Krasse Kacke

Pour icing into a piping bag fitted with a small tip. Place a doily on a serving plate. Pipe a ring of icing as large as the largest cake ring.

Place the largest cake ring on the icing. Pipe icing in a zig-zag pattern over the ring. Stack remaining cake rings on top, from largest to smallest, piping icing between each ring.

If you purchased whole almonds, it is easiest to grind them in a coffee grinder or specialized nut grinder.

Once ground, sift them to make sure all big chunks are taken out, and regrind those chunks. Mix together the unblanched and blanched almond flours and 1 pound of confectioner's sugar.

Then, run this mixture through your grinder a second time. Next, make the almond paste. Combine the ground almond-sugar mixture with 3 egg whites and 2 tsp.

The paste will have the consistency of homemade play dough. Wrap the paste in plastic wrap and refrigerate it overnight.

Preheat your oven to degrees Fahrenheit. Flour a pastry board or clean counter with potato starch flour; butter and dust six Kransekake forms with the potato starch flour.

Fit the ropes into the forms, pinching the ends together tightly to form rings. Note: this dough is very forgiving, so you can easily re-roll a few snakes if you've miscalculated the lengths.

They should be evenly divided to fit the graduated rings of the Kransekake forms. Fit the lengths into the Kransekake forms as shown in the photo.

If you don't have Kransekake forms, don't worry! For the icing 1 pound confectioners' sugar 3 egg whites 1 tablespoon lemon juice.

To make the dough, in a large mixing bowl, stir the almond flour, confectioners' sugar, cardamom, and salt together. WIth an electric mixer running, slowly add the egg whites and almond extract, mixing until a dough forms.

Transfer the dough to a double boiler and knead the dough for about 10 minutes, working it with your hands until the dough becomes almost too hot to comfortably work with.

For this step I mix the dough in the large mixing bowl I use for my stand mixer, and set this over a saucepan of simmering water. Preheat the oven to degrees F.

Allow the dough to cool a bit, prepping the molds while you wait: Spray them with a baking spray or brush with a neutral oil or softened butter, then dust with semolina or cornmeal.

Form the dough into logs about the thickness of a finger and arrange them in the molds. Slide these into the oven and bake for about 10 minutes, or until light gold.

Fit the longest piece of dough inside the largest kransekake ring, pressing the ends together to seal. Do the same with the medium-sized and smallest pieces of dough.

Repeat this process with the remaining five pieces of dough. Bake the kransekakes in the oven for minutes, or until golden-brown, then remove from the oven and set aside to cool in their moulds until hardened.

Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Meanwhile, for the icing, whisk the egg whites in a large bowl until frothy.

Gradually whisk in the icing sugar a spoonful at a time, until stiff, glossy peaks form when the whisk is removed. Spoon half of the icing into a separate bowl and add the red food colouring.

Carefully remove rings from molds. Royal Icing: In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine confectioners' sugar and egg whites.

Mix on medium-high speed until combined and thickened, about 8 minutes. If decorating with more than one color, divide icing into batches.

Using the end of a toothpick, add food coloring until the desired shade is achieved. Spoon half of the icing into a separate bowl and colour red with food colouring paste.

Spoon into a piping bag fitted with a small plain writing nozzle. Spoon the white icing into a separate piping bag fitted with a small plain writing nozzle.

To assemble the Kransekake, sort the cooked rings into sizes.