Drømmekage

Drømmekage is a cake baked with a coconut topping, and it is a well-loved favourite in Denmark. Its name means “dream cake.” A layer of brown sugar and coconut covers a soft, pale cake base.

Coconut spread over the almost-baked cake, then baked again

In one example method, eggs and sugar are whisked together, then flour and warmed milk and butter are mixed in and the batter is poured into a baking tray. When the cake is almost baked, it is taken out of the oven, and a mixture of butter, brown sugar, milk and