Exotic Swede…


Today we are travelling to Sweden or at least we try out some Swedish cuisine. Every month I’ll try to come up with something new from around the world that will be low histamine and vegetarian. When thinking of Swedish cuisine at first only looots of fish and corned stuff etc. came to my mind. But then I was thinking of the oat cookies I’ve made not so long ago. Yeah right, Sweden is famous for all its various sweets and pastries, oat cookies or cinnamon rolls just being two of those.

So I was going for kladkaka at first, but since that is traditionally quite a chocolate bomb I was afraid the result might not be low in histamine. In the end I made spettekaka which in my home country Germany is known as “Baumkuchen” (literally: tree cake). The region I grew up in is actually famous for its Salzwedeler Baumkuchen. In Sweden it is spettekaka which literally means skewer, because that’s how it’s made, on a skewer over fire.

Alright so grilling with open fire seems not really possible in my kitchen, but with the grill function of my oven I was trying to get as close as possible to the original conditions of how the Swedes make spettekaka. I altered the recipe a little, which is why my spettekaka became a little “exotic”. Yes, my coconut love is still going strong 😉


Spettekaka OR Baumkuchen (white)


preparation time:

ca. 60 minutes including time in the oven





 for the dough:

250 g butter or coconut oil (lactose free)
250 g sugar
ca. 40 ml coconut puree
1 sachet of vanilla sugar
1 pinch of salt
4 heaped tbsp. coconut flakes
6 eggs
150 g spelt flour
100 g corn starch
cinnamon and cardamom if you can tolerate it



 for the topping:

ca. 150 g white chocolate, here you can find a recipe for DIY white chocolate
1 tbsp. coconut oil
4 heaped tbsp. coconut flakes



Separate 4 eggs and keep the 4 egg whites.

Melt butter in a pan (coconut oil you can use directly without melting) and then whisk it with sugar and vanilla sugar until it is creamy.

Add 2 eggs and 4 egg yolks to the sugar butter mix.

Mix flour and starch (maybe sift it) and add to the dough.

Whisk 4 egg whites with salt until it is stiff and add to the rest.

Grease a springform pan. Put a ladleful of dough on the bottom and spread it evenly.

Grill this on the highest degree possible (my oven shows a 3 for grilling at maximum heat) for about 4 minutes. Now add some coconut puree and then dough again (a ladleful). Grill again, now only for about 3 minutes, because the oven is already hot.

Use this pattern until the dough is gone. On the last layer of dough goes no coconut puree.

Leave the cake to cool down.

Melt the chocolate by bain-marie or use the just made white chocolate directly before it goes into the fridge. Spread the liquid chocolate over the cake. Scatter coconut flakes on top before the chocolate is hard (again).




Besides coconut puree apple sauce or apricot jam could make a delicious in-between-layer as well to make the cake juicy.




(c) The Histamine Pirate