A Swedish Sandwich Cake - “Smorgastarta”!

Today I am going to a retirement BBQ, and plan to bring a Smorgastarta for my part of the potluck. Inspired from here. I am making a loaf style “cake”, versus a traditionally shaped cake. The cake will be approximately five inches wide by eight inches long by five inches tall.

Ingredients:

• 1 loaf Calabrese Bread sliced lengthwise
• 1 small chunk smoked salmon &/or lox
• small container cooked shrimp
• long English cucumber
• radish (for garnish)
• parsley (for garnish)
• 1 lb. of cream cheese
• 1 cup (approx.) miracle whip or mayonnaise
• 1/2 cup (approx.) sour cream
• melted butter or oil based dressing of choice to “kiss” the bread

1. In a mixer, whip cream cheese, mayonnaise or Miracle Whip, and sour cream together. Reserve half for alternating layers.
2. Mix smoked salmon into cheese mixture in mixer. Add enough to “taste”.  I found I doubled the amount in the mixer.
3. Begin layering your sandwich cake… I put a bit of butter on the “plate” to hold the bottom piece of bread in place.  Then thinly buttered the bottom slice of bread, and spread on approx. 1/4 inch thick spread of smoked salmon mixture.  Another slice of bread, plain cheese mix and thin slices of cucumber, topping it with a slice of bread that had more plain cheese mixture.  Finally covering that slice of bread with another 1/4 inch thick spread of smoked salmon mix, and the final slice of bread.
4. Cover your sandwich cake with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for a minimum of 2 hours before “icing” with sour cream/mayonnaise mixture (I didn’t include those amounts in the ingredients above). Decorate with boiled eggs, lox, radish & carrot curls.  I plan to decorate it in such a way that people will slice it into small squares, vs. slices.

The following pictures show how I made and decorated it!

Left to right:

bottom layer of smoked salmon spread -, middle layer of cheese/sour cream/mayonnaise with cucumber - completed “cake” filled and wrapped, waiting to be decorated!

Below: Completed “cake” iced with more cream cheese/sour cream/mayonnaise icing. Decorated with cucumber, cooked shrimp, radish, lox “rosettes”, and parsley from my garden!

I know that it will tend to fall apart when being cut, so I’m taking my extra sharp knife with me to the event! I’m quite happy with how it turned out!