Fika Calendar: Kladdkakans Dag + Recipe

Glad Kladdkakans dag! Happy Swedish Sticky Cake Day! 🎉

Kladdkakans dag falls on November 7th every year and is part of the beloved Fika Calendar, along with other sweet occasions like Ginger Cookies Day or Cinnamon Roll Day.

Kladdkaka is a dense, soft cake with a rich chocolate flavor and a lick-your-fingers sticky consistency. The classic ingredients include flour, eggs, butter, sugar, and cocoa powder, creating that irresistible gooeyness we all love. Its sticky texture comes from the absence of baking powder, which is what normally gives cakes their fluffy rise.

Kladdkaka is a compound word in Swedish. It combines kladd — meaning something sticky or gooey (with the derived adjective kladdig, meaning sticky)—and kaka, which means cake.

For those with dietary preferences, there are plenty of variations of this classic recipe! You can find gluten-free options or healthier recipes that substitute dates for sugar (recipes in Swedish). For coffee junkies (like me), there are even kladdkaka versions with coffee! (Let’s not forget the coffee you sip alongside the kladdkaka — if that’s not a real Swedish fika, I don’t know what is!) And for the Sweden junkies (like me), there’s also kanelbullekladdkaka, or Cinnamon Roll Sticky Cake. Can you think of anything more Swedish than that? I hardly can.

The History of Kladdkaka and Kladdkakans Dag

There are two main theories about the origin of kladdkaka.

The first suggests it was inspired by American brownies in the 1940s, during World War II, when baking powder was scarce in Sweden, so bakers simply left it out.

The second theory, which is the most likely, credits Swedish food writer Margareta Wickman, who tasted a sticky chocolate cake at a Paris flea market restaurant in the late 1960s. She brought the recipe back to Sweden, publishing it in Vecko-Journalen in the late 1970s, where it quickly caught on and won over Swedish hearts with its rich chocolatey taste and gooey texture.

Kladdkaka became wildly popular in Sweden, especially during the café boom of the 1990s, when cafés started popping up all over the country. Around this time, Kladdkakans dag was created to celebrate this gooey chocolate treat, and since 2008, it has been celebrated on November 7. And on this day, an estimated 2 million kladdkakor will be enjoyed across Sweden!

How to Make Kladdkaka

So, how do you make this delightful dessert? Here’s my top choice for an easy-to-follow, lick-your-fingers-good recipe:

Ingredients

100 g butter
2 ½ dl (≈ 225 g) granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 dl (≈ 60 g) all-purpose flour
3 tbsp cocoa powder
1 tsp vanilla sugar

Instructions:

1. Start by preheating your oven to 175° C (or 160° C if you’re using a fan oven).

2. In a saucepan, melt the butter over low heat, then take it off the heat once it’s fully melted.

3. Add in the sugar and eggs, mixing them together until well incorporated. Next, stir in the remaining ingredients, ensuring everything is nicely blended.

4. Pour the batter into a springform pan that you’ve greased and floured (alternatively, you can use parchment paper), ideally about 24-25 cm in diameter.