Danish almond marzipan cake

Ingredients for 8 servings:

• 300 g almonds
• 175 g sugar
• 1 vanilla pod(s)
• 2 tbsp honey
• 1 egg(s), of which the egg white
• Flour

Instructions

Working time approx. 1 hour; Total time approx. 1 hour

Crane cage

Peel the almonds and grind them as finely as possible in a mixer with the seeds of one vanilla pod and the sugar. Add the egg whites and honey and knead into a semi-firm dough. Be careful with the amount of egg whites so that the dough is not too runny. For the cookies: With floured hands, roll up long sausages. Cut the sausages into 6 cm long pieces, press them down slightly so that they are flat on the bottom and pointed in the middle. Place them on a baking tray lined with baking paper and brush with egg yolk. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes at 180 degrees Celsius and then decorate with icing sugar in the shape of a bow. For the cake: With floured hands, roll up long sausages and shape the sausages into rings. Roll one ring out of each sausage of 27.5 cm, one of 25 cm, one of 23 cm, etc. You want a total of five rings of progressively smaller size. Roll the remaining dough into a small ball that fits exactly into the smallest ring. Shape the rings with your fingers so that they are no longer round, but flat at the bottom and slightly pointed at the top. Bake at 180 degrees Celsius for 12 to 15 minutes in the upper half of the oven. The quantities in this recipe are sufficient for a cake made from five rings, but a “Kransekage” can be made as large as you like. If the dough cracks during baking, don’t worry. The cracks will heal as the cake cools. After baking, let the rings cool, then decorate them with icing in the shape of bows. Stack the rings on top of each other and decorate the entire cake with figures, etc. as you wish. In Denmark, “Kransekage” is served in cookie form with tea and as dessert. As a cake, it is traditionally eaten at large celebrations, especially on New Year’s Eve and at weddings. On New Year’s Eve, the rings are often formed into cornucopias. The cornucopia is then filled with chocolates.