Kransekage - Danish Almond Wedding Cake

Kransekage - Danish Almond Wedding Cake.

For me this is not a wedding cake, but a New Years Eve cake. Most Danes celebrates New Year by drinking champagne and eating kransekage. This year I decided to make numbers instead of the traditional top.

You get the best cake by using a mazipan/almond paste with more than 63% almonds, otherwise the cake will flatten, and flow out during the baking, masking a cookie.

Kransekage should be crispy outside and a soft inside.

Happy New Year from Copenhagen Denmark.

Makes about 100 cm kransekage (6 rings and the top ball)

Ingredients:

Kransekage:

• 75g almonds blanched or ¾ cup slivered almonds

• 150 g (1 cup) sugar

• 1½ (48 g) egg whites

• 375 g marzipan, use Ren Rå marcipan or this Almond Paste

Icing:

• confectionary sugar (powdered sugar)

• egg white

• water

Directions:

Put almonds and sugar into food processor with the steel blade in place and process until finely pulverized. Add the egg whites and process until smooth. Be careful not to heat the mass to more than 95 - 104°F, else the egg white will cook. 

Shred the marzipan and add it and the almond/egg white mixture to a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Beat it until it's completely smooth and free of lumps. Form the dough into a ball, and refrigerate for 2-3 hours.

Preheat oven to 375℉ (190℃).

Weigh out 400 g Doug and roll it into a 70 cm log. By during this, you will get the perfect size kransekage, whether. you make pieces, a number cake or a top.
Bake the kransekage for 12 minutes or on til golden brown.

With the palm of your hand gently press each log into a rounded triangle. You can wet you hands a little so the dough won’t stick to your hands.

Form the logs into circles on the parchment paper. Make sure to connect the ends really well.

Cutting the log up making rings.

For the numbers you need 12 cm + 4 cm for the number 2. and 22 cm for the number 0.

If you make a top, you start with 7 cm, and roll it into a ball. For the next ring add 2 cm, so you form a ring out og the 9 cm piece. For each remaing ring add another 2 cm, this will make a perfect top. With this amount of dough, you can make a top with 6 rings and a top ball. (7 cm, 9 cm, 11 cm, 13 cm, 15cm , 17 cm, 19 cm )

A trick to making Danish Kransekage, is to make the rings tall. When you cut the rings or pieces is should be in the shape of a triangle.

Here you see the shape of rings or pieces cut through.

Don’t use the kransekage pans, the rings will become rounded on the bottom, and harder to stack. Shape the kransekage with your hands.

Bake the kransekage on parchment paper, on a double baking sheet, this will prevent the bottom from burning.

Mix the powdered sugar with egg white and water.

When making the icing, it should be thick, not runny at all. Put the icing in a piping bag, cut a tiny tiny hole in the bag. I use half water and half egg whites for the icing.

When piping the icing shouldn't be runny. You almost place the thin line of icing on the kransekage. the piping take time, don't rush it.

If you make a top place the rings on top of each other, lifting the rings with your fingers like hooks inside the rings. Glue the rings together with small dots of icing.

Enjoy!

Lemon Mousse Cake - Citronfromage-kage

Lemon Mousse Cake - Citronfromage-kage.

Lemon mousse is a classic dessert we had a lot growing up. The silky smooth mousse just melts in your mouth. So when I saw a former participant in the The Great Danish Baking Show, Micki Cheng made the lemon mousse into a dessert, I had to make it.

So with my lemon tree filled with lemons and it being Easter 🐣 we were in for a perfect storm.

It was an instant winner, it could even be a new must have for Easters to come. Well I would make it any time of the year - replacing the chocolate bunnies with something else chocolate or berries.

Disclaimer: This dessert is made with raw eggs. I recommend using pasteurized eggs. This minimizes the risk of getting Salmonella food poisoning. You can find pasteurized eggs in some supermarkets here in California, on safeeggs.com you can see where to find them in your neighborhood. In Denmark you'll find it right next to regular eggs. For tips and information on how to handle eggs, check out FDA’s website. The Danish version of FDA, Fødevarestyrelsen also has advisory on egg

Serves 8-12.

Ingredients:

Crust:

• 250 g shortbread cookies

• 100 g butter, salted and melted

• 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste

Lemon Mousse:

• 3 teaspoons gelatin (6 sheets husblas)

• 4 whole eggs (read disclaimer)

• 100 g sugar

• 100 ml freshly squeezed lemon juice

• 300 ml heavy whipping cream

• 1 lemon, the zest of

Topping:

• 150 ml heavy whipping cream

• small chocolate bunnies or chocolate shavings

Directions:

Crust:

Crush the shortbread cookies, using a food processor or a rolling pin. In a medium bowl, mix together crumbs, melted butter, and vanilla bean paste until combined and crumbs are moistened. Press the mixture into the bottom of the spring form using either your fingers or the bottom of a small glass to form the crust layer.

Tips:

To ease the unmolding line the spring form with parchment paper in the bottom and some clear cake strips/cake collar, so the mousse won't adhere to the side of the pan.

