Kladdkaka: Swedish Sticky Chocolate Cake

Name: Kladdkaka: Swedish Sticky Chocolate Cake
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 15 min
Total time: 60 min
Yield: 8 servings
Cuisine: Argentine
Ingredients: 100 g butter, plus extra for the tin; Breadcrumbs for lining the tin; 2 eggs; 210 g sugar; 3 tbsp cocoa powder; 1 tsp vanilla extract; 90 g plain flour; 1 pinch of salt; Icing sugar for dusting; 200 ml whipping cream, to serve; Fresh berries, to serve

⏱ 60 min in total🔪 15 min prep🍳 15 min cooking🧊 30 min resting🍽 8 portiesEasy

Kladdkaka contains no baking powder and is deliberately underbaked: that is why it does not rise, never turns fluffy and stays dense and damp in the middle — closer to a soft brownie than to a sponge. In Sweden it is the default fika cake. Kaka there simply means «cake» — it is in sockerkaka too — and also «bar»: a chokladkaka is not a chocolate cake but a bar of chocolate. It is made in one bowl, without a mixer, and has to cool before you cut it.

Ingredients

Measurements

🍽 8 servings

100 g butter, plus extra for the tin
Breadcrumbs for lining the tin
2 eggs
210 g sugar
3 tbsp cocoa powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
90 g plain flour
1 pinch of salt
Icing sugar for dusting
200 ml whipping cream, to serve
Fresh berries, to serve

Method

1
Heat the oven to 200 °C. Grease a 24 cm springform tin and dust it with breadcrumbs instead of flour: the damp crumb releases better from a textured surface.
2
Melt the butter and let it cool to lukewarm. Hot, it cooks the eggs.
3
Whisk the eggs with the sugar by hand, with a balloon whisk, only until combined. This is the step that defines the recipe: an electric mixer beats in air, and air is what turns a batter into a sponge. Volume is not the goal here.
4
Mix the cocoa, flour and salt separately, then fold them into the eggs.
5
Stir in the warm butter and the vanilla until the batter is smooth and glossy. It will look like too little for the tin: that is correct, the cake is shallow.
6
Pour into the tin and level the surface.
7
Bake for 10 to 15 minutes. This is where the texture is decided: at 10 minutes the centre is nearly liquid, at 15 it is dense but sliceable. The edges should be set and the middle still wobbling. The skewer test does not apply — if it comes out clean, you have gone too far.
8
Take it out and let it cool in the tin. As it cools the centre finishes setting; cut warm, it falls apart.
9
Dust with icing sugar and serve with unsweetened whipped cream and berries. The cream is not decoration: the cake is intense and the cold fat balances it.