Danish Easter Cake (Paaske Kage)
"This is an old recipe I have from my grandma' Johansen from Denmark. It is very light and a delicious Easter cake, it can be used as a Christmas cake as well, but as most yeast bread it taste best when it is still luke warm."
photo by Izy Hossack
- Ready In:
- 1hr 45mins
- Ingredients:
- 14
- Yields:
-
1-2 Cakes
ingredients
- 1 envelope yeast
- 1⁄2 cup room temperature milk
- 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
- 1 large egg (or 2 small)
- 125 g margarine
- 250 -300 g flour
-
Fill
- 100 g sugar
- 100 g butter, unsalted
- 1 -2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1⁄8 cup raisins
- 1⁄8 cup candied lemon and orange dried fruit, chopped
-
On top of the cake
- cold coffee or egg
- 2 tablespoons coarse sugar
- 1⁄8 cup blanched slivered almond
directions
- Stir the yeast into the luke warm milk.
- Add sugar, egg, margarine in small bits.
- Add 3/4 of the flour.
- Work the dough with a wooden spoon, until it has combined.
- Then work the rest of the flour into the dough with the hands, but not more than just combined.
- Don't over work it.
- Let the dough rise with a small amount of flour dusting on top, cover with a clean dish-towel about 30 minutes in a normal kitchen temperature.
- Fill: Combine the butter, sugar, cinnamon, raisins, and candied fruit.
- Roll the dough out on the table to oblong.
- Use a light hand in the soft dough.
- Spread the fill onto the dough, but not quite to the edges.
- Fold over the ends so the fill doesn't run out.
- Fold over the short part, so you now have 3 layers.
- Set the cake to rise again with a thin dish-towel to cover for another 30 minutes.
- Then brush carefully with cold coffee, or an whisked together egg, and sprinkle with sugar (not the fine kind) and 1/4 cup slivered blanched almonds.
- Bake in the middle part of oven at 400 degrees F about 30 minutes.
- Note: The cake will rise quite a bit and becomes surprisingly large.
- You can actually easily make two cakes instead of one if you wish.
- You can freeze the one, then thaw and reheat in the oven when needed.
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Reviews
-
The instructions aren't very clear - especially how to form the loaf. I tied it anyway. I baked it for the 30 min and the edges were burned. I should have pulled it out of the oven at 20 minutes. The flavor it good. I think it could use more filling too. I used European butter in the bread - makes a big difference in flavor. Too bad the cooking time and loaf shape were a mess. I think next time I will either put it in a loaf pan (it spread all over the baking sheet!) or try to leave the dough thicker and see if that helps it hold it's shape.
RECIPE SUBMITTED BY
Scandigirl
Canada
<p>I'm Danish-Canadian! I immigrated to Canada in 1968 and lived in B.C. until 1979, then we had the wonderful opportunity to live in Hawaii for almost 3 years. We moved to Southern Ontario in 1982. Of profession, I'm a Doctor of Human Biochemistry, specializing in Nutrition, a Doctor of Homeopathic Medicine, and a Registered Nutrition Consultant Practitioner, I have my own full time practice. <br />My passion is cooking! I have tested and tried over 10.000 recipes over the last 30 years on my beloved husband who is now residing in a Long Term Facility with Dementia, so I have to make meals for one, healthy and simple. />My pet peeve is too much garlic in a creamy rich sauce. <br />My favourite cookbook is the one I have made myself over the past 40 years. <br />My interests are knitting Scandinavian socks, sweaters, reading. If I had a month off I would visit our adult children and 4 year old Granddaughter, who resides in British Columbia and Florida, and cook them their favorite meals.</p>
