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Swedes are very good at giving baked things their own day. There is a day for kanelbullar, a season devoted to semlor, and a morning in December when saffron buns appear on tables all over the country. Some are centuries old, some were invented by a baking council in the nineties, and they all carry the same conviction that certain things belong at certain times.
These are the baking days in Port Melbourne dates, soonest first. Only days actually about something baked are here — Sweden has days for herring and mushrooms too, and neither is any business of mine.
Twenty-two baking days, and they are not spread evenly. They gather in the Swedish dark and thin out across the Swedish summer — which, read from Port Melbourne, arrives the wrong way round.
Today is . The next baking day is Kanelbullens dag.
Next in the Swedish baking year·in 2 days
Cinnamon Bun Day
The biggest baking day in the Swedish year. Offices order them by the tray. Invented in 1999 by a baking council, and nobody minds.
No bake planned yet
I bake to requests in one kitchen, so the days people ask for are the days that happen. Asking is what turns this one into a bake.
Nothing is ordered and nothing is owed. This tells me someone wants them for Kanelbullens dag.
in 2 days
Cinnamon Bun Day
The biggest baking day in the Swedish year. Offices order them by the tray. Invented in 1999 by a baking council, and nobody minds.
in 2 days
Cream Cake Day
Sponge, cream, berries. The birthday cake of an entire country.
The year piles up here
in 5 weeks
Gustavus Adolphus Pastry Day
A pastry with a king's silhouette on top, eaten on the anniversary of his death in 1632. Sweden commemorates with cake.
in 5 weeks
Sticky Chocolate Cake Day
Underbaked on purpose. Getting it wrong means baking it properly.
in 6 weeks
Curd Cake Day
Warm, curd-set, served with jam and cream. It is not the other cheesecake and does not want to be.
in 7 weeks
Napoleon Pastry Day
Puff pastry, vanilla cream, whipped cream and a lid of pink icing. A konditori classic that has not changed in a lifetime.
in 7 weeks
Danish Pastry Day
Laminated, glazed, and Danish everywhere except Scandinavia, where the Danes call it Viennese. Nobody is claiming it.
in 2 months
Gingerbread Day
Thin enough to snap. Press one on your palm, make a wish, and it has to break in three.
in 2 months
St Lucia — saffron buns
The darkest part of the year, candles, singing, and lussekatter heavy with saffron. The most Swedish morning there is.
in 3 months
Biscuit Day
Just before Christmas, when sju sorters kakor — seven kinds of biscuits — is still a standard people mean to meet.
in 3 months
Mazarin Day
Almond paste, butter and egg in a shortcrust shell, glazed flat on top. Small, dense and extremely Swedish.
in 4 months
Shrove Tuesday — semla day
A cardamom bun, hollowed, filled with almond paste and cream. The one day of the year a whole country eats the same thing.
in 5 months
Crispbread Day
The most Swedish bread there is. Crisp, seeded, keeps for months, goes with everything.
in 5 months
Almond Cube Day
A cube of almond cake dipped in chocolate and rolled in toasted coconut. Elegant in its own compact way.
in 5 months
Punsch-roll Day
Green marzipan, chocolate-dipped ends. Also called dammsugare — vacuum cleaner — for reasons nobody can settle.
in 6 months
Raspberry Cave Day
A thumb-pressed shortcrust biscuit with raspberry jam in the dent. Sweden's most recognisable little biscuit.
in 6 months
Sourdough Day
A day for the starter, the long ferment and the loaf that took three days. The one baking day that is entirely mine.
in 7 months
Home Baking Day
A day for home baking. Much of Sweden’s baking repertoire began in domestic kitchens, so it earns a place here.
in 7 months
Flatbread Day
Norrland's flatbread, rolled thin and baked fast. Soft or crisp depending on who you ask and where they grew up.
in 7 months
Chocolate Ball Day
Oats, cocoa, butter, rolled in coconut. Never goes in the oven, and sits on every konditori counter in Sweden regardless.
in 8 months
Cardamom Bun Day
The hero of this bakery, given its own day. Cardamom, butter and a confident twist.
June · JulyNothing at all. Sweden is outdoors and the oven is off.
in 10 months
Swiss Roll Day
Sponge, jam, rolled. The first thing most Swedes learn to bake, and harder to do well than that suggests.
Any day on this page
This is the only form on the page, and it works for any day in the list above — the next one or one nine months out. Most of these are cultural dates and nothing more: I am one person with one oven, so the days people ask for are the days that happen. There is no order here and nothing to pay. You are putting your name against a date, months ahead, so I know what to plan.
Dates that move are worked out fresh, not typed in. Fettisdagen follows Easter and shifts by up to five weeks; Surdegsdagen is the second Saturday in April. Next year’s dates will be right without anyone touching them.
