Herring cake for Midsummer

Cakes with strawberries are common everywhere but here's a cake variety you may not have tried before: the salty matjes herring so perfect for the heat of summer.  

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  Matjestårta from Alltommat.se Photo: Charlie Drevstam

• Maybe you enjoy a cake covered with strawberries for a true Swedish Midsummer celebration. But how about a “matjestårta”? That's herring cake, in English. We found the following mouth-watering recipe on Alltommat.se and believe it would be a perfect addition to any summer smorgasbord or buffet. It serves 12.

• Ingredients:
  1 cup dark rye bread (if you can get hold of 8 slices of Swedish “kavring” so much the better)
  1/2 cup butter
  2 gelatin sheets
  about 8 oz tinned matjes herring
  3 oz grated horseradish
  2-1/2 cups fresh cheese (natural), 2 Tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice.
  Decoration:
  a bunch of radishes,
  1 red onion
  another 3 oz grated horse-radish, and dill.

• Instruction:
  1. Crumb the bread in a food processor. Add the butter and make an even batter. Push the batter into a 9” springform pan, on top of baking paper. Put the pan in the fridge. 2. Put the gelatin sheets in cold water for about 5 minutes. Drain the herring and cut it into fine pieces. Mix the herring with the fresh cheese and the horse-radish. Warm up the lemon juice in a pan. Take up the gelatin sheets from the water and let them dissolve in the lemon juice. Add the juice to the cheese mix. Put the mixture in the springform pan and let sit in the fridge for about 4 hours. 3. Trim and half the radishes. Peel and thinly slice the onion. Take the cake out of the form, and garnish with radishes, onion, horse-radish, and dill.

• A variety that works as finger food if you include a spoon for it to rest on are the Matjes cakes