Looking for an idea for Christmas brunch/lunch?
These adorable little cakes are really sandwiches.
No...it's true!
Mini smorgastartas to be exact.
We have made regular smorgastartas a few times (See HERE and HERE) and then we saw Beth's teeny versions over at Hungry Happenings. We were inspired by her great idea to miniaturize these fancy sandwiches and decided to come up with our own version.
These are simple... if a little bit messy... and the kidlets can help decorate! You can fill the sandwiches with your favorite filling so you can (hopefully) please even your pickiest eaters.
Mini Smorgastartas
Ingredients
1 loaf Dempster's Whole Grain Bread
1 loaf Dempster's White Bread
1 (250 g) container Philadelphia Soft Cream Cheese
2 (250 g) containers Philadelphia Herb & Garlic Cream Cheese
Filling - Egg
5 boiled eggs
1/8 cup onion, finely diced
1/8 cup celery, finely diced
2 -3 Tbsp mayo
Filling - ham
2 (120 g) tins of deviled ham
1/8 cup onion, finely diced
2 - 3 Tbsp mayo
Decorations
red pepper
green pepper
large carrot
Directions
Using a cookie cutter approx 3 1/2 inches across, cut out circles from both loaves of the Dempster's bread.
Set circles aside while you prepare cream cheese and filling.
Prepare the cream cheese "frosting" - In a medium mixing bowl, mix together the Philadelphia soft cream cheese and the 2 containers of herb & garlic cream cheese.
Prepare egg filling - In a small mixing bowl, mash together the boiled eggs, onion, and celery using a fork. When fairly smooth, mix in the mayo.
Prepare ham filling - In a small mixing bowl, mash together the deviled ham, onion, and mayo using a fork.
Assemble your mini smorgastartas - place a round of bread on your work surface.
Spread a bit of the egg filling onto the bread.
Place another round of bread on top of the egg filling.
Spread a bit of the ham filling onto the bread.
Top with a third round of bread.
Repeat until all bread rounds and filling is used up. (I got 9 mini smorgastartas in total)
Frosting the sandwiches is just like frosting a cake. Just take some of the cream cheese and spread it around the outside of the sandwich. Then take a little more and spread it on top. It doesn't need to be very thick - you just want it to cover the bread. (This is the messy part!)
Now comes the fun part!
You can decorate with the red & green peppers & carrot by either cutting out shapes OR using mini cookies cutters to cut the veggies into circles and trees and holly and gingerbread men and all that fun stuff!
You can use any flavor of Philadelphia Flavored Cream cheese for "frosting". They have dill, herb & garlic, chive & onion, garden vegetable, smoked salmon, etc.
If you want to do a sweet version of this - try a peanut butter and jelly layered sandwich or peanut butter and banana... and then you could frost it with the Philadelphia Strawberry, Pineapple, or Chocolate Cream Cheese.
Go crazy!
These are soooo much fun.
Oh, yeah...and tasty!
We're sharing at these fab linky parties - Horrific Knits, Kitchen Fun With My 3 Sons, Carole's Chatter
I had never made smorgastartas until the day I was asked to make them for Tablespoon.com. Making and decorating the tiny sandwich cakes was fun, but messy, like you said. Your cakes are so pretty and I like what you filled them with too.
ReplyDeleteBeth @ Hungry Happenings
Thanks Beth. We fell in love with the mini ones you made!
DeleteI grew up with Scandinavian family in a heavily Scandinavian settled part of MN - "petite sandwiches" like these were always part of our celebrations...my great-grandmother, great aunt, and eventually my mother, hosted "Dip in the Kettle" every Christmas Eve. While I complained about it in my youth, I sure miss those days now! These smorgastartas look so festive and I KNOW they'll be tasty. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteHow lovely and festive! Cheers from carole's chatter
ReplyDeletePS From tomorrow you will be my Blog of the Month for May!
Thank you so much Carole :)
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