Kransekake, Traditional Norwegian cake

Kransekake is a very impressive traditional Norwegian cake that is made of rings stacked in a tower. It only requires three types of ingredients: ground almonds, egg whites and icing sugar. It looks easy to make but it requires plenty of time to do it. The dough needs to rest overnight before rolling out hence it took two days to complete. So if you are looking to make it, leave plenty of time including time for decoration for a lovely finish.

For years, I have seen Kransekake in the shops and on websites. It has always been in the back of my mind to buy the rings to make it. Last week, while I was shopping, I saw this Kransekake pan on sale from £9.99 down to £3.99. It was such a great bargain! I know that there have been many times where I have bought a tin and have only used it once. I really hope that I will make this again in the near future so that I don’t let these pans collect dust!

I am no expert in making this, so I watched a few videos and picked up their tips. Some used marzipan to make it and some made it using a food processor. I do find icing sugar is not easy to work with. It is just like snow! To make this, I need a massive big bowl and a non-stick pan. The ingredients and method were printed on the packing.

Ingredients:

• 454g ground almonds
• 4 large eggs white (slightly beaten)
• 454g icing sugar plus more for icing
• Plain flour/semolina and oil for dusting
• Edible cake decorations

Method:

1. Add ground almonds and icing sugar together. Then add the beaten egg whites and mix. It will turn into a sticky dough.
2. Put the dough onto a pan and using a gentle heat warm the dough. It will take around 5 minutes and make sure you stir it to prevent it get burnt. Wrap the cool dough in clingfilm and store in a fridge until the next day. It will turn into semi-hard dough.
3. Pre-heat oven to 190 degree. Thoroughly grease the pans with oil and dust with flour or semolina.
4. Roll the dough into thickness of fingers long enough to fill the pans. I did find it hard to roll it uniform but did get it in the end. My Kransekake was slightly uneven but was fine after stacking.
5. Bake for 10 minutes. I did bake slightly longer as I had to swap the pans around due to my oven. My oven was not able to circulate the heat properly and some parts of the dough were slightly burnt.
6. Allow to completely cool and them remove the Kransekake from the pans. Be careful of how you remove the pans from the oven. I did accidentally squash the ring using tongs and broke it but I managed to patch it back with icing.
7. Place the largest Kransekake onto a plate and pipe icing onto the ring and decorate all in the same way. Continue to stack the rings. I turned the burnt Kransekake upside down and it was well hidden on the bottom. I do find that if you apply the icing into thin scallop lines, it will work better on the presentation. I did get quite tired and lazy after a few more rings!
   
8. Decorate it with edible cake decorations and dust with icing sugar if necessary. I got my daughter to help and she loved doing it. It had a gorgeous smell and she wanted to tuck in to it. I had to stop her licking the icing on a number of occasions!

After I stacked all the rings, the Kransekake was not very heavy at all. It looks very impressive and children love it! We all enjoying decorating it and I will definitely bake again as it looks like a great showstopper! This pan can be bought from Amazon.