My Danish Kitchen

Lagkagebunde

When it’s a special occasion like a Birthday or an Anniversary or perhaps company is just coming over for a visit, what do you make for dessert? Well in Denmark Lagkage would be a very typical choice. And in Denmark it doesn’t take too much planning either because if you don’t have the cakes for the Lagkage you could just run to the grocery store and pick up a couple. However, living across the ocean, Lagkagebunde (individual cakes for making layered cakes) is not readily available in the stores where I live. I could buy some online and throw them in the freezer for a rainy day or I could bake them myself. When I came across Himmelske Kager’s write-up on making your own Lagkagebunde I figured it was worth a try. She has a really nice tutorial and a lot of helpful tips, not to mention that her cake is delicious.

Draw an outline of pan and place cut-out inside.

It is important that you use the correct size pan and that you follow the instruction not to grease the sides of the pan. This way you’ll get a really nice outcome. The cake itself is really easy to make, but do make sure that your eggs are at room temperature.

Lagkagebunde (makes 1 cake, cut into 3 thin cake layers)

Ingredients:

5 eggs, at room temperature, separated into yolks and whites

120 gram sugar

100 gram all-purpose flour

15 gram cornstarch

1 teaspoon baking powder

Directions:

Using an 8 inch cake pan, butter the bottom of the pan only. Do not butter the sides of the pan as this will ensure the cake rising straight up. Trace a circle of the bottom of the pan onto parchment paper and cut the circle out. Place the parchment paper circle onto the greased bottom of pan and set the pan aside.

Preheat oven to 340 degrees F (175 degrees C)

Making sure eggs are at room temperature, separate into yolks and whites. Place the egg yolks into a bowl, add sugar and beat until it becomes a pale yellow, thick mixture.

In another clean bowl or stand-up mixer, beat the egg whites until stiff.

Sift the flour, cornstarch and baking powder into the egg yolk mixture, beat until it’s homogeneous. Add the stiff egg whites and gently fold into the egg yolk mixture. You do this by cutting down the middle of mixture with your spatula and folding it over the other half, rotating the bowl 1/4 turn each time, repeat until fully incorporated.

Pour batter into prepared cake pan and bake for 30-40 minutes. Do not open oven door the first 30 minutes. Careful not to over-bake the cake. It’s done when the cake feels firm to the touch or test by inserting a toothpick into the middle of the cake, the toothpick should come out clean.

Let the cake cool in the cake pan on a baking rack. Once cooled, run a small knife around the edges to loosen it from the pan and turn it out upside-down onto the baking rack. Make sure cake is completely cooled before cutting it into 3 cake layers. If you are not using the cake layers right away they can be frozen. Separate the three cakes with parchment paper and store in freezer safe bags.

Variations in taste:

Add 2-3 tablespoons of finely ground almonds to batter.

Replace 2 tablespoons flour with 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa. Add cocoa with dry ingredients.

Add 2 tablespoons coconut to batter.

Add orange zest to batter.

Cake will fall a little while cooling, turn out up-side-down onto cake rack.

Source: Himmelske Kager