Kladdkaka (Swedish Sticky Chocolate Cake)
Sweden's café favorite: a quick chocolate cake with no rising agent, baked just long enough to set the crust while the center stays gooey and sticky, served with whipped cream and berries.
Kladdkaka takes its name from the Swedish word kladdig, sticky or messy, and Wikipedia says what sets it apart from other cakes is that it has no baking powder. VisitSweden calls it a Swedish take on mud cake or brownies, found in most Swedish cafés. Its origin is DISPUTED. One story, reported by Sweden's public broadcaster SVT in 2015 and repeated by Wikipedia, says Gudrun Isaksson of Örebro made it in 1938, when baking powder was hard to get, by baking an American brownie recipe without it. Another credits the food writer Margareta Wickman, who Wikipedia says was given the recipe for a chocolate cake at a Paris restaurant in 1968 and published versions of it in the magazine Vecko-Journalen in the late 1970s. Sweden now has an official Kladdkakans dag, Kladdkaka Day, on November 7, since 2008 (Göteborgs-Posten, via Wikipedia). If the 1938 story is true, this cake is an American brownie that went to Sweden and came back as something new (compare our Palmer House Brownies recipe).
📖 Origin story: Who Invented Molten Chocolate Lava Cake? Two Chefs Claim It →
Why it works the kitchen science
No rising agent
Without baking powder or soda the cake can't puff, so it stays dense, low and sticky, the whole point of kladdkaka.
Underbaked on purpose
Pulling it while the middle is still creamy, then letting it cool, gives a firm crust around a fudge-like center.
Step by step
- Step 1
Heat the oven to 345°F (175°C). Line a 9-inch springform pan with parchment.
- Step 2
Melt the butter in a saucepan over low heat, take it off the heat and stir in the chocolate until smooth.
- Step 3
Stir in the sugar and salt, then sift in the flour and cocoa and stir until smooth. Stir in the vanilla.
- Step 4
Add the eggs one at a time, stirring well after each, until the batter is thick and shiny.
- Step 5
Pour into the pan and bake on the middle rack 15 to 20 minutes, until the edges are set and the top has a thin crust, but the center still looks creamy and wobbles when you nudge the pan. A tester in the center comes out coated in thick batter.
- Step 6
Cool completely in the pan, at least 1 hour; VisitSweden says it sets to the right sticky texture only once cool. Remove the ring, dust with powdered sugar and serve with whipped cream and raspberries.
Kladdkaka (Swedish Sticky Chocolate Cake)
Serves 8 · one 9-inch cake · 35 min total
Cake
- 14 tbsp (200 g) butter
- 7 oz (200 g) good dark chocolate (60 to 70%), chopped
- 3/4 cup (140 g, 5 oz) superfine or granulated sugar
- 2 generous pinches of salt
- 1/4 cup (30 g) all-purpose flour
- 2 tbsp (10 g) cocoa
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 3 large eggs, at room temperature
To serve
- Powdered sugar for dusting
- Whipped cream or vanilla ice cream, and raspberries
Method
- Heat the oven to 345°F (175°C). Line a 9-inch springform pan with parchment.
- Melt the butter in a saucepan over low heat, take it off the heat and stir in the chocolate until smooth.
- Stir in the sugar and salt, then sift in the flour and cocoa and stir until smooth. Stir in the vanilla.
- Add the eggs one at a time, stirring well after each, until the batter is thick and shiny.
- Pour into the pan and bake on the middle rack 15 to 20 minutes, until the edges are set and the top has a thin crust, but the center still looks creamy and wobbles when you nudge the pan. A tester in the center comes out coated in thick batter.
- Cool completely in the pan, at least 1 hour; VisitSweden says it sets to the right sticky texture only once cool. Remove the ring, dust with powdered sugar and serve with whipped cream and raspberries.
Adapted from VisitSweden's "Swedish sticky chocolate cake recipe". Amounts, the 23 cm (9-inch) pan, 175°C (345°F) and 15 to 20 minutes are VisitSweden's. Its ingredient list includes 1 tsp baking soda while its method says baking powder; because kladdkaka is defined by having no rising agent (Wikipedia), we leave both out. We use 1 tsp vanilla extract in place of its 1 tsp vanilla powder, which is easier to find in the US. visitsweden.com. Ingredient list follows the source; the method is in our own words.
All sources (2)
Tips
- Every oven is different: check at 15 minutes. A minute or two too long and you have a brownie.
- For a softer, gooier middle, chill it; the center firms into something like a truffle.
- Swedes often eat it with whipped cream and berries (Wikipedia).
- Soft center, raw eggs: see the Food safety baseline.
The rules people argue about
What the sources agree on, what they don't, and what is just a good story.
- It was invented in 1938 when a baker left the baking powder out of a brownie recipe. Disputed: SVT's 2015 story (via Wikipedia) credits Gudrun Isaksson in 1938; Wikipedia also gives Margareta Wickman, who got a chocolate cake recipe in Paris in 1968 and published it in the late 1970s.
- Kladdkaka has no baking powder. Documented as its defining feature (Wikipedia); note that VisitSweden's own list includes baking soda.
- November 7 is Kladdkaka Day. Documented via Göteborgs-Posten, cited by Wikipedia (since 2008).
- It must be eaten cold. Folklore: it is served both warm and cold; VisitSweden only says to let it cool completely so it sets.
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