It’s the first Thursday in March today.
That might seem like a slightly random date, but in fact it’s the unofficial national holiday of the Swedish region of Småland.
That’s not because of some historical event, the birthday of a famous Smålander or a religious celebration, but rather a tongue-in-cheek reference to the way people from this region talk.
They simply find their pronunciation of “first Thursday in March” (in Swedish, första torsdagen i mars) amusing. Their accent means they drop their R, creating fössta tossdan i mass.
But what does this all have to do with cake?
Well, another word that sounds funny in a Småland accent is marsipantårta, the word for a cream layer cake like the bright green prinsesstårtor topped with a marzipan rose which you’ve seen in Swedish bakeries. Marsipantårta becomes something close to massipantååta in the Småland dialect.
They usually include a sponge cake bottom, topped with pastry cream, another layer of cake and a dome of whipped cream, which is entirely topped with a layer of colourful marzipan, hence the name.
Technically speaking, a green marsipantårta is a prinsesstårta, a yellow one is a prinstårta, and a red or pink one with an additional layer of raspberry jam is an operatårta, although most Swedes will just use the words prinsesstårta and marsipantårta interchangeably.
Fillings can vary, for example by using a different flavour of jam or by adding chocolate to the cream, although these are not strictly traditional.
A marsipantårta can also be formed into a log rather than a round cake and sliced into individual portions, called a prinsessbakelse.
Most of all, fössta tossdan i mass gives Smålanders (and people in the rest of Sweden) an excuse to eat cake.
Here’s a recipe, courtesy of Swedish food writer John Duxbury, for a classic marsipantårta.
We also have a word of the day on prinsesstårta, going into the etymology of the word and how exactly a tårta differs from a paj or a kaka, and we have this article looking closer at the history of fössta tossdan i mass.
Make sure to wish any Smålanders in your life a glad fössta tossdan i mass today – and take the opportunity to tuck into a slice of massipantååta.
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