I think that new year eve is one of the best evenings at the year. This evening I always get together with some really good friends, eat some great food and just have a good time. My new year’s eve is packed with many good traditions. We always spent the afternoon cooking a delicious three course dinner and then spent some hours eating it. After the dinner we make some nice drinks, play some games and just have a good time. At midnight we have some champagne and eat some Kransekage - Kransekage is basically a marzipan cake shaped in rings, decorated with icing and assembled on top of each other.
See also: Recipe for homemade salted almonds
The cake is very famous in Denmark and Norway and for a lot of people it is a great tradition at new year eve. The cake is mostly eaten at new year eve but it can also be served at weddings or other special occasions. The marzipan rings has a crisp crust and a soft and moist inner core.
This recipe for a marzipan ring cake with icing is easy to make, it is very delicious and it is a lot cheaper than the ones you can buy from the supermarket. The cake only consist of three ingredients, marzipan, sugar and some egg whites. Serve this cake with your favorite champagne.
Ingredients
Marzipan Rings
- 500 g marzipan (about 60 % almonds)
- 125 g sugar
- 1 1/2 egg whites
Icing
- 1 egg white
- 150 g powdered sugar
- 1/2 tsp white wine vinegar or white balsamic vinegar
Instructions
Marzipan Rings
- Whip the egg whites and the sugar using a fork. Let it rest for minimum 15 minutes, however 30 minutes is preferred.
- Divide the marzipan into smaller pieces and put it in a large bowl. Add the egg white/sugar mixture step-by-step and knead well until it has a uniform and smooth consistency. It is normal that you don't have to use all the egg white/sugar mixture.
- Cover the bowl with some plastic wrap or aluminum foil and place it in the fridge for minimum half an hour, however longer is preferred.
- Roll out the dough into two equal sized bars 60cm (24 inch) long.
- Cut the first bar into 3 pieces each with a length of 15cm, 18cm and 27cm (6 inch, 7 inch and 11 inch).
- Cut the second bar into 3 pieces each with a length of 12cm, 21cm and 24cm (5 inch, 8 inch and 9.5 inch). There is a little extra piece of dough left - roll it into a small cone for the top of the cake.
- Assemble each of the bars into rings and place them on a baking tray lined with parchment/baking paper.
- Give each of the rings a gently push, using two fingers, making them a little pointy at the top.
- Preheat the oven to 200 C (400 F) and bake the rings at the center position for about 10 minutes. They should only get a little light-brown colored at the top and bottom. The baking time is highly depended on the size of the rings so keep an eye on them. It is important that the oven is preheated.
- Let the rings cool off a bit before you move them too an oven grid for the final cooling.
- When the rings are completely cooled off you can decorate them with icing. If you have the time make the rings two days in advance, bag them in a plastic bag and store them in the freezer before you decorate them. This will only make the rings even more moist and delicious.
Icing
- Whip the egg white, white wine vinegar and powdered sugar together into a chewy and firm icing. Pour the icing in a plastic bag or similar and cut a small hole at one of the corners. Use your hands to press out the icing through the small hole. Use it to decorate the marzipan rings in a classic zigzag-grid.
- Assemble the marzipan cake (Kransekage) starting with the largest ring and moving upwards with smaller rings.
Notes
Thalia @ butter and brioche
You definitely can consider I will be making this marzipan ring cake for the upcoming Christmas season.. Not only does it look impressive but I bet it tastes even better!
Louise Dam
Hi Thalia, Thanks.
It's a really great dessert and it does taste really good :-)
Regards Louise
Han
Fabulous. Great recipe easy to follow. I ordered the marzipan from a danish food shop here in the UK.
Happy New year.
Susan walker
I tried your recipe for Kransekage and they went flat like a pancake. Did not hold their shape... Please help me in what I am doing wrong. Could it be the marzipan. I could only get the the brand Edde in a tube.
Louise Dam
Hi Susan
Sorry to hear that. I don't no that brand. But I have just found it on a webpage and I see there are 75 % sugar in the paste. I think the one we have in Denmark are about 50-60 % max. So if you wan't to make it again you probably have to add less sugar in the recipe.
L
David Brekke
Try using a bit less sugar.
