A towering sensation: A complete history of the Kransekage

Almonds, sugar and egg whites is all it takes to make a Danish kransekage. That, and a pair of skilled hands. With only three ingredients, the kransekage tower might seem like a simple concoction. But the devil lies in the details, explains Marianne Stagetorn. She is the owner of legendary confectionery La Glace in Copenhagen, and throughout the years, she has seen her fair share of marzipan misfortunes and faulty towers.

“With a kransekage tower, precision really is key. Each marzipan ring must weigh five grams less than the one below. Otherwise, you will not get the right angle on the tower, and it will end up crooked and misshapen. Another very common fail is burning the rings at the base,” says Stagetorn, who has been at the helm of La Glace for 33 years, taking over the reins from her mother.

Kransekage is a uniquely Danish invention that is simultaneously simple and advanced. When making this beloved festive treat, marzipan is first beaten with sugar and egg whites and then shaped into circular, carefully sized building blocks. Then, the marzipan rings are oven-baked until golden, carefully decorated with icing and stacked neatly on top of each other, until the cake towers above all other holiday treats.

Few do kransekage better than La Glace. Dating back to 1870, the pattiserie is an institution among locals and a major draw for tourists. Stepping into the shop is like entering a time warp. Kransekage towers and kransekage cornucopias filled with chocolates and confectionery adorn the mouth-watering window display, and seasoned staff in aprons wait the tables, pouring coffee from small silver pots into porcelain cups. Many are drawn here by the selection of intricate layer cakes, but the award-winning kransekage, which comes in several versions, is their specialty.

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Today, kransekage is common and affordable for most. But that certainly wasn’t the case back in 1806, when chef Hans Heinrich Petersen released a cookbook containing what became the first official recipe for kransekage. Back then, marzipan was an exclusive treat for the bourgeoisie. “Marzipan was a horridly expensive product, and making a marzipan tower was both time-consuming and difficult,” explains Bettina Buhl, a food historian and museum inspector at Det Grønne Museum in Auning, which focuses on reviving and preserving Danish culinary and agricultural traditions. “It was a prestige product for the elite. In his cookbook recipe, Hans Heinrich Petersen even urges his readers to leave things to a pastry chef, if possible.”

Many years later, the extravagance of sugar waned dramatically, when Danish sugar beets finally replaced overseas sugar canes. In 1747, German chemist Andreas Sigismund Marggraf proved that beets and sugar canes both contain the same variety of sugar – sucrose. In 1872, Danish sugar pioneer Erhard Frederiksen built the first Danish sugar factory producing refined sugar from local Lolland sugar beets.

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The once highly-prized commodity became commonplace, which of course influenced the popularity of kransekage as well as other cakes and confectioneries. At the same time, the rise of continental railways eased deliveries of both almonds and marzipan from German marzipan capital Lübeck. “Until then, sugar was considered almost medicinal and was only sold at the pharmacy,” says Buhl. “But when beet sugar entered the stage and became a common resource, things changed. It was during that time that marzipan and kransekage became a greater part of seasonal celebrations, and the tradition of enjoying it on New Year’s Eve was established.”

At the beginning of the 20th century, scarcity once again took hold, as the world descended into madness and death in the trenches and battlefields of Europe. Yet, even with a World War on the doorstep, the Danish hunger for marzipan persisted. With limited rations of sugar and almonds available, alternate measures had to be taken. During wartime, faux marzipan made from potatoes, sugar and starch became a popular alternative to the real deal.

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“Even during the World Wars, people refused to give up on their kransekage traditions,” notes Buhl. “It just shows how much this product and the traditions that surround it mean to the Danes.” Today, sweet and chewy kransekage is still something uniquely Danish. However, the traditions surrounding it are shared with one of the Kingdom’s old territories – Norway. Here, according to the Great Norwegian Encyclopedia, the dessert first appeared in cookbooks in the mid-19th century. In Norway, kransekage is also enjoyed at Christmas, weddings, and christenings.

At La Glace, neither the kransekage recipe nor the festive occasions at which it is enjoyed, have changed much during the last century. However, the skill set of the bakers and confectioners has. “It has been a specialty here since forever. Many of our customers want to try original items from 1870, and a lot of them are still great recipes. However, a lot has happened since in terms of quality of produce and craftsmanship,” says Stagetorn. “My eyes hurt a bit, when I see the kransekage towers they made here a 100 years ago,” she jokes as she shows a 1923 picture of a young baker proudly carrying a crooked kransekage tower ready to be shipped off. A century on, the kransekage, apart from a few cosmetic improvements, remains virtually unchanged – it is still a towering, sweet sensation.