; I don’t think I have the body for it. It’s not about how well or pretty you make them, the winner is the one who eats the most! They are heavy but still one of my favorites of the Swedish traditional comfort foods. There are many different variations of it; some areas do it with raw potatoes and some like them as I do below.

6-7 big potatoes
one egg
300 ml (1.2 cups) flour
one tea spoon salt
200 g (0.45 lb) bacon or salted pork
onion
one teaspoon salt and some pepper

Peel the potatoes and boil them until they are done. Mash the potatoes and mix with the egg and flour. Season with salt. Cut the bacon and the onion in small pieces. Start to sauté the onions. Add the bacon and sauté them together until the bacon is crispy. Season with some pepper.

Form the potatoes mixture into a big roll. Slice the roll in pieces. Press your thumb in the middle and fill it with some of the bacon mixture. Cover the filling and make a ball of it. The size can be a little bit smaller than a tennis ball. Repeat the procedure until you are done.

Heat up water with salt and when it’s boiling, drop some of the body cakes into the water. When the body cakes floats up, boil them for about five minutes.

Serve with lingonberry jam or cranberry jam, melted butter, grated carrots and a glass of beer. I also always have extra bacon pieces on the side. Leftover Body Cakes are great to slice and sauté the day after.

By the way I am now back in East Village from my lovely stay in Sweden, with some great stops in Copenhagen and London.

(This kind of Body Cake you can call Småländska Kroppkakor. This recipe is rewritten from a recipe in the Swedish cookbook Vår Kok Bok, 1975)