Jesper K
Hi Susan
You absolutely have to use "real" marzipan. 60% almonds. If it's not available to you, marzipan is easily made from scratch.
Best wishes
Terri Stenner
Hi,
Can this cake be made for vegans? We are having a Christmas buffet on the 18th December and I would like to make this cake but my daughter is vegan.
Kim Nielsen
Hi Terri. I have not tried to make a vegan version of this cake. I think it might be difficult due to the egg whites - I'm actually not sure if something can substitute those? I would like to hear from you if you come up with a nice solution.
Liz
Aquafaba is the vegan alternative to egg whites
Julie
The liquid from canned garbanzo beans is the vegan substitute used in the bbc baking show
Karen
Sorry - but need to know the measurement for sugar in cups. Also, how many egg whites? This is lovely! Thanks so much for posting it for us Scandinavians in US!
Kevin
You must have scales in the US, we have to convert Cups to grams in uk so I measure cup then weigh contents for my recipe book as easier with digital scales
David Skanderup
Hi Kim,
I had a similar result as Susan experienced. Melted down to a pancake.
I even tried just baking the marzipan before mixing and it did the same thing.
Any thoughts?
Donna Reale
Next time you try this, sub almond flour for the marzipan. Works a treat. I also add a tsp. of almond extract to give it the tiny bit of bitter almond you find in the premade marzipan.
Kelly
I bought the best marzipan I could get here (Canada) which claimed to be 50-50 and my dough, even after 3 hrs in the fridge, was still a batter. I added more marzipan and piped it into circles which totally flattened. I still had half the dough, so I kneaded in some cornstarch. I rolled out the dough, and it still flattened :( I think that, if you are going to make this in North America, you need to add ground almonds to your marzipan or even make your own marzipan. So disappointed!
Linda Queen
I’m having problems in US. Ordered a specific marzipan that was recommended on line...odense, but it only has 20% almonds. Can I add almond flour and how much to make the difference? Tak
Kim Nielsen
Odense marzipan is one of the best marzipans you can use for Danish marzipan ring cake. It is always the one that I am using. The one I am using is having 63% almonds. Regards Kim (NordicFoodLiving.com)
Jan Andersen
The stuff you buy as 'almond flour' in the shops is most likely a waste product left over from the production of almond oil, and it is about as tasty as sawdust. As for the socalled marzipan with 20% almonds: don't buy it. Instead make your own marzipan, as described by Christian in another comment.
Garrick de Demeter
Hi, Linda...
You can try the following combination of ingredients, recommended by the famous kransekage specialist, Jørgen Søgaard Jensen (now retired for quite a few years):
100 grams... almond meal (pure)
200 grams... sugar
75 to 90 millilitres... egg whites (from about 2.5 to 3 eggs... or from a carton of pasteurized egg whites)
500 grams... high-quality (57% to 67% almonds) marcipan, such as that from Anthon Berg or Odense.
Over the past 20 years, I have had reasonably good success with this recipe, although I find that my rings are a bit too "moist." The reason for this is almost certainly that Jørgen Søgaard Jensen was using marcipan (from a "special" Danish supplier) that was 75% almonds! However, I have never even SEEN marcipan with such a high almond content! At one time in Denmark, "almond paste" with an almond content below a certain amount (I cannot now remember what it was, but it might have been around 55%) COULD NOT LEGALLY BE SOLD AS MARCIPAN. This may have changed a bit, though. Nowadays, one has to be very careful about marcipan substitutes. In an effort to offer their customers reasonably-priced products (almonds are really expensive), even companies like Anthon Berg and Odense have been "playing with" their formulations. However, they have not yet started to sell "MARCIPAN" that actually is NOT. Look for marcipan that not only has at least 57% almonds, but which also does not use sugar substitutes, such as various kinds of syrups. I do not know of any companies outside of Denmark that make "good" marcipan. German "marcipan," for example tends to have too many "substitute ingredients" and way too much sugar (as if 37 to 43% isn't enough). Aside from flavour (which is very important to ME), all of this matters ONLY if one is trying to make AUTHENTIC "kransekager" in the TRADIONAL Danish way... i.e., WITHOUT ring forms... and, nowadays, there are very few people (even in Denmark) who will take the time (about SIX hours in the kitchen, for me) to make their own kransekager in this way. Although I keep a supply of good, Danish marcipan in my freezer, I have been trying (from time to time, over the years) to develop a recipe (with exactly the RIGHT FLAVOUR) which uses ONLY (pure) almond meal, sugar, egg whites, and almond extract... and no marcipan at all... but I'm not there, yet. If you cannot be sure of your marcipan, what I would recommend is that you invest in a set of ring forms and find a decent recipe for the considerably-softer "batter" intended especially for use with the forms. You might not get exactly the correct flavour, but you will get the rings you need to build a TOWER-type kransekage. (Building a CORNUCOPIA is quite another story!) Since most of the time spent making a traditional kransekage is devoted to shaping and measuring the lengths of the pieces for the rings, using ring forms will also be a real timer-saver for you. If you have a Danish delicatessen (or a Danish church that imports specialties for sale at bazaars), where you live, you might be able to find good marcipan or, perhaps, ready-to-use "kransekagemasse," such as the "ODENSE Kransekage" product provided, in 400 gram pouches, by the Odense Marcipan company. Good luck with your efforts!
