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Dear Eloise,
In early October we celebrated the wedding of a dear friend. Our town has a lot of Danish heritage and one of the traditions of the community is to have Kranseke at weddings. Last year our community lost our primary Kranseke creator. I had previously sat down with Mrs. Kranseke herself and she shared her recipe and tips with me for making Kranseke. This October however was my first time making the traditional cake without being able to ask Mrs. Kranseke for tips and advice.
There are many Kranseke recipes that have been shared among families. Mrs. Kranseke shared her recipe with me and I think that with the special recipe, and some tips that she has shared, I am well on my way to creating a beautiful traditional cake.
One of the key ingredients is Almond Paste. Some recipes call for Almond Flour, but I think that the Almond Paste is part of the secret. Also included in Mrs. Kranseke’s recipe is finely chopped coconut and walnuts. I have never found another recipe that includes coconut and walnuts. The recipe for one cake is 1 pound of almond paste so this product is perfect. When I made this cake, I found it helpful to chill the dough for a few hours or overnight.
When rolling out the Kraseke dough, I found that it should be rolled to the width of your pinky, maybe a little bigger than a pencil. With the added ingredients of chopped walnuts and coconut, it is a little more challenging to have a smooth roll of dough. A few things that really helped when rolling the dough were using a floured surface and cold dough. Rolling really long ‘snakes’ makes it easier to fill a whole ring of the cake mold without so many ‘seams’ of dough.
Mrs. Kranseke shared another secret with me when preparing the ring molds for the dough. Her secret was finely chopped cornflakes. She used cornflakes to ‘flour’ her Kranseke molds rather than using flour. I found that it was helpful to use a food processor to really chop the cornflakes into a very fine powder. I spread butter on the molds first, using a paper towel. I then would pour the powdered cornflakes over the mold, then tap off any excess onto another baking sheet.
When I was making this particular wedding cake, I made 3 separate batches over the course of a week. Kranseke can be stored in an air tight container in the fridge or freezer. I then took the best rings and created my main cake from those. A traditional Kranseke has 18 rings. Each batch of dough made closer to 25 rings. This leaves extra pieces that can be broken up and served before the main cake is disassembled. After choosing the rings that turned out the best, I broke up the rest of the rings and decorated them with royal icing. I had so much Kranseke!! We brought many pans to the wedding, but we also had plenty to keep at home and nibble on ourselves.
Adding royal icing and decorating the cake was by far the most stressful part of the whole process. In the end, the cake looked beautiful! I added just little hints of greenery and sparkle that tied into the colors of the wedding theme.
Here is Mrs. Kranseke’s recipe in case you’d like to try making this beautiful cake for yourself!
Kranseke
1 lb Almond Paste
4 cup powdered sugar
Unwhipped egg whites from 3 eggs
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 cup chopped coconut
- Blend walnuts and coconut in a food processor. Mix all ingredients until a well-blended dough forms. Chill for 2 hours or overnight if possible.
- Preheat oven to 325. Butter rings and dust with a fine powder of cornflakes or flour. Return buttered and dusted rings to the fridge until ready to use.
- Roll dough on a floured surface to ½” thick ‘snakes’
- Place rolls of dough in rings and set rings on a baking sheet.
- Bake for 18 minutes, but watch carefully for when the dough is becoming slightly golden.
- Let the rings cool before removing the cake. May need to use a knife to loosen.
- Frost with royal icing in the desired design.
- Store in an airtight container with a slice of bread.
The royal icing recipe I used came from That Bread Lady. It was easy to make and hardened just right. The flavor was perfect as well!! Royal Icing helps to hold together the cake as well as giving it a beautiful design.
Please let me know what you think! I would love to hear how your Kranseke turns out!