This week marks Fat Tuesday. Which in Sweden means it’s high time for semlor, a pastry full of almond paste and whipped cream. After all, it’s not called Fat Tuesday for nothing.

So honored that Johanna over at Kokblog (my new favorite food illustration blog) asked me to write a guest post for this favorite Swedish tradition of mine.

A semla, also known as fastlagsbulle or fettisbulle, is a flour bun filled with almond paste and topped with whipped cream and powdered sugar. Historically the decadent pastry was intended for consumption on fettisdagen, Fat Tuesday. But in modern day, the tradition of semlor has gone far beyond just fettisdagen, allowing for Swedish pastry shops and bakeries to fill their windows with the baked good from just after the New Year all the way through Easter. Several months of pastry bliss.

Read the full post — with more fantastic illustrations and my mother’s recipe — here.