Kransekake: Norwegian Wedding Cake

I grew up in a distinctly Norwegian household. Many “old world” traditions have been passed down from my great-grandparents to my generation. My sister got married nearly two years ago, and I was designated as the one to bake and assemble the traditional Norwegian wedding cake. Now, this isn’t a cake in the traditional American sense. Kransekake literally means ring or wreath cake. It is made up of 18 rings of decreasing size stacked on top of each other to form a cone-shaped tower.

The dough is made of almond, butter, confectioner’s sugar, and egg yolks. The rings are essentially almond-flavored cookies -- hard on the outside, chewy on the inside. After assembly, the rings are decorated with icing and can also be adorned with miniature candies and Norwegian toothpick flags. For my sister’s wedding, I decorated her cake with the toothpick flags and placed a bottle of Moscato d’Asti beneath the tower.

As my own wedding approaches, I will likely make my own kransekake for the occasion. No one in my family has quite mastered the cake like I have. It’s a very tricky baking and assembling process. If the rings are not cooked long enough, the tower will collapse in on itself. If the rings are cooked too long, they will look too dark on the outside. The rings all have to be baked at the same temperature for the exact same amount of time in order for the rings to be consistent in color.

Want to try it out? Click here for a recipe, or purchase a cake here.

Kransekake decorated with candy and flags

The kransekake I made for my sister's wedding in June 2009 (you can see the top of the wine bottle barely poking out of the top).

My sister's kransekake at the head table.