Lemon Mousse:

Whip the heavy whipping cream until soft peaks, and set aside.

Whisk the eggs pale and fluffy with the sugar, set aside.

Mix the gelatin with half the lemon juice and melt the gelatin over a double boiler. Mix in the rest of the lemon juice and lemon zest.  

Using Husblas: put the sheets in a bowl of cold water for about 10 minutes. Over a double boiler melt the sheets with the water that adheres to it when removed from the bowl. Mix in the lemon juice and zest when melted completely.

Mix the gelatin lemon mixture with the eggs while whisking. Gently fold in the whipped cream. Pour the mousse onto the crust, and set it in the refrigerator for about 3 hours.

Gently unmold the mousse cake and place it on a platter.

Topping:

Whip the heavy whipping cream, and pipe the whipped cream onto the cake in a decorative manner. Place chocolate bunnies or chocolate shavings on top.

Serve the cake cold.

Enjoy!

Lagkagebunde version II - Sponge Cake

Lagkagebunde - Sponge Cake

Danes have Birthday cakes like everyone else, and it’s called a lagkage or layer cake. It is made up of layers of sponge cake with some kind of filling between the layers. Most common is a vanilla or chocolate custard ans some kind of jam or fruit, a thin layer of icing and whipped cream on top. But pretty much anything goes. Growing up I always had a strawberry layer cake. My birthday correlated with the first local strawberries of the year, so my birthday cakes were very simple, 2 layers of sponge cake with smashed strawberries folded into whipped cream between and on the top. Not a picture perfect cake, but extremely delicious. My brothers birthday was during the winter months, so his birthday cakes were more classic with vanilla custard and jam., making it a pretty cake with a nice cut.

Some of my fiends had more interesting birthday cakes filled with chocolate custard, banana and even crushed chocolate meringue. A proof that anything goes in homemade birthday cakes.

I like that this cake have some texture, while being light. But if you want it lighter, use half all-purpose flour and half potato starch.

Makes 1 large sponge cake, to be divided.

INGREDIENTS:

• 4 eggs, room temperature

• 180 g sugar

• 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste or the seeds (caviar) from 1 vanilla pod

• 160 g all-purpose flour (or use half all-purpose flour and half potato starch)

• 1 teaspoon baking powder

• 1 pinch salt

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 350℉ (180℃).

Spray a 9-inch (22 cm) springform. Place a piece of parchment paper in the bottom and spray this too. Set aside.

Whisk the eggs light and foamy with sugar and vanilla bean paste for 10 minutes in a stand mixer, this part is important, you want to incorporate as much air into the eggs, as this is where the most rise will come from.

Mix and sift flour and baking powder together, and set aside. 

Very gently fold the flour into the foamy eggs. Be very careful not to deflate the egg mixture too much.

Pour the batter in the prepared springform

Bake the large cake for about 40 minutes, until light brown.

Cool the cake upside down in the spring form on a wire rack. This will prevent the deflation of the cake.

When cooled completely, place the cake on a sturdy work surface. Using a long serrated knife and using sawing motion, cut the layer horizontally to make 2 or 3 layers. Don't worry if the layers are not perfectly even. The filling and frosting will mask that. 

Use this sponge cake for the traditional danish birthday cake or for any cake or trifle.

Enjoy!

Fastelavnsboller - Lent Buns

Fastelavnsboller, Lent Buns.

Fastelavnsboller comes in many shapes and sizes. There are the pastry kind, filled with custard, or a fruit jam, the choux pastry kind, filled with a custard or another whipped cream-based filling, or the ones made with an enriched dough baked with remonce and/or custard. This one is a mix of the two latter ones. It’s basically an enriched dough with remonce and filled with a raspberry whipped cream.

Back in Denmark this year have been crazy, and the newest trend is selling the most fancy fastelavnsboller. There are huge lines to the bakeries to get your hands on these cakes, maybe the Corona restrictions made people want to have some extra special, I don’t know. Here is my contribution to this craziness.

Makes 15-18

Ingredients:

Dough:

• 500 ml milk

• 150 g butter, salted

• 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste

• 50 g fresh compressed yeast, or 4 teaspoons dry yeast

• 800 g all-purpose flour (hold some back, to see if the dough need it all)

• 150 g sugar

• 1 teaspoon ground cardamom

• 1 pinch of salt

Remonce:

• 75 g butter, salted, room-temperature

• 75 g sugar

• 75 g marzipan or almond paste (with over 60% almonds)

Raspberry whipped cream:

• 500 ml heavy whipping cream

• 4 tablespoons raspberry jam

• 2 teaspoons chambord (raspberry liqueur)

• 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste

• 1 tablespoon confectionery (powdered) sugar

Directions:

Remonce:

Mix the sugar and marzipan well. Add butter little by little until it’s just incorporated. Be careful not to over mix or the remonce will be runny when baked.

Dough:

In a large bowl mix most of the flour, I save about 1 cup, with the rest of the dry ingredients including the dry yeast if using.

