Almond Wreath Cake - Kransekake

By norsegal8

Made of almond dough rings, this beautiful and festive cake stands like a tower, and is trditionally decorated with flowers, flags ans marzipan candies. The dough can be made with blanched or unblanched almonds, or with a mixture of the two. With unblanched almonds, the cake has a golden brown hue and is chewy. The easiest way to make a kransekake is to use the special ring molds that are sold in Scandinavian specialty stores. Or, you can use the original, trickier method of cutting the strands of dough into the different lengths and turning them into circles, all by hand.

Ingredients

• ROYAL ICING:
• 1 pound almonds (3 cups), blanched, unblanched or a combination
• 1 pound powdered sugar
• 3 tablespoons flour
• 3 egg whites, slightly beaten
• 1 pound powdered sugar (3 to 4 cups)
• 1 to 2 egg whites
• 1 teaspoon almond extract

Details

Servings 48

Preparation

Step 1

To prepare the dough rings, pulverize the almonds in a food processor. In a large bowl, blend together the almonds, powdered sugar and flour. Mix in the egg whites to make a smooth and pliable dough. Knead the dough well, using the dough hook of an electric mixer, if desired. The dough will be firm, but pliable enough to handle.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

To bake with ring molds: Grease the ring molds well and dust with flour. Cut off portions of the dough and shape into ropes the thickness of a finger, in lengths to fit the various sizes of the rings. Fit the ropes into the rings, smoothing the dough where the ends meet. Place the filled rings on. Place the filled rings on baking sheets. Bake for 10 minutes or until pale golden. Cool. Remove the rings from the molds and brush off any excess flour.

To bake without ring molds: Cover several cookie sheets with parchment paper. Cut off portions of the dough and shape into ropes about the thickness of your thumb (slightly thicker than described above), each one an inch longer than the previous one, beginning at 4 inches long and ending at 18 inches. You will have 15 strands. Shape each strand into a circle and place on the parchment-covered baking sheets. Bake for 10 minutes or unti pale gold. Cool.

To make the Royal Icing: Place the powdered sugar into the bowl of an electric mixer. Add one egg white and the almond extract. Mix until smooth and well-blended. If necessary, add part or all of the second egg white. The icing needs to be thin enough to a fine tip in a pastry bag. Spoon the icing into a pastry bag.

To assemble the cake, place the largest cookie ring on a serving plate. Press the royal icing through the pastry bag in a zig zag pattern all the way around the ring. Top with the next largest ring. Repeat the zig zag icing procedure. Continue stacking and frosting the rings to form a balanced tower. Decorate the top with a fresh rose and the sides with flags, flowers, marzipan candies or cracker bonbons, using royal icing to attach them to the sides of the cake.

To serve the cake, lift the top part of the tower off, and break the remaining rings into 2- or 3-inch pieces.