Stacked Marzipan Rings!
This dessert is probably one of the most unique Scandinavian cakes we can think of. “Kransekage” translates to “wreath cake,” and is basically a stack of baked and decorated marzipan rings. These rings get increasingly smaller (or larger, depending on how you look at it), until the final product is shaped like a cone. You can also stack the rings in the shape of a cornucopia or horn of plenty, but we call this an “overflødighedshorn” (horn of plenty) instead of a kransekage.
New Year’s Celebration
In Denmark, people mostly eat kransekage on New Year’s Eve, but it is also sometimes served at birthdays or weddings. In fact, our parents’ wedding featured a very large and impressive kransekage! It’s easy to share, as you just break the rings into pieces, and absolutely delicious, with an amazing almond flavor. We love this cake, and we hope you try it out for a festive New Year’s Eve dessert!
Tips & Tricks
Honestly, making this cake is a lot easier than it seems. Simply mix the dough, roll into long, thin logs of different lengths, shape these into circles, and bake! You can use our stencil, linked right here, for easier shaping of the ring sizes. The trick is to bake the rings until they are just golden brown. You don’t want to underbake them, or the cake might be too soft and could collapse. You also don’t want to overbake them, or they will crack. Remember, the smaller rings will bake faster than the larger ones. Make sure you watch them and take them out when they look done!
Decorations
Decorate with a simple sugar and water icing. You can also dip each ring in chocolate before you pipe the icing on – this complements the almond flavor perfectly. Decorate further with glitter, flags, or anything you like. Happy New Year!
Watch Our Video!
Check out our full length video for a demo of how we make the dough, shape the rings, and assemble the tower!
Kransekage (Marzipan Wreath Cake)
Ingredients
DOUGH
- 320 grams almond flour*
- 1 tsp almond extract*
- 280 grams powdered sugar* (*In place of the almond flour, almond extract, and powdered sugar, you can use 500g of storebought marzipan and then add 100g of powdered sugar; the most important thing is the marzipan needs to be at least 60% almond content!)
- 6-8 tbsp egg whites (from about 3 eggs)
ICING
- Powdered sugar
- Water or pasteurized egg white
ASSEMBLY
- Melted chocolate
Instructions
- Mix together almond flour and powdered sugar in a medium sized mixing bowl. If using storebought marzipan, grate the marzipan into a bowl along with 100g of powdered sugar.
- Add your egg whites and almond extract (omit the extract if using marzipan) to your almond flour and sugar mixture and work together until you have a dough that resembles sugar cookie dough. Add the egg white one tablespoon at a time! The final result may be a little bit sticky, which is totally fine!
- Cover the dough and let it rest overnight in the fridge. This is an important step to prevent the dough from spreading when you bake it; if you need to make it the same day make sure it rests for at least a few hours!
- The next day, take the dough out of the fridge.
- Begin to roll your dough into logs. You are aiming for logs that are about 1cm to 1.5cm in diameter.
- To create a pointed top, flatten the edge closest to you by pressing your palm gently on the rolled out log.
- Prepare two sheets of parchment paper that you will bake the rings on. If using our design, print out the stencil, making sure you are printing the PDF at 100% size. Place the stencil underneath one of the pieces of parchment paper and use the outline on the stencil to shape the interior edge of the ring (the inside edge of the dough should line up with the outline on the stencil). Make sure the pointed edge you created is pointing upwards!
- Repeat the shaping process for all ring sizes, moving the stencil to a different area on the parchment paper for each ring. We place five large rings on one sheet, then the remaining rings and the ball on the other sheet of parchment paper. You can also use the stencil to get the general size, then transfer to your prepared baking sheet by lifting the ring onto it. If not using the stencil, roll logs and cut into the following lengths and then shape into rings: 36cm, 33cm, 30cm, 27cm, 24cm, 21cm, 18cm, 15cm, 12cm, 9cm.
- Make sure you have enough dough to make a little ball for the top! You should have 10 rings and a ball at the end.
- Now is the time to make sure the shape is as even as possible. If you need to, pinch the sides together to get a more triangular shape. The most important thing is that each ring has an even height across it so you can stack another ring on top without any issue of leaning during final assembly.
- Preheat your oven to 390 F (200 C).
- Place your rings on two baking sheets (either transfer the parchment paper you used which already has the rings on it to the baking sheet, or you may proceed if the rings are already on the parchment paper lined baking sheet); Leave the rings to dry out at room temperature for about 20 minutes.
- Before baking, run water along the inside edge of the rings to prevent any wrinkling along the inside edge.
- Bake for about 10 minutes until lightly golden. Remember, the larger rings may take a little bit longer, while the smaller ones may take less time. If you want, you can bake these one at a time in the oven to ensure even browning.
- Let the rings cool completely at room temperature before icing.
- Combine powdered sugar and water (or pasteurized egg white) in a bowl to create a thick icing consistency (we don't use exact amounts for this, we just go by eye!). Use a piping bag or a ziploc bag to ice your rings in a zig zag pattern; let the icing completely set before assembly.
- To assemble, melt a little bit of chocolate (we don't have an exact amount, as we just melt as we go. You can also skip this step, it just may be a little less stable!) Brush chocolate along the bottom of the kransekage rings as you are stacking. This will act as the "glue" for the kransekage!
- Stack your rings in size order and your tower is complete!
Tusinde tak for opskriften! Jeg lavede individuelle kransekager (nemmere at transportere) til vores nytår’s måltid og di var fantastiske.
Highly recommend this easy, detailed recipe for a delicious Danish treat. Now to think up reasons to have it besides at New Year’s 😁
Tak for kommentaren og for at bruge vores opskrift!!
Any occasion can be a kransekage occasion, or at least we think so! 🙂
I’m making the kransekage for Christmas – but can’t find the stencils you mention for proper sizing of rings. Will try to use the measurements.
Hi – so happy to hear you’re going to use our recipe 🙂 The stencil is linked in our post, just click where it says “linked right here.” But if you can’t access it for some reason still, the measurements also work great!