Bronwyn
Ah yes they came out flat for me too! What an expensive disappointment. I think the recipe should say almond paste not marzipan perhaps?
Kim Nielsen
Hi. I'm sorry to hear about the result. Maybe the marzipan which is bought outside Denmark has a different ingredient list? I've just checked; the Danish marzipan is made from 63% almonds, sugar, water and a little glucose sirup. Maybe you can compare it to the marzipan you have?
Christian
You can make the marcipan yourself. It is not as complicated as it might seem. I did that, when I was living abroad and couldn’t get the same quality of marcipan as in Denmark. The following is a receipe from a Danish magazine:
Receipe for homemade marcipan
(Ca. 300 g marcipan)
1 dl water
60 g sugar
200 g almonds.
Pour water and sugar into a pot and let it simmer for 5 minutes. Remove the peel from the almonds and blend them to a very fine flour using a blender or food processor. Pour the almond flour into a bowl and add the sugarwater little by little while stirring/ kneading. Put the finished marcipan in a freezing bag or wrap it in baking paper and store it in the fridge until needed.
Ps: How to peel (or blanche if you like) almonds: https://toriavey.com/how-to/how-to-blanch-almonds/
Kim Nielsen
Great description. I'm sure a lot of my readers of my blog can use this. Thanks!
Jill
How long does the cake keep for? Can it be made a couple days ahead of time?
Kim Nielsen
If you make the cake some days in advance and then keep the rings it in an air tight container or plastic bag. You can wait with the final assembling of the rings until the day that you need the cake. You can also store the rings in the freezer.
Chris
Fantastic recipe. I've tried it many times with great success :-)
Jan Andersen
You should probably add a warning to American and British readers: What the supermarkets call 'marzipan' in UK (and presumably America?) can not legally be sold as marzipan in Europe - if you check the sugar content, you will see it contains something like 80% sugar, and it smells like those little 'ice cube' things you can find in the gents' in public toilets.. Proper marzipan is apparently impossible to find in UK (I've tried many times) - I believe it is called almond paste in the US, and it must contain at the very least 50% almonds, otherwise you end up with sticky pancakes.
Kim Nielsen
That is a good point. I will add this information to the recipe that the marzipan should be about 60 % almonds. Regards Kim (NordicFoodLiving.com)
Ana
I would love to know if this can be made with your date sweetened Marzipan - and can it be entirely date sweetened? I wonder what role the sugar plays in this except for sweetness and if substituting it for dates would ruin the texture.
Kim Nielsen
That is a good question. Unfortunately I can't give you a clear answer. I have always used regular marzipan when making the Danish Ring cake. However, my guess would be that it is possible to use the date sweetened marzipan. Regards Kim (NordicFoodLiving.com)
Christina Fuller
Can you tell me after I have baked and iced the kransekage, will it be ok two days later for a wedding? Odense marzipan 63% almonds is good, can be bought online.
Kim Nielsen
If you have the time make the rings two days in advance, bag them in a plastic bag and store them in the freezer before you decorate them. This will only make the rings even more moist and delicious. Regards Kim (NordicFoodLiving.com)
Darla Myers
Well it turned out very pretty, can’t wait to taste it tonight!