simila?

An impromptu trip to Ikea for lunch, in which I became bewitched by the semla (above) on display in neat rows, and insisted M split one with me, even though we already were sharing six chicken wings (the best ones in the world, ok!) and 10 Swedish meatballs. One more Swedish dessert wouldn't be too sinful, or so I figured.

According to the very informative leaflet accompanying each semla, the name is derived from the Latin word for simila or fine wheat flour, which is what it is made of.

It also expounded that the bun, a traditional Easter dessert, was filled with "smooth almond paste and crowned with fresh fluffy whipped cream" and "almost floating on the creation is the cut-off bun lid, sprinkled seductively with fine icing sugar".

Sounds good so far? Well, I'm sad to report that the almond paste was so over-poweringly artificial that we couldn't finish it. But it was worth every cent of the $3.50 we paid for it for making me laugh so hard, because of this fun fact included in the leaflet:

"King Adolf Frederick of Sweden died of stroke in 1771, after consuming a luxurious banquet topped off with 14 servings of semla."