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Danish Kringle With Marzipan Remonce

Posted in Cake, Danish, Pastry, Scandinavian, tagged , , , , , , on July 1, 2017| 4 Comments »

Kringle with Marzipan Remonce

Danish Kringle is so delicious and it’s also surprisingly quick and easy to make. I recently made this one with a Marzipan remonce which was a big hit. Kringle also freezes really well so it’s one of those desserts you can easily make ahead and just pull out of the freezer, thaw, bake and serve. Enjoy!

Kringle (makes 2 Kringler, serves 12-16)

Ingredients:

For the dough:

1 deciliter water (3.4 fluid oz or 100 ml)

2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast (or 25 grams cake/fresh yeast)

2 tablespoons sugar

2 large eggs, room temperature

a pinch of salt

150 grams salted butter, cut into small cubes, room temperature

325 grams all-purpose flour

For the Remonce filling:

100 grams butter, room temperature

100 grams sugar

100 grams marzipan, room temperature and broken into small pieces

Other optional fillings: 

50 grams golden raisins

25 grams blanched almonds, chopped

Garnish:

1 egg, for egg wash

Pearl sugar (or regular sugar)

slivered almonds

Directions:

To make dough: Using hot water, confirm that the water is between 100 to 110 degrees F (no more than 110 degrees). Pour warm water into a large bowl, add 1 tablespoon of the sugar and sprinkle yeast over water, let sit for 10 minutes. Add remaining sugar, eggs, a pinch of salt, butter and flour. Using your hands, mix all ingredients until dough comes together. Dough may feel a little tacky and there may still be small pieces of butter, that is OK. Transfer dough to a clean bowl, cover with a clean, dry tea-towel, place bowl in a warm location and let rise for 1 hour.

To make Remonce filling: Beat butter and sugar until smooth. Add marzipan and continue to beat until completely smooth.

Rolling out dough: For easy clean-up, place two long pieces of plastic wrap (cling wrap) onto your work surface. Sprinkle plastic wrap with flour and give the dough a quick soft kneading, sprinkle with a little more flour until dough is soft and elastic, and no longer sticky. Divide dough into two equal portions and form each piece of dough into a log. Working with one log at the time, roll out the log (on top of the plastic wrap) to approximately 30 x 15 centimeter rectangle (11.5 x 6 inches). Spread 1/2 the Remonce filling down the middle of each dough rectangle and sprinkle with raisins and almonds (optional). Fold the ends over about 2 cm (almost 1 inch) then fold the outer 1/3 of dough over the middle and then the other outer 1/3 of dough over the middle again. Holding onto the plastic wrap, roll dough rectangle over so it’s now placed upside-down (seam side down). Carefully place dough rectangle onto baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Repeat process with second piece of dough. If planning on baking both Kringler at this time, allow both dough rectangles to rise for another 15 minutes on the baking sheet before baking.

Freezing: If you are planning on freezing the unbaked Kringle, wrap it up in parchment paper and then foil (or a large zip lock bag if you have one). When ready to bake, thaw in refrigerator for 24 hours, then place on parchment paper at room temperature for 1 hour before baking.

Baking: Preheat oven to 220 degrees C (425 degrees F). Lightly beat egg with a fork and brush dough with egg wash. Sprinkle with Pearl sugar and almonds. Bake for 12-14 minutes on middle rack in preheated oven. Allow to cool on baking sheet. Enjoy!

Source: adapted from Anne Magrethe i Hirtshals

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Best Blueberry Muffins With Marcipan

Posted in Muffins, tagged , , , , , on May 18, 2015| 2 Comments »

Best Blueberry Muffin With Marcipan

Best Blueberry Muffin With Marcipan

The weather in Virginia is already turning really warm and it makes me want to make something with berries. Blueberries are one of those berries I always keep on hand in the freezer. Although you can easily make these muffins with fresh blueberries, I actually prefer to make blueberry muffins with frozen berries.

Finely grated Marcipan, finished dough, dust berries with flour and add to dough, quickly but gently fold in berries.

Finely grated Marcipan, finished dough, dust berries with flour and add to dough, quickly but gently fold in berries.

