Tuesday 25 February is Fettisdagen (or Semmeldagen), when Swedes tuck into one of the nation’s most iconic sweet treats. Traditionally, the Semla was eaten on Fettisdagen (which literally translates as Fat Tuesday) as a feast before the Christian fasting period of Lent. Initially the buns (the plural of semla is semlor) were soaked in hot milk (known as hetvägg). Nowadays, the Swedish semla is filled with almond paste and whipped cream and come in different sizes and variations (the latest version is a taco). How best to eat them? The classic way is straight from hand to mouth but you can be more refined and use a fork. You can buy semlor in bakeries or supermarkets as well as coffee shops. 

It could be described as the Jabba the Hutt of Swedish cream cakes. The world’s largest semla (semlor in plural) is on display at Sergels Torg in central Stockholm. Baked by the baker Daniel Granholm, the cake weighs about 300kg (about 662lbs), containing 35kg (77lbs) almond paste and 115 litres (ca. 30 gallons) of cream, and it was cooked in a specially made oven, Expressen writes. The cake can be eaten and the bakery now hopes to enter the Guinness Book of Records.