Kransekake-Scandinavian #92

Kransekake- Scandinavian #92

Kransekake is a show stopping Scandinavian cake served on special occasions such as wedding or Christmas. It takes the form of a series of concentric rings of cake, layered on top of each other in order to form a steep sloped cone shape- often 18 or more layers-- stuck together with icing. The cake rings are made with almonds, sugar, and egg whites and requires Kransekake molds.

Dough:

Martha Stewarts version.

8 oz. sliced blanched almonds
3 c. confectioners' sugar
1/2 tsp. coarse salt
2 eggs
unsalted butter, softened for molds.

Royal Icing:

1 lb. confectioners' sugar
3 large egg whites
Food coloring or paste

1. Dough:  Place almonds in a food processor and process to form fine crumbs, about 2 minutes.
2. Add sugar and salt and process until well combined and power like, about 1 minute.
3. Add egg whites and process until dough comes together, ( the dough will have the texture of cookie dough).
4. Wrap dough tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.
5. Preheat oven to 300F with rack in the middle of the oven. Brush set of 6 kransekake molds with butter.
6. Working with small portions of dough at a time, roll into ropes, slightly thicker than the diameter of a pencil, 3/8-1/2 inch.
7. Fit into rings of 3 molds, trimming to fit.
8. Place molds on un-rimmed baking sheet and bake until puffed and lightly golden brown , about 30 minutes.
9. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely on baking sheet. 
10. Repeat process with remaining 3 molds.
11. Icing: In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with paddle attachment, combine confectioners' sugar and egg whites.
12. Mix on medium high speed until combined and thickened, about 8 minutes.
13. If decorating with more than one color, divide icing into batches. 
14. Using the end of a toothpick, add food coloring until desired color is achieved.
15. Assemble:  Fill a piping bag with icing and pipe a few dots onto the  base of the largest ring and adhere to a cake plate.
16. Pipe icing onto the next largest ring and stack on top of the first ring.
17. Repeat process continuing to stack the rings in decreasing size order to form an 18 ring tower.
18. Decorate as desired.



My version.

19. Let icing set before serving.

Results:  HAHAHAHAHA. Well, I won't be asked to make any wedding cakes for my Scandinavian friends. Martha Stewart doesn't need to worry about her job either. So, part of the issue was that I didn't have the kransekake molds, which I refused to buy. I didn't want to invest in more cake molds. First, I tried to create the rings by free-form circles. That didn't work. I then tried forming shapes with aluminum foil. That worked better but not perfectly. I had many misshaped rings. As a result. I had to break the rings to be able to stack them so the tower (a term I use lightly) wouldn't fall over.  The cake tasted good but the problem was how to cut it, I couldn't. Folks ended up breaking pieces off. I served the broken pieces with strawberry ice cream, which was really quite good.

Bottom Line: HAHAHAHA, still laughing.

Please share this blog with all the people who do not have kransekake molds. I bet there are a lot of you our there. Thanks.