Almost forgot to post this this year! Just like I almost forgot about the day itself, but fortunately my nephew was visiting, and we met up with my sister and her boyfriend, and they bought semlor.

He'd been taste-testing different café variants for days prior too. There's a real semel aficionado right there! My own passion pales in comparisson.

So thank you Leif.

He bought the gluten-free special you see above from Tösses - a renowned Stockholm bakery - they already had orders for at least a thousand semlor when he stopped by, just before time came for the traditional Swedish Fika (that Wikipedia article apparently doesn't know that customary fika time here is either 11 AM and/or 3 PM - in workplaces usually both).

And it was delicious. A little rubbery, like the gluten-free alternations tend to be, but good. Fresh vanilla cream and plenty of cardamom.

You can see last year's semla here. :) Had that one with the same buddy I'm flying up to visit tomorrow, some things are really become routine...

No alternative home-made semlor this year though - the parents actually did forget! But we've been partying all weekend and then some, with multiple cakes, and they're old, so maybe it's acceptable this once.

Happy (slightly belated only in posting) Fat Tuesday y'all.