“Swedish Äppel Funken” - (with more “ooh” and less “funk”)

It was my birthday a few weeks ago and I always have the same birthday cake each year . . . a “Swedish Äppel Funken”, baked by my lovely mama. It is my favourite cake on earth.

Before we get into the Swedish cake of yumminess, I’d love for you to read the name the way we say it at home . . . by using a mixture of English together with our hopeless effort towards what we think sounds like Swedish. This “Swed-lish” makes us feel somehow a bit cooler and more cosmopolitan.

Although I titled this with "Äppel" (Swedish for "apple"), we say the “Äppel” part in an English way. Easy. For the “Funken” part, with our zero knowledge of Swedish, we pronounce it with a short “ooh” rather than a standard British “u” sound. So sorry for labouring the pronunciation nuances here but they do make a difference. (Side note - I once knew someone who read the first book of Harry Potter pronouncing Hermione’s name not as “Her-My-O-Nee” but as “Her-Mee-One” . . . which I actually quite like but it seems more suited to Star Wars!) All you need to do remember is that “Swedish Äppel Funken” has less “funk” and more “ooh” in it than any of your other average cakes.

So, Swedish Äppel Funken is essentially a simple vanilla cake, made with salted butter, and topped with tons of apple slices and cinnamon. There’s no frosting, icing or syrup needed because the apples and cake do all the talking. It is without a doubt my favourite cake in the world and it tastes extra delicious because it is made by my Mama with a lot of love . (Side Note - one of her nicknames from me is “Mooms” and this also has a Nordic link to it . . . inspired by the Finnish books (and TV series ) “The Moomins” which I loved as a child.) Between the Moomins , ABBA, my childhood (and adulthood) love of Danish Blue cheese and Swedish Äppel Funken all being introduced to me in my formative years, it’s no wonder that I have a soft spot for all things Nordic/Scandi and that this special Swedish cake is the culinary star of my birthday every year.

Swedish Äppel Funken first came to Moom’s attention in a cookery book she got way back in 1974. This happens to be the year before I was born . . . which means she got it in perfect time for her to find what would be the cake for all my birthdays. Mooms has made it so often now that she barely needs the original recipe — which is a pretty good thing given that she lost the recipe book for well over 25 years! But despite the book going AWOL, the Swedish Äppel Funken endured and even became beloved by the wider family. On Moom’s side we are a hotchpotch of Indians, Brits & Germans and this Swedish apple cake is enjoyed by all of us discerning cake lovers equally.

A few years ago, Mooms finally rediscovered her (rather tatty) cookery book and excitedly declared that she had found the “Swedish Äppel Funken recipe book”. That statement in itself clearly demonstrating that the legacy of this Swedish cake was so strong that, rather rudely, it had rendered the other 100+ recipes in that book totally and utterly irrelevant. Charming. Happily , I was at home when the book was found and so I immediately grabbed it to take a look at my precious birthday cake recipe in print . . .and this is where things take a turn.

Remember what I said at the start? About nuances of pronunciation? Well imagine my surprise when I looked at the book to discover that my beloved Swedish Äppel Funken was actually very clearly titled as a (German) “Apfelkuchen” (apple cake)… which over time Mooms had muddled and mish-mashed and then basically rebranded and allocated to an entirely different country!

This is all the more laughable because I studied German for many years at school and even my cousins who are born and raised in Germany were taken in by Moom’s convincing Swed-lish cake name! I remember shrieking with laughter and immediately dialling one of the German cousins and she pretty much yelled down the phone “ARE YOU JOKING???!!” , through her own howls of laughter.

All this time my birthday has been celebrated with an imposter cake but thanks to Moom’s Swedish PR campaign being so effective, we still all call it “Swedish Äppel Funken” anyway. And it’s bloody delicious.

Thank you Sweden. I mean Germany. ...I mean Mooms. (click there to get a short, happy read about her wonderful , divatasticness).