‘Fika’: A Swedish tradition spreading across the UK

Fi:ka – noun, Swedish

A concept in Swedish culture. A coffee break with friends, family or colleagues, often accompanied with pastries. A moment to slow down and appreciate the good things in life. Fika is considered a social institution in Sweden.

Fika Bakery is a wholesale and retail bakery, creating artisan Swedish baked goods. We supply venues with traditional cinnamon buns, cardamon buns and vanilla buns across Brighton & Hove and to a number of villages in Sussex.

The business has seen a period of rapid growth as Swedish 'Fika' grows in popularity as well as a love for sticky Scandinavian buns. Fika Bakery is now expanding its range to provide a lunch menu of speciality rolls, prepared quiches and filled flatbreads, as well as a bread range to include traditional rye, cereal and sourdough loaves.

Fika Bakery was founded by Jenny Engvall (right) who has 30 years’ bakery experience. She started working in some of the best bakeries in Stockholm, before moving to London to create afternoon teas at The Ritz.

"The UK is falling in love with all things Scandinavian right now, and our customers are reporting an incredible passion for cinnamon buns and cardamon buns. We’ve had to grow rapidly to keep up with demand."

Fika Bakery has been selling direct to the public at The Open Market every Saturday, where it’s common for queues of 20 customers to snake back for the first hours of trading. This has allowed the business to test our products and offer surefire winners to its wholesale customers. Cafes find that Fika Bakery's products are eaten throughout the day, and word-of-mouth brings footfall into the venues that Fika Bakery supplies.

Jenny has served The Queen, Naomi Campbell, Julia Roberts and Stephen King.