What to eat when. The Danish cake calendar
Pick a special occasion, and there’s a cake for it!
Birthdays: Time to eat a kagemand or kagekone (a cake baked in the shape of a man or woman) or, if you’re over the age of 10, a layer cake (a light sponge cake cut into lots of layers, with cream inbetween and berries on the top).
Christmas: Prepare yourself for a cake fest, with butter cookies, cinnamon and cardamom cookies, brunkager, small round vanilla biscuits called vaniljekranse and much more. The one thing they don’t eat is Christmas Cake – raisins do not feature in a typical Danish cake.
New Year’s Eve: At New Year it is traditional to eat kransekage, a tower of 18 of more ring-shaped layers made from almond, egg and sugar. Eaten as the clock strikes midnight (and after we've jumped into the New Year) it's served with a glass of bubbles to welcome the New Year.
February: Seven weeks before Easter, Denmark celebrates Fastelavn with a special type of cream-filled bun called fastelavnsboller that you’ll see everywhere in bakeries and supermarkets.
St. Bededag: On the fourth Friday after Easter, Denmark celebrates ‘Great Prayer Day’ by baking cardamom wheat buns called varme hveder. You can buy them everywhere or make them yourself– just be sure to eat them warm.
Summer: Danish strawberries are so full of flavour that it makes sense that summer is celebrated with a strawberry tart called jordbærkage, topped with fresh strawberries.
