Kransakaka

Wreath Cake

Such a "wreath cake" is a specialty for festive occasions in many parts of Scandinavia. Also here in Iceland you can often find it on cake buffets, especially at baptisms and confirmations. Actually, such a tower cake sometimes consists of 15 to 18 stacked cake rings.

The cake is made of a lot of marzipan and sugar and is very tasty, but at least I can't eat much of it at once!

I have now made only 1/3 of the original recipe and baked a small wreath cake with only 6 rings, as a dessert to our Easter meal. To a certain extent as an "Easter edition" with a small Easter egg on the cake for decoration. 

Ingredients for a cake with 15 - 18 wreaths

1.5 kg raw marzipan

750 g white sugar

3 egg whites

various chocolates for decorating

Preparation

Cut the marzipan into small pieces and mix with the sugar in a large mixing bowl with the blender.

Beat the egg whites until stiff.

Fold them in portions under the marzipan-sugar mixture.

Knead the dough thoroughly, then cover and refrigerate for at least four hours (preferably overnight).

Preheat the oven to 400 °F (200 °C) upper/lower heat.

Roll out the dough about 2/3 inch (resp. 1.5 cm) thick.

Cut the dough into strips about 2/3 inch (resp. 2 cm) wide. The shortest strip should be about 4 inches (resp. 10 cm) long, the other stripes should each be 1 inch (3 cm) longer.

Then form the strips into circles and bring with your hands into a shape as even as possible.

Place the differently sized wreaths on baking paper and bake in the preheated oven at 400 °F (200 °C) upper and lower heat for about 10 to 15 minutes - always keep an eye on the wreaths so that they do not get too dark.

Remove the tray from the oven and let it cool well.

Then decorate the cold wreaths as desired with melted chocolate or similar. With the decoration you can also let off steam to your heart's content. With coloful icings you can become creative.

Melt the chocolate in a water bath.

Place the largest ring on a cake plate, decorate with the melted chocolate, place the next ring on top and gently press a little on the chocolate. Continue like this until the whole cake is built up.

This was our "Easter Edition" before the cutting - we then took off the wreaths one by one and now eat our way from top to bottom.

Sometimes it's just fun to enjoy the good of two worlds - a small Icelandic wreath cake with German chocolate Easter eggs.

Bon appetit!