Kartoffelkager

Arla’s kartoffelkager enclose vanilla custard and whipped cream above small sponge rounds, under marzipan dusted with cocoa. Their potato-like shape gives the cakes their name.

Milk and an egg are lightly whisked in a heavy-bottomed pot, followed by sugar, the selected cornstarch and supplied seeds from a vanilla pod. The custard boils with whisking and cooks over moderate heat with stirring for about three minutes until thickening. It cools in a bowl under film laid against its surface.

The sponge eggs are separated. Yolks and sugar are beaten until airy; wheat flour and baking powder are mixed, sifted in and folded through. Stiffly beaten whites are folded into the same batter, which spreads onto baking paper on a tray in a twenty-by-thirty-five-centimetre rectangle. It bakes for about twelve minutes at 175°C, cools, and is cut into eight rounds with a glass about seven centimetres across.

Cream is whipped firm without becoming grainy and transferred to a piping bag. Its opening is clipped; cream rings are piped onto the sponge rounds and filled with the whisked custard, then topped with the rest of the cream in domes and refrigerated. Marzipan rolls out in icing sugar, and circles about fifteen centimetres across are cut using a plate as a guide.

The marzipan circles are laid over the domes and folded lightly against the sponge bases. After at least an hour in the refrigerator, each cake is rolled gently in cocoa in a small bowl, decorated with the listed edible flowers and served.