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.
