This week: Kransekake and Baumkuchen cakes, cookbook and product giveaways, EYBD Previews and more!

December 18, 2020 by
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You may have guessed that I have an unhealthy obsession with all things baking. One of this week’s (many) bakes that pulled me into its sugary vortex is the Kransekake cake. Its towering magnificence has me making promises to myself to dust off my kransekake molds.

Kransekake from Sweet Paul Magazine, Winter 2015 (#23) by Paul Lowe

The kransekage which translates to wreath cake is a traditional Danish (kransekage) and Norwegian (kransekake/tårnkake) confection, usually eaten on special occasions such as weddings, baptisms, Christmas, 17th of May (Norway’s Constitution Day), or New Year’s Eve.

Kransekage takes shape with a series of concentric rings of cake, layered on top of each other in order to form a steep-sloped cone shape – often 18 or more layers – glued together with white icing. Kransekage cake rings are made with almonds, sugar, and egg whites. The ideal kransekage is hard to the touch, yet soft and chewy.

One variation of this showstopper is a snowflake version using a Snowflake set of cutters. The bonus is you can use the cutters for individual cookies or stack them beautifully for a twist on the original.

Photo: By Sándor Háaz, International Kürtősh Kalách Trade Corporation

Another cake I have been dreaming about for years is the “spit cake” sounds yummy right? Remember there are a few definitions for spit. I remember watching an episode of Unique Sweets or some similar show and both my son Andrew and I were quite taken with this cake.

A spit cake is a European cake made with layers of dough or batter deposited, one at a time, onto a tapered cylindrical rotating spit. The dough is baked by an open fire or a special oven, rotisserie-style. Generally, spit cakes are associated with celebrations such as weddings and Christmas. The spit can be dipped in a thin dough, or the dough can be poured or rolled on the spit.

Baumkuchen (aka tree cake as it resembles the rings of a tree) and Baumstriezel (or chimney cakes) are German varieties of spit cake. Baumkuchenspitzen, German for “Tree Cake Points,” are miniature versions of Baumkuchen that are created from the cake scraps that fall during the cake’s creation on a spit. These pieces are typically coated in chocolate and sold separately – sign me up!

Pictured below is a German tree cake (Baumkuchen) from Poh Bakes 100 Greats.

I hope you enjoyed this trip down all things cake. Have you ever tried or made any of the cakes mentioned above? Let me know in the comments.

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The last week on the blog

Since our last roundup, Darcie has written articles entitled:

Darcie’s weekly food news antipasto is shared every Sunday #foodnews brings up these information-packed posts from the most current to the first one.

Over the last few week, I’ve shared:

Giveaways have been posted for 

Other articles of interest:

Jenny and the EYB Team

Featured Recently Indexed Titles

Member Photo of the Week

Chocolate peanut butter pretzel [cupcakes] from Robicelli’s: A Love Story, with Cupcakes: With 50 Decidedly Grown-Up Recipes by Allison and Matt Robicelli submitted by member bwhip

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Featured Online Recipe

Roasted winter vegetable lasagna from Eats Well with Others by Joanne Bruno

EYBDigital Previews

Recently we uploaded our 831st EYBDigital Preview where a selection of full sample pages is available for the following cookbooks.

Learn more about EYBDigital Previews.

Note: To learn why you cannot add all EYBDigital Preview recipes to your Bookshelf, please read this Help page.

Cookbook Giveaways
Click on the Bold Blue Link Below to Enter

  • Enter our US giveaway to win one of three copies of The Sourdough School: Sweet Baking: Nourishing the Gut & the Mind by Vanessa Kimbell Expires December 29th, 2020
  • Enter our US/UK giveaway to win one of three copies of Jikoni: Proudly Inauthentic Recipes from an Immigrant Kitchen by Ravinder Bhogal Expires December 31st, 2020.

*Publishers thank us for our continued patience while awaiting the arrival of prizes as warehouses are not operating at full capacity yet and it appears things will only get slower as the winter season takes hold. The cookbook giveaway roundup shares all current giveaways.

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2 Comments

  • robinswood  on  December 19, 2020

    I have had “baumkuchen” many times over the years. It is the traditional wedding cake in Lithuanian weddings both in Lithuania and around the world, and it is also served for other special occasions. (It is called sakotis or raguolis in Lithuanian. Sakotis derives from saka which is a branch, and raguolis from ragai which are horns/antlers.) An acquaintance has the spit/oven for it that she purchased in Japan and had shipped over, and she provides the cakes for events locally. (I’m not sure of the history of the Japanese link to these cakes but apparently they are made there too.)

    An interesting article FYI.

    It is generally kind of like a firmer pound cake, keeps very well, and leftovers are great dipped in coffee or tea. They are impressive looking, especially the really big ones (3+ feet tall). No jam in them that I have ever had, though I note the recipes on EYB tend to have some apricot jam in them – not sure where it is used. On the “trees” there is nowhere for jam to adhere.

    • Jenny  on  December 22, 2020

      Robin: Thanks for your input. I had to edit the piece and took out a paragraph about the different versions around the world. As every country has a dumpling of some sort (pierogi, ravioli, etc), it seems that almost every culture has a version of this special cake.

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