Legend has it that the scone-like treats were originally created in Sweden during the 19th century by an aspiring baker.

”The story goes that a master baker had threatened an apprentice with the lash, but gave the boy a chance to evade punishment if he could make a tasty bun. The lad succeeded,” says Markku Jousala, a baking teacher at the Salpaus further education college in Lahti.

The original version contained almonds, but Finns added the cream and jam that now adorn them.

”We Finns wanted to make them lighter, so in went whipped cream and and either fruit or almond jam,” explains Jousala.

Lifting the Laskiaispulla ’lid’

The apprentice baker’s creation is still popular, and although the contents of the buns have changed a little, the shape—a sliced bun with the filling underneath the ’lid’—remains in use today.

”In principle the bun has always been the same, sliced into two parts,” says Jousala. ”There have been different opinions on whether it should be sliced in the middle or further towards the top, to create a kind of hat.”

Jousala recommends adding orange zest and vanilla sugar to give a new twist on the old favourite. The expert does not, though, have set rules for completing perhaps the trickiest—but most enjoyable—task of all: eating the end product.

”Many people take the ’hat' off, eat the cream and then start on the bun,” says Jousala. ”The method of eating isn’t important, the main thing is that the feast is delicious. And you must allow that eating the buns can be a little messy when the cream starts to ooze.”