Kransekake (Norwegian Ring Cake)

Ingredients

Original recipe makes 12

	-- CAKE --
	500 gramsAlmonds; ground to a meal
	500 gramsConfectioners Sugar
	4 mediumEgg whites; *
	-- ICING --
	1/2 Egg white
	75 gramsConfectioners Sugar
	1/2 teaspoonLemon juice
	-- BAKING --
	Vegetable oil
	Semolina flour; or plain flour

Calories Per Serving: 432
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Kransekake (Norwegian Ring Cake) Preparation

CAKE:

Grind the almonds into a meal.

Sieve the sugar into the ground almonds. (If you prefer a less sweet cake, use less sugar but not below 350 grams)

Gradually mix in 3 - 4 egg whites, until you have a nice, firm dough.

BAKING:

Preheat oven to 200C/ 392F.

Roll the dough into long finger-thick sausages. If you are not using the baking forms, roll the dough into short finger-thick sausages. If the dough seems sticky, use confectioner's sugar as rolling-out flour.

Lightly oil the baking forms before sprinkling them with the semolina flour.

Fill the rings with the rolled dough.

Place filled baking forms on baking trays and bake at 200C/ 392F for about 10 minutes.

The cake-rings are fragile and easy to break, so do not remove the cake-rings until completely cooled. Once cooled, a light tap against the worktop can be enough to shake the cake loose

ICING:

Mix up the icing, if it is too runny, add more sugar; if it is too thick add more egg white.

Fill a piping bag and pipe a zig-zag pattern on the largest ring.

Place the next largest ring on top of the iced one, and repeat the icing process.

Repeat until you run out of rings. If you intend to freeze, it is preferable to not ice the cake before freezing.

TIPS:

To give the cake it's characteristic shape, special baking forms are used. However, if you cannot find these ring-shaped baking forms, kransekake is equally enjoyable simply rolled into sausages and then baked. When prepared as small pieces, some choose to dip the ends of the sausages in chocolate after baking, some choose to ice them, and others serve them plain, i.e. without icing.

For a tradtionally decorated Kransekake, add Christmas crackers and Norwegian flags.

It is also attractive to flip the cake around and make a basket, utilising half of the largest ring as a handle and the smallest rings (which are too small to use as the base, the cake would be unstable) broken into pieces and placed in the basket. Some people also make cornucopias.

* This cake is supposed to be chewy. In fact, the pursuit of chewiness is the one difficult thing about this cake. All too often

kransekake is soft and squishy rather than jaw-achingly hard to chew. Using whole eggs for the cake dough rather than just the white of the egg, and freezing and defrosting the cake before eating supposedly increases chewiness.