This is a wonderful muffin recipe, which you must try. I added a little grated Marcipan which I thought might possibly make the cake a little heavy, but it turned out perfectly light and added a wonderful subtle hint of almond. The muffins are bursting with blueberries and a light sprinkling of sugar gives it a crisp top, and as we all know the muffin top is the best part!

When using frozen berries, dough will become firm, that's okay, just pile it on.

When using frozen berries, dough will become firm, that’s okay, just pile it on.

Best Blueberry Muffins With Marcipan (makes 12 muffins)

Ingredients:

245 grams all-purpose flour (2 cups)

2 teaspoons baking powder

3/4 teaspoon salt

112 grams unsalted butter, at room temperature (1 stick or 1/2 cup)

205 grams sugar (1 cup)

2 large eggs, at room temperature

80 grams marcipan, grated (2.8 ounces)

1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon almond extract

1 deciliter milk (1/2 cup or 120 milliliter)

325 grams frozen whole blueberries (2 1/4 cup)

1 tablespoon flour, for sprinkling onto blueberries

extra sugar, for dusting

Directions:

Line muffin pan with paper liners and set aside. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).

Sift together flour, baking powder and salt, set aside.  In the bowl of an electrical mixer, beat together butter and sugar for 4 minutes until smooth. Add the eggs one at the time, beating well after each addition and scraping down sides as needed. Add grated marcipan, vanilla extract and almond extract, beat until well combined. Add flour and milk in three increments, mixing only until fully incorporated. Toss a small tablespoon of flour with the frozen blueberries, quickly stir berries to coat with flour. Add blueberries to dough and gently but quickly fold berries into dough. Dough at this point will become stiff due to the frozen berries. Scoop dough into prepared muffin tin, piling dough into little stacks. Sprinkle a little sugar on top of each dough pile. Bake for 30 minutes or until golden. Test for doneness using a toothpick, it should come out clean when inserted into center of muffin. Allow muffins to cool in pan for 10 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack if desired. Enjoy!

Best Blueberry Muffins With Marcipan

Best Blueberry Muffins With Marcipan

Source: adapted from Once Upon A Chef

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Hasselnød Kage Med Nougatcreme – Hazelnut Cake With Nougat Cream

Posted in Cake, Danish, Dessert, Easter, Frosting, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on March 28, 2015| 18 Comments »

Hasselnød Kage Med Nougat Creme

Hasselnød Kage Med Nougat Creme

I just hosted a Danish dinner party for my Danish friends and since it is close to Easter I wanted to make a dessert with a seasonal feel to it. I came across this layered cake and not only does it look like a pretty Easter cake but it has all the good things in it that is popular in Danish baking; hazelnuts, Nougat and Marzipan, what’s not to like? As for the special ingredients, I buy Nougat and Marzipan online (I use Odense Ren Rå Marcipan), and the hazelnuts I found in a specialty grocery store.

Process hazelnuts, make meringue and fold in ground hazelnuts, bake

Process hazelnuts, make meringue and fold in ground hazelnuts, bake

A little note about hazelnuts. Hazelnut is a sweet nut with a dark brown skin covering which is bitter and if left on, it may leave unpleasant little left-over pieces in your mouth. So when hazelnuts are used for baking, you may want to remove this skin covering, although it is not absolutely necessary.

Melt Nougat in hot cream, cool, mix whipped cream with Nougat to make frosting

Melt Nougat in hot cream, cool, mix whipped cream with Nougat to make frosting

This is not a difficult cake to make, maybe a little time consuming, and it is one of the best layered cakes I have ever made (with the exception of my all-time favorite Othello layered cake of course). I think you will really love this cake!

Hazelnut Cake With Nougat Cream  (serves 12-14)

Ingredients:

For the cake:

100 g hazelnuts, out of shell (3.5 oz)

175 g Odense Marzipan (6.2 oz)

100 g confectioner sugar (3.5 oz)

30 g all-purpose flour (1 oz)

6 egg whites, room temperature

125 g sugar (4.4 oz)

For the frosting:

6 deciliter heavy whipping cream, divided into 2 and 4 deciliters (20.3 liquid ounces, divided into 6.8 and 13.5)

300 g soft Nougat (10.5 oz)

1 teaspoon instant coffee powder

1 tablespoon boiling water

Decorations:

Cadbury mini chocolate eggs

Directions:

To removed skin on hazelnuts: preheat oven to 325 degrees F (160 degrees C). Place hazelnuts on a baking sheet and roast in oven for 10-15 minutes until skin begins to crack and is golden. Remove from oven and wrap nuts in a clean dishtowel, let sit wrapped for 10 min. Using the towel, rub the nuts vigorously until the skin comes off. Set nuts aside.

Cut out two pieces of parchment paper to fit two 9 inch (23 cm) spring-form pans. Place parchment paper in bottom of pans and spray with baking spray, set aside.

Preheat oven to 280 degrees F (140 degrees C).

Place hazelnuts, marzipan, confectioners sugar and flour in a food processor and process until ground finely.

Beat egg whites until soft peaks, add sugar and whip until you have a thick meringue.

Add ground hazelnuts to meringue and gently fold-in until you have a homogeneous batter. Divide the batter equally between the two pans and bake for 1 hour. Allow cakes to cool in pans.

Place 2 deciliter whipping cream into a small saucepan and heat to just a simmer. Cut Nougat into pieces and add to hot cream, melt while stirring. Heat 1 tablespoon water in the microwave until boiling (10-15 seconds), add instant coffee and stir to resolve. Add coffee to Nougat mixture. Place Nougat in refrigerator to cool completely.

When ready to assemble cake, whip remaining 4 deciliter whipping cream until beaters start leaving traces in cream. Add cooled Nougat mixture and mix to combine. Place first cake onto serving platter. Spread a layer of Nougat cream over cake. Place second cake on top and spread remaining cream on top and down the sides of cake to cover. Decorate with chocolate eggs if desired. Continue to cool in refrigerator for 2-3 hours before serving. Enjoy!

Removing skin off hazelnuts

Removing skin off hazelnuts

Source: Odense Marcipan

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Julekonfekt – Marzipan With Nougat Confections

Posted in Chocolate, Christmas, Danish, tagged , , , , , , , , on December 15, 2014| 6 Comments »

Marzipan with Nougat balls

Marzipan with Nougat balls

Making confections is one of many Christmas activities that is popular in Denmark and it’s especially fun to make with your children, not to mention delicious to eat. To make the chocolate dipping less cumbersome I used a plastic fork and broke off the middle two digits to allow the chocolate to drip off more easily. I made half a batch with rainbow sprinkles and half without. The sprinkles add a crunch and a fun splash of color but you can use any kind of covering you like, for example, finely chopped nuts, freeze dried raspberries or coconut, just let your imagination run wild. Have fun making these.

Making Christmas confection

Making Christmas confection

Marzipan with Nougat Confections (makes 16 pieces)

Ingredients:

100 gram Marzipan (3.5 oz.)

50 gram Nougat (1.75 oz.)

200 gram chocolate (7 oz.) melted, milk or dark your choice

50 gram Rainbow Nonpareils (1.75 oz.) optional

Directions:

Melt chocolate over a water bath. Cut off small pieces of marzipan and flatten to a disc with your fingers. Place a small amount of nougat in the center of marzipan and close the marzipan around nougat to form a ball. Dip the ball into the melted chocolate, drip off excess and toss the chocolate covered ball in the rainbow sprinkles. Place on a baking sheet to cool and harden. Store in airtight tin. Enjoy!

Source: My Danish Kitchen

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Rhubarb Muffins With Orange Zest

Posted in Breakfast, Dessert, Muffins, tagged , , , , , , on June 30, 2013| 2 Comments »

Rhubarb Muffins with Orange Zest

Rhubarb Muffins with Orange Zest

It’s Rhubarb season! Well actually, the season is almost over and I have been wanting to bake something special with my wonderful tart Rhubarbs that I picked up at the store. This recipe has two of my favorite ingredients in it, marzipan and rhubarb, yum! It also has orange zest which can sometimes be a little potent. The recipe calls for 2 teaspoons of orange zest and I think maybe next time I make these scrumptious muffins I may scale it back to 1 1/2 teaspoon, allowing the Rhubarbs to shine a little more. If you are looking for some more Rhubarb recipes check out these posts: Rhubarb Granita, Rhubarb Koldskål and Rød Grød Med Fløde. Enjoy your Rhubarbs!

Rhubarb Muffins With Orange Zest (makes 12-14 muffins)

Ingredients:

125 grams butter (4.5 oz), at room temperature

175 grams sugar (6.2 oz)

150 grams all-purpose flour (5.3 oz)

2 teaspoons orange zest, organic

1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

2 eggs

100 grams shredded marzipan (3.5 oz)

200 grams rhubarb (7.0 oz)

2 tablespoons sugar

Directions:

Preheat oven to 100 degrees C (390 degrees F). Cut rhubarbs into 1 cm slices (0.4 inch). Place into small oven-proof dish and sprinkle with 2 tablespoons sugar. Bake for 15-20 minutes, set aside.

Preheat oven to 175 degrees C (345 degrees F). Place muffin liners into muffin tin, set aside.

Beat together butter and sugar until smooth. Combine flour, orange zest and baking powder. Add flour mixture to butter and mix until combined. Add eggs and mix until smooth. Fold in marzipan and baked rhubarbs. Scoop batter into muffin liners and bake for 25-30 minutes or until golden. Allow to cool completely before enjoying.

Rhubarb Muffins with Orange Zest

Rhubarb Muffins with Orange Zest

Source: hendesverden.dk

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Best Kransekage

Posted in Chocolate, Cookies, Danish, New Years Eve, Pastry, tagged , , , , , on May 20, 2013| 8 Comments »

Best Kranskage

Best Kranskage

I was making Kransekage again the other day and decided to try a new recipe. It turned out to be the best tasting Kransekage recipe I have come across so far. It is less dense than the Kransekage I posted about earlier, the dough is softer so you can pipe it out and the finished product is slightly more “cake-like”. That being said, if you intend on making a Kransekage tower like I did for our 25th wedding anniversary, I would not used this recipe because it does not hold its shape as nicely as the other recipe.

Pipe marcipan out with a large plain round tip and shape into triangle.

Pipe marcipan out with a large plain round tip and shape into triangle.

The original directions asked you to pipe it out using a triangular tip, which I don’t have. So I used a large round plain tip (#809) instead and shaped the marcipan into it’s classic triangular shape with my wet fingers. When you do this, careful not to use too much water on your fingers and keep rinsing and wetting your fingers to avoid the marcipan from sticking. Also the Kransekage cookies seemed to brown faster than the other Kranskage recipe so keep a very close eye on them (lower your oven temperature by 10-20 degrees, if needed). And finally, the original recipe called for Odense Bagemarcipan which I am not able to get here in the US so I used my regular Odense Original 60 % almonds (used to be called Ren Rå marcipan). These cookies are really wonderful and I hope you enjoy them. 🙂

Best Kransekager

Best Kransekager

Kransekage (makes 15 pieces)

Ingredients:

For Cakes:

250 gram Odense Original marcipan (used to be called Ren Rå)

125 gram sugar

55 gram pasteurized egg whites

For Glaze:

40 gram confectioners sugar (sifted),( plus more if needed)(1.4 oz)

15 gram pasteurized egg whites(0.5 oz)

For the chocolate:

55 gram bittersweet chocolate

Directions:

Double up two large baking sheets for extra insulation to avoid burning the bottom of cakes. Line baking sheet with parchment paper. Preheat oven to 390 degrees F (200 degrees C).

For the cakes: Pour egg whites into a small dish and add sugar, stir and let sit for 30 to 60 minutes. Using your stand-mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cut the marcipan into smaller pieces and add egg whites/sugar mixture, beat until you have a completely smooth mass without any lumps (5+ minutes). Scrape dough into a pastry bag fitted with a large plain round tip and pipe out logs onto baking sheet that are finger length (about 8 cm/3 inches). Wet your fingers with a little water and gently press each log into a rounded triangle, continue to wet fingers as needed but careful not to get marcipan too wet. Bake for 14 to 18 minutes or until golden.  Allow to cool completely.

For the glaze: Beat together confectioners sugar and pasteurized egg whites on high-speed for at least 5 minutes. The glaze should be pretty thick and no longer flow together when beaters are stopped, add more sifted confectioners sugar if needed. Load glaze into a plastic bag and snip off tip to create a very tiny opening. Begin decorating, moving the tip back and forth across the logs making sure to extend the tip out over the edge to allow the glaze to droop down the outside in a loop style fashion. Allow glaze to dry completely before dipping ends into chocolate.

For the chocolate: Chop chocolate into small pieces and melt over a water-bath of gently simmering water. Dip each end of Kransekager into melted chocolate and place on baking sheet. Allow chocolate to set (to speed up this process place Kransekager in refrigerator for 10 minutes, take out and bring back to room temperature. Store Kransekager in an airtight container. Enjoy!

Source: Odense

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Kransekage – Happy New Year!

Posted in Cookies, Danish, New Years Eve, Pastry, tagged , , , , , , , , , on December 31, 2012| 10 Comments »

Kransekage Bites

The last day of the year has arrived and I wish all of you a Happy New Year and since it’s New Years Eve today lets wrap up the year with some traditional Danish Kransekage.

Kransekage is a classic Danish pastry made with Marzipan. It is often eaten for New Years, Weddings, Anniversaries, Baptisms – occasions when a celebration is in order. Kransekage can sometimes be made into quite elaborate presentations such as my Anniversary cake but other times they are made as small triangular bite-size pieces of Kransekage, equally delicious!

You can also make them into small Kransekage Tops as in the picture at the bottom of the page. If you choose this, don’t refrigerate the marzipan dough as it will be softer and more manageable at room temperature. Place dough in a pastry bag with a large star tip, but I have to forewarn you that it will take a lot of strength to press the dough out of the pastry bag onto the parchment paper. Another thing you can do to your Kransekage, which I did not do here, is to dip the bottom in some chocolate. Very delicious! I hope you have a safe and happy New Year. 😀

Kransekage Bites (makes 10-12 pieces)

Ingredients:

Cake:

250 gram Marzipan (cut into slices)(8.8 oz or 8 3/4 oz)

75 gram confectioners sugar(2.5 oz or 2 3/4 oz)

20 gram pasteurized egg whites(0.7 oz or 3/4 oz)

Glaze:

40 gram confectioners sugar (sifted),( plus more if needed)(1.4 oz)

15 gram pasteurized egg whites(0.5 oz)

Directions:

For the Cake: In a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, place 75 grams confectioners sugar and 20 grams pasteurized egg whites. Start the mixer on low and add marzipan pieces one by one. When the cake mass is homogeneous, remove from mixer and place in a zip lock bag. Store in refrigerator for at least 2 hours or until the following day.

Double up two large baking sheets for extra insulation to avoid burning the bottom of cake. Use parchment paper. Preheat oven to 390 degrees F (200 degrees C).

Note: when rolling out marzipan, wash and dry your hands as often as needed to avoid working with sticky fingers. If marzipan feels too sticky use a small amount of confectioners sugar to work into dough. Sprinkle work surface lightly with confectioners sugar. Roll dough into a long log approximately 1 1/2 cm (0.6 inch) in thickness. Cut log into finger length pieces (8 cm/3 inches). With two fingers lightly pinch and press down on each log piece to form a soft triangular-shape. If needed, use an icing spatula or a regular spatula to loosen marzipan from tabletop by pressing down hard while sliding spatula under the log. Place each triangular log on parchment paper and bake for 14 to 18 minutes or until golden brown. Allow logs to cool completely on a rack.

For the glaze: Beat together sifted confectioners sugar and pasteurized egg whites on high-speed for at least 5 minutes. The glaze should be pretty thick and no longer flow together when beaters are stopped. Add more sifted confectioners sugar as needed. Load glaze into a plastic bag and snip off tip to create a very tiny opening. Begin decorating, moving the tip back and forth across the logs making sure to extend the tip out over the edge to allow the glaze to droop down the outside in a loop style fashion. Allow glaze to dry at room temperature for a couple of hours before storing Kransekage Bites in an airtight container. Enjoy.

Kransekage Tops

Source: My Danish Kitchen

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Mazarinkage

Posted in Cake, Danish, Dessert, tagged , , , , , , on April 2, 2012| 20 Comments »

Mazarinkage

You’re probably all wondering, why does she keep posting recipes with marzipan? Well, all I can say is that marzipan is immensely popular in Denmark and it’s a natural part of baking (and besides….I like it)

Mazarinkage is a classic Danish cake found in most bakeries. It’s a sponge cake made with Marzipan which makes the cake moist, sweet and compact. There are many different variations of this cake. Some make it with orange juice/mashed oranges, amaretto or with a nougat glaze instead of the chocolate ganache, all sounding very enticing. But for this post I wanted to keep it close to the way I remember the cake, simply delicious.

Mazarinkage - The ganache is still moist in this picture, and yes I stole a piece of cake before putting the ganache on 🙂

Ingredients:

For the dough:

100 grams all-purpose flour (3 5/8 oz)

100 grams cornstarch (3 5/8 oz)

1 tablespoon baking powder

200 grams butter, melted (7 1/4 oz)

200 grams marzipan, grated (7 1/4 oz)

4 eggs

200 grams confectioners sugar (7 1/4 oz)

For the ganache:

100 grams semi-sweet chocolate, chopped (4 oz)

1 deciliter half and half (3.4 oz or 0.4 cup)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C).

In a medium bowl, add flour, cornstarch and baking powder, set aside. In a small saucepan melt butter and set aside to cool. Grate marzipan and set aside.

In the bowl of a stand-mixer, with the speed on medium, beat eggs and confectioners sugar. While continuing to beat, add cooled butter in a thin stream.  Add marzipan and then add remaining dry ingredients.

Spray with baking spray or butter a round 9 inch (23 cm) spring-form pan. Pour dough into spring-form and bake 35 to 40 minutes. Allow to cool on a cooling rack.

To make ganache: Add half and half  and chopped chocolate to a small saucepan. Over medium-low heat melt chocolate, stirring frequently until mixture starts to thicken. Remove cake from spring-form and spread ganache over top of cake. Enjoy!

Source: adapted from Kvalimad

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Danish Træstammer – Tree Logs

Posted in Cake, Chocolate, Danish, Dessert, Pastry, tagged , , , , , , , , on November 7, 2011| 25 Comments »

Danish Træstammer

We are looooong overdue for a Danish recipe, don’t you think? There are so many recipes that I want to make (Danish and others alike)  and simply not enough hours in the day. Maybe if I took a month off from work I could make a dent in my to-do-list.

Anyway, I have been planning and researching Danish Træstammer for a long time now and I am so excited to finally being able to share them with you. I remember buying Træstammer from the store at home and they were a very special treat indeed.  For this post I choose to use a ganache as a binder which seems perhaps a little cumbersome but very delicious. Making Træstammer is not an exact science. A lot depends on how moist or dry your left-over chocolate cake is, mine was actually quite fresh and moist so it did not take much ganache to form the inside cake “batter”. The ganache portion of this recipe makes more than enough, so if you happen to have something needing decorating, the left-over ganache will be perfect.

Ingredients:

For the ganache:

2.5 deciliter (9 oz) whipping cream

250 grams (8.8 oz) dark chocolate

For the chocolate filling (logs):

400 grams (14 oz) left-over good chocolate cake

1/4 cup ganache

3 tablespoons Bacardi Gold Rum

For the outside covering:

400 grams (14 oz) marzipan

confectioners sugar for sprinkling

dark chocolate for dipping

Directions:

To make ganache: Chop the chocolate and place in a small bowl. Pour whipping cream into small saucepan and bring to a simmer. Pour the hot whipping cream over chopped chocolate and let sit for 5 minutes. Stir chocolate mixture until it’s smooth. Place in refrigerator to cool for 20-25 minutes.

To make chocolate filling (logs): Break left-over cake into large chunks and place in food processor or blender, process until fine crumbs. Slowly add chocolate ganache, while processing, until crumbs start to come together into a ball. Add rum. Form chocolate mass into a ball and place in refrigerator.  

Sprinkle flat working surface with confectioners sugar. Form marzipan into a rectangle and start rolling it out making sure it does not stick to working surface.

Remove the chocolate filling from the refrigerator, divide into three parts and roll each part into long logs approximately 2-3 centimeters (0.8-1 inch) in thickness. Place logs one at the time onto the marzipan and roll the marzipan around the log, cut along the long edge to fit. Pinch together the long edge to close the marzipan around the chocolate log. Gently roll the marzipan log to flatten the seam. Trim off the ends of the log, cut the logs into equal lengths approximately 7-8 centimeters (2.8-3 inches). Place cut up logs on baking sheet and place in refrigerator.

Chop the remaining chocolate, place in a small bowl over a water bath and melt. Dip each end of the logs in the melted chocolate, place on baking sheet and allow to cool. Enjoy!

Source: Himmelske Kager

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Kransekage and celebrating our 25th Wedding Anniversary

Posted in Cake, Danish, Dessert, Pastry, tagged , , , , , , , on August 23, 2011| 26 Comments »

Kransekage

On August 23rd Joseph and I will be celebrating our Silver Wedding Anniversary, 25 years together with my Soulmate, my Best Friend and the Love of my Life. When I first met Joseph on that bus stop in Danmark and he looked at me and smiled, my life changed forever. Our lives together has been an adventure that I could never have imagined, not even in my wildest dreams.

Our wedding was held in Denmark and it was a small intimate affair filled with Danish customs, lots of singing , great food and drinks. It was a really fun wedding and the last of the guests did not leave until 4 am the following morning. The wedding cake we had was not anything like the big, beautiful American style wedding cakes you see today but rather a simple, yet elegant, classic Danish festive cake. The cake is called a Kransekage and it is used for festive events like weddings, baptisms and it is typically also served on New Years Eve. It is made with Marzipan and it’s crisp on the outside and soft on the inside.

My husband Joseph was the one who suggested that I should make our wedding cake for our 25th Wedding Anniversary. My first instinct was “no way! that’s much too complicated and involved”. But of course, then I got curious and so I started looking around to see what I could find and eventually I saw Mette Blomsterberg’s TV show “Det Søde Liv” and she made it look soooo easy. And really when you think about it, it’s not that complicated, but all technique and a lengthy process.

Ingredients:

Cake:

500 gram Marzipan (cut into slices)

150 gram confectioners sugar

40 gram pasteurized egg whites

Glaze:

75 gram confectioners sugar (sifted),( plus more if needed)

30 gram pasteurized egg whites

Directions:

For the Cake: In a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, place 150 grams confectioners sugar and half of the pasteurized egg whites. Start the mixer on low and add marzipan pieces one by one and the remaining egg whites. When the cake mass is homogeneous, remove from mixer and place in a zip lock bag. Store in refrigerator for at least 2 hours but preferably until the following day.

Double up two large baking sheets for extra insulation to avoid burning the bottom of cake. Use parchment paper.

Note: when rolling out marzipan, wash and dry your hands as often as needed to avoid them getting sticky. Divide marzipan mass into 250 grams portions. If marzipan feels a little sticky use a small amount of confectioners sugar to roll is into logs. Roll each portion into an 80 cm long log that’s even in thickness. Lightly tap the log with the palm of your hand along the edge towards you, to form a slight soft triangular-shaped log. Using an icing spatula or a regular spatula loosen marzipan from tabletop by pressing down hard while sliding spatula under the log. Measure off marzipan into exactly 8 cm, 10 cm, 12 cm, 14 cm etc until all marzipan is used up. Don’t forget to make sure there is a little leftover marzipan to form the round top for the cake.

Each measured out piece of marzipan is now formed into rings, pressing gently at the seam. Place on baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Using the left over marzipan, roll a small ball that fit on top of the smallest ring, and press it slightly flat. When all rings are formed, use another baking sheet to gently press down on top of all ring to ensure they have the same height. Bake in a preheated 200 degree C (390 degree F) oven for 14 to 18 minutes. Carry in mind that the larger rings may need a little more baking time. Place rings on a rack to allow cooling completely.

For the glaze: Beat together sifted confectioners sugar and pasteurized egg whites on high-speed for at least 5 minutes. The glaze should be pretty thick and no longer flow together when beaters are stopped. Add more sifted confectioners sugar as needed. Load glaze into a decorating bag fitted with a size 2 round tip or make a cone out of parchment paper or use a plastic bag and cut a very tiny hole at the tip.

Place the largest ring on your serving plate. Begin decorating, moving the tip back and forth across the ring making sure to extend the tip out over the edge of ring to allow the glaze to droop down the outside in a loop style fashion. Place the second largest ring on top of the first ring and continue decorating, repeating until the smallest ring. Top cake off with the flattened ball on top. Allow glaze to dry at room temperature for a couple of hours before covering with plastic if cake is to be served in the following days. Enjoy.

Kransekage

My uncle Harald made the bride and grooms wedding clothes from tiny glass pearls. To this day he still gives me small pearl figures and designs. Amazing 🙂

Kransekage

Source: Det Søde Liv – Mette Blomsterberg

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