Cake of the Day: Marzipan Cake from ‘Scandinavian Baking’
Every day, Yahoo Food features delectable cakes. They taste good, they look good, and they’re made by good people — talented bakers from around the world. This week we’ll be sharing traditional Scandinavian desserts from Trine Hahnemann and her new cookbook Scandinavian Baking. Check back to Cake of the Day for more gorgeous Swedish cakes.
Kransekage, a classic Scandinavian marzipan cake. (Photo: Columbus Leth)
Marzipan Cake (Kransekage)
Makes 24
The is a classic Scandinavian marzipan cake. When I was growing up it was
only served at parties, weddings, or for New Year’s Eve. I love kransekage,
so for me New Year’s Eve was something special to look forward to. I had
never baked one until I became a chef and somebody ordered a festive
tower kransekage for a wedding. I couldn’t say, “No, I can’t, I have never
done that”; I simply smiled and said, “Yes, of course I can do it …”
7⁄8 cup blanched almonds
1 cup superfine sugar
3 egg whites
1 1/8 pound Homemade marzipan (see below)
7 ounces tempered chocolate (see below)
Whizz the almonds and sugar together in a food processor until finely ground.
Add the egg whites and whizz again until you have a smooth, white mixture.
Work quickly to make sure it does not get too hot in the processor; otherwise
the egg whites start clotting. Grate the marzipan and blend it into the almond
mixture. Transfer to a bowl, cover tightly, and leave to rest in the refrigerator
a couple of hours, or even overnight.
When you’re ready to bake, preheat the oven to 375°F.
Shape the mixture into 24 rectangular cakes, each about 3⁄4 inch wide and
11⁄2 to 2 in [4 to 5 cm] long, like shortbread fingers. Place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and bake 15 to 18 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack.
With a spoon or a whisk, decorate with the tempered chocolate, just lightly
drizzling the chocolate back and forth.
Homemade Marzipan
Makes 1 1/3 pounds
Most of the marzipan you can buy contains way too much sugar, as well as artificial flavors, and some is not even made from almonds but from apricot kernels. Good-quality marzipan should contain 60 percent almonds. The rest is sugar and water. It is super-easy to make, but of course it is expensive, as is good-quality store-bought marzipan. It’s worth it though, as you’ll find it tastes much better than the store-bought stuff.
1 1/8 pound almonds (either skin on, or blanched for pure white marzipan)
7⁄8 cup powdered sugar, plus more to dust
Whizz the almonds in a food processor until they become a paste. Add the
powdered sugar, whizz again, then add 50 ml of water and whizz a final time.
Take the marzipan out of the food processor and knead it on a work surface dusted with powdered sugar. Now it is ready to be used for cakes and sweets.
It will keep up to 2 weeks, wrapped in plastic wrap in the refrigerator.
Tempered Chocolate
Why temper chocolate? It’s simple: if you heat chocolate without
controlling the crystals in the cocoa butter through tempering, you risk it
losing its shine and having stripes when it dries. If you want a shiny finish
with a nice snap, you have to temper the chocolate! This is the easy way
to do it, though you will need a sugar thermometer.
Chop best dark chocolate (at least 60 percent cocoa solids) finely, take
two-thirds of it, and place in a heatproof bowl fitted over a pan of very gently
simmering water. Make sure the bowl does not touch the water and that the
water does not get too hot. When the chocolate has melted and reached
122°F, add the remaining chopped chocolate and mix until all the chocolate has melted. Heat very gently until the melted chocolate reaches a temperature of about 88°F. Now the chocolate is tempered and ready to be used.
Reprinted with permission from Scandinavian Baking: Sweet And Savory Cakes and Bakes, For Bright Days and Cozy Nights by Trine Hahnemann.
Scandinavian Baking. (Photo: Columbus Leth)
More fall cakes to love:
Rye Bread Layer Cake with Black Currant Jam
Fall Apple and Hazelnut Layer Cake from ‘Scandinavian Baking’
Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Loaf from ‘Clean Green Eats’
