Kärleksmums (Swedish Chocolate Cake)

Sweden has so many great cakes, but one of my favorites is kärleksmums, or “love treats.” This is a light chocolate cake topped with a dark chocolate coffee glaze and shredded coconut. It’s like the chocolate version of silviakaka, one of my other favorite Swedish cakes.

Tips

This is quite an easy cake to whip up. I start by melting the butter and adding the milk and then setting the mixture aside to cool a bit. Then I use an electric hand mixer to whisk the eggs and sugar until they’re light and fluffy.

To avoid lumps, I use a sift to add the dry ingredients to the egg mixture. Then I add in the butter and milk and mix until smooth. So simple! I bake kärleksmums in a small brownie pan, about 20 x 30 cm (8 x 12 in).

The kärleksmums glaze is equally simple – you don’t need to cook it up to a simmer, but instead just make sure the butter fully melts and the sugar is fully dissolved before removing the saucepan from the heat.

The glaze does have a distinct coffee flavor, so if you’re not a fan of coffee you can omit the coffee for a dark chocolate glaze instead, though then the cake will be more like a normal chocolate cake with coconut instead of Swedish kärleksmums.

I let the glaze cool slightly before pouring it over the cake while the cake is still in the pan. The cake can still be a bit warm, but wait until it has mostly cooled. I also wait until the glaze has mostly set (about five minutes) before sprinkling the shredded coconut so that the coconut doesn’t all sink through to the bottom. If the coconut does sink, you can always wait a while and then sprinkle more on top.

To cut the kärleksmums, lift the cake out of the cake pan by the edges of the baking paper and cut into small squares.

Much like silviakaka, kärleksmums taste even better the next day when the glaze has seeped into the chocolate sponge cake. But don’t worry if you can’t make the cake last that long – it’s delicious when fresh out of the oven as well.

You can switch the recipe from US measurements to metric by clicking from “US Customary” to “Metric” under Ingredients.