Hej – and welcome to your weekly ScandiKitchen lesson.
We were Sweet 16 on 11th July 2023.
It all started when Jonas and Bronte opened the doors to ScandiKitchen, 61 Great Titchfield St in London. A busy day (they had a baby the same day: Happy 16th Birthday to Astrid, too). From 2 to 40ish, we’ve grown from a cafe to a deli, webshop, wholesalers, supermarket suppliers and cookbook writers. We’ve had so much fun along this magnificent journey. Thank you for having us in your lives.
This week, we talk birthdays, celebrations, and cake.
Every week, we give a little lesson on how to be a bit more Scandinavian in your everyday life. If you’d like the full-length version of these lessons direct into your inbox every Friday morning, simply click here to sign up.
Birthday horse
If a Dane asks you if it is the horse’s birthday, it simply means you’ve sliced your rye bread too thick (hestens fødselsdag).
Birthday flags
Birthdays in Scandinavia mean flags. All the flags you have. Flags on the table and on the cakes. Waving of flags and raising flags in the garden.
Cinnamon birthday
When you’re 25 in Denmark, it is tradition to throw kilos of ground cinnamon on the birthday person. Unmarried at 30? You will get a pepper grinder for your birthday.
Birthday devil
In Denmark, if someone talks about the Devil’s birthday (Fandens fødselsdag), they mean the day when people used to pay mortgage interest.
Too much cake
In Swedish, if you say cake on cake (kaka på kaka), it means too much of a good thing.
More cake
In Danish, if you say that something goes to cake (der går kage i noget) it means something goes wrong. You can also say shit and layercake (lort og lagkage), which means something both good and bad.
