Savory Sandwich Cake

 

It was 22 March - mid Lent, and we held an office foodie fundraiser in aid of the Irish Cancer Society.  At a bit of a loss as to what make I searched about and got the inspiration to make this giant sandwich cake from a recipe blog called Pannini Happy. They made a Swedish sandwich layer cake called a Smorgastarta. With a lot of people giving up sweet things for Lent, it was a great opportunity to try out my own variation of this recipe to help raise funds for a great cause! My gi-normus sandwich cake, or smorgastarta, ended up a whopping 20 inches wide x 25 inches in height and fed 15 or more people in the office that day raising some well deserved funds for the Irish Cancer Society

The Swedish version featured contained a brave variety of fish & savory fillings - something I sensed that was going to be distinctly unpopular with my lot. So.. for my version of this Smorgastarta I played it safe with some favorite Irish sandwich fillers - chicken salad, egg mayonnaise, homemade simple coleslaw, ham, cheese & tomatoes. All the recipes are below for you to try!

Now, the blog that featured this interesting Swedish sandwich admittedly put my sandwich cake to total shame... (see the author's photos below which are just divine)...ok, my attempt was an epic fail in the culinary aesthetics department.. but its all about the taste right!?!

Here's what it looked like before the final decorative layer went on.. what it lacked in culinary elegance it made up for in wholesome sandwich goodness :o) 

So here's how you can make your own giant savoury sandwich..

Ingredients

• @3 large round bread loaves  - The trick here is to find large and deep round loaves. They need to be dense enough so that the filling stays between the layers and doesn't seep though (i.e. not too light & airy on the inside)  but also not too crusty that it is tough to cut through. I got these round loaves which were about 11inches in diameter wide and 8inches in depth from the bakery in Donnybrook Fair but any bakery should have something similar, or be able to make you some up on demand. Failing this, you could always find a good rye bread mix and make your own loaves in a lined 10inch cake dish that's at least 7inches deep.  
• Butter - softened to almost being melted 
• Chicken Salad filling - 4 chicken fillets poached & shredded or 1 cooked chicken sliced & diced into small pieces, 1 small can sweetcorn, mayonnaise, Salt & Pepper to taste, herbs are optional. Alternatively this could be a tuna salad layer with the same ingredients swapping the shredded cooked chicken for 2-3 large cans drained tuna) 
• Egg Salad - 6 large hard boiled eggs mashed, mayonnaise, salt, pepper, 1 tsp mustard, optional handful chopped chives. 
• Salad - iceberg lettuce leaves, 3 handfuls spinach leaves, 10 tomatoes (sliced & drained on kitchen towel to avoid the bread going soggy), coleslaw. Optional: onions, radish, cucumber (sliced & drained on kitchen towel), 2-3 peppers sliced. 
• Deli-Meat layer - 10 slices ham, 10 slices salami, or any other meats you prefer. 
• Top layer Decoration - 1 tub medium/full fat cream cheese softened to be spreadable on the bread to look like 'icing', 2-3 thinly sliced radishes, 10 cherry tomatoes halved & drained, handful sweetcorn, cucumber slices, drained beetroot sliced....  Or anything else you fancy.

How to build it.. 

Slice your loaves into slices that are at least 3 inches thick. the chunkier the slice the better the shape of the cake holds up when you load it with fillings. A handy trick is to place a dinner plate on top and underneath the loaf and cut through it with a decent bread knife.

Start with the bottom layer and butter it up nicely with some lightly melted butter (this helps to spread the butter out more evenly across the bread so it becomes less porous to fillings seeping through the layers.

I started with the chicken layer. To help it stay together, I gave it a quick whiz in the microwave to melt the cheese and keep it together - this meant I could add less mayo so that the bottom layer stayed stable not soggy once it was applied.

Placing the next layer on top (my mistake was cutting this layer too thin as you can see) I repeated the buttering and added the salad.

 Realising the height was getting out of control I only added a small bit of my egg mayo (recipe above)...

.....and my home made coleslaw  (made using 1 1/2 carrots grated, 1 1/2 cup shredded white cabbage, salt, pepper & mayo and 1teaspoon of white vinegar to taste) 

 

Once I added the layers of ham & salami my sandwich cake was shaping up nicely. I called it quits as my final layer was very thick. In hindsight I would have made the second layer thicker or doubled up with 2 thin slices but sure I'll know now for next time.  It really all depends how much filling you have and what variety you decide to use as to how many bread layers you'll need. My one tip is to keep the layers thick so it divides the fillings nicely and just has a more 'cake' look about it.

In order to be able to eat this giant sandwich cake, I decided to make the very top layer a decorative one which could be removed. (see below when it was lifted off). This meant people could eat slices of the sandwich cake with their hands and they could eat the decorative top layer separately as a slice on its own.

I plastered the extra top layer (which could be removed as separate from the rest of the sandwich cake) with some cream cheese which had softened nicely and could be spread about with a knife dipped in hot water so it had a nice even sheen and looked really like 'real' cake icing!

We'd love to see more variations with what you come up with! Facebook us with them or email your photos to crafteaparties@gmail.com