In a saucepan heat milk and butter until finger warm, you want all the butter melted, remove pan from heat. Mix in the fresh compressed yeast, if using, and vanilla bean paste.

Mix in the milk/butter mixture and knead the dough in a stand mixer on medium for about 10 minutes until you have a soft, shiny elastic dough. The remaining flour should be added while kneading, if needed. Let the dough rise in a covered bowl for about 90 minutes until it doubled in size.

Divide the dough in two, roll each portion into a rectangle and divide it into 9 squares.

Preheat the oven for 400℉ (200℃).

Put a teaspoon remonce in the center of each square. Fold the four corners up to the center and press to seal all edges, letting the air inside escape. Put fastelavnsboller onto a parchment paper lined baking sheets with joint side down. Leave to rise covered for about 30 minutes. Brush with egg wash  and bake for about 10-12 minutes until golden. Let the bun cool completely, before cutting and filling.

Raspberry whipped cream:

Mix the raspberry jam with the liqueur and vanilla bean paste in a little bowl and set aside. Whip the heavy whipping cream with the sugar until you have s medium stiff cream. Gently fold in the raspberry mixture, and put the cream into a piping bag with a star tip.

Cut the top of the buns, and pipe some raspberry cream inside, place the top back on, put a little dot of cream on the top as decoration and sprinkle with freeze-dried raspberry or confectionary/powdered sugar. Serve the fastelavnsbolle with a nice cup warm tea or coffee.

Enjoy!

Cinnamon Custard Rolls

Cinnamon Custard Rolls

I totally forgot about custard cinnamon rolls, until I stumbled upon a picture of them when browsing on Pinterest. Then I decided to try to make my version, with a vanilla custard, using some of my newly purchased plumb vanillas beans. Honestly the custard could be eaten, directly out of the saucepan, maybe with some berries. But it worked perfectly in the cinnamon rolls too. Transporting me back to my childhood. These cinnamon rolls is a great updated version to the traditional cinnamon rolls, making them a bit more fancy.

I would recommend to remove the rolls from the oven a bit earlier than I did, to prevent the custard from getting browned.

Makes 18-20 rolls.

Ingredients:

Dough:

• 50 g live yeast ( 4 teaspoons dry yeast)

• 175 g butter, salted

• 500 ml milk

• 175 g sugar

• 2 teaspoons cardamom

• 1 teaspoon salt

• 800-850 g all-purpose flour

• 1 egg, for egg wash

Vanilla Custard:

• 200 ml milk

• 1 vanilla bean, the seeds (or caviar) from (or use 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste or extract)

• 3 tablespoons sugar

• 2 egg yolks

• 3 teaspoons cornstarch

Cinnamon Remounce:

• 150 g butter, salted and room temperature

• 100 g brown sugar

• 2 tablespoons cinnamon

Chocolate Icing:

• 85 g confectionary (powdered) sugar

• 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa

• about 2 tablespoons varm water

Directions:

Dough:

Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl and set aside.

Warm the milk in a saucepan until finger-warm, remove pan from the heat. Melt the butter in the warm milk. Crumble the yeast into the warm milk and stir to dissolve. 

Add the liquid to the dry ingredients, and knead the dough for 3 minutes, to form an elastic dough. 

Let the dough rise for about 60 minutes until doubled in size. 

Cinnamon Remounce:

Mix all the ingredients with a hand mixer, until smooth and creamy, set aside.

Vanilla Custard:

if using a vanilla bean, split the bean and scrape the seeds (caviar) out. Mix the seeds with some of the sugar, this will help separating the seeds, and spread them throughout the custard. Place the empty bean in the milk in a small saucepan, and heat the milk until it is warm, but not boiling. Remove from heat, and let sit to cool down and the bean to infuse the milk with additional vanilla flavor. When milk is room temperature, remove bean from the milk. Whisk egg yolks, sugar, vanilla seeds, and cornstarch into the paste, and add it to the milk. Heat the milk mixture up over medium heat, while whisking until it thickens and starts boiling. Transfer the custard into a shallow bowl, and cover it with plastic wrap. Place the the wrap directly on top of the custard, so it won’t form a skin. Let the custard cool in the fridge until you need it.

Making the Rolls:

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface, and roll it to a large rectangle (16x16 inches/40x40 cm).

Spread the filling in a thin layer onto the dough, leaving a thin edge closest to yourself, without filling.

Roll the dough into a large log, pinching edges together to seal. Cut the log into 20-24 slices. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.

Place the slices fairly close together. Cover and leave to rise for another 30 minutes. 

Preheat the oven to 400℉ (200℃) - I used convection when baking these, heat oven to bake 420℉ (215℃) if you don't have a convection oven.

Brush the rolls with egg wash.

With a little spoon make a little dent/well in the middle of the cinnamon roll. Place about a teaspoon of the custard in each well.

Bake the rolls for 10-14 minutes until golden brown. 

Leave them to cool in the pan. 

Chocolate Icing:

Mix sugar ans cocoa with just enough water for it to form a tragic paste.

Frost the cinnamon rolls before serving.

Enjoy!