Kransekage – marzipan wreath cake
© danishthings.com
Servings
18
Servings
18
Ingredients
Kransekage
  • 50g pasteurised egg whites
  • 200g cane sugaror confectioner’s sugar
  • 800g marzipan 63% almonds
Royal icing
  • 100g confectioner’s sugar
  • 20-30g pasteurised egg white
Instructions
Kransekage
  1. Egg whites and sugar are mixed and refrigerated for at least one hour. This is done to dissolve the sugar.
  2. Use a stand mixer with a K paddle. Start with the sugar-egg white mixture and add marzipan – a little at a time. Stir until the mixture is uniform and smooth. If using powdered sugar, stir the egg whites and icing sugar together first before you add the marzipan. You can mix it by hand.
  3. Put the finished kransekage mass in a plastic bag. Put it in the refrigerator at least 2 hours or save it for the next day.
  4. Roll out the kransekage mass in bars, about 2 ½ cm thick.
  5. Each bar is lightly pressed on the side facing toward you so that the bar becomes a slightly rounded triangle. Cut into neat pieces with 4 cm intervals – begin with 8 cm then 12 cm, 16 cm, 20 cm and so on. Also, remember to make a ball for the top of the cake.
  6. Loosen the bars with a palette knife or kitchen knife and lay them on a baking sheet lined with baking paper. Form each measured piece to a ring, remember to make the point of the triangle upwards. Smooth the cake rings, use a very tiny bit of water on your fingers. Be careful not to get the marzipan too wet.
  7. You have to make the top of the rings level to make a nice tower. Use a baking sheet with a piece of baking paper on the rings – press lightly to level and remove the baking sheet and paper again.
  8. Bake the wreaths at 200 ° C until golden approx 14-20 min.
Royal icing
  1. Beat together confectioners sugar and some of the pasteurised egg whites, you can always add more, on high-speed for at least 5 minutes. The icing should be pretty thick and no longer flow together when beaters are stopped, add more egg whites or sugar if needed.
  2. Put the royal icing in a small cornet, (a triangular piece of wax paper/baking paper, folded into a cone). Alternatively, you can use a freezer bag, cut a micro hole in one corner and hold the bag tightly.
  3. Select the serving dish the kransekage is served on, and place the largest ring.
  4. Begin decorating, move the tip of your cornet back and forth across the rings. Make sure to extend the tip out over the edge to allow the icing to drop down the outside in a loop style zig zag stripe. Start on the largest baked, cooled ring. Put the second largest baked ring on top – repeat on all the rings until the smallest ring and finish with the ball as the top.
  5. Let the finished cake dry for a few hours at room temperature.
  6. To keep the kransekage for one of the following days, cover the cake with plastic and place it in a cool room.
  7. Decorate the cake festive use flags, new year’s crackers, serpentines or similar.
Recipe Notes

TIP
Decorate the cake. with chocolate doodles or flowers made of modelling chocolate.

If you decorate your cake rings while they are slightly warm the royal icing dries faster.

The rings can be decorated individually and assembled with melted chocolate.

You can bake the kransekage as smaller cakes. Form bars approx 5 cm long or round little cakes, bake them at 200 ° C until golden about 8-10 min. The bottom of the cakes can be dipped in dark chocolate.

For the chocolate: Chop dark chocolate into small pieces and melt over a water-bath of gently simmering water or in the microwave oven. Dip each kransekage into melted chocolate and place it on a baking sheet. Allow the chocolate to set – to speed up this process place the kransekage in refrigerator for 10 minutes, take out and bring back to room temperature.
Store kransekager in an airtight container.

Double up two large baking sheets for extra insulation to avoid burning the bottom of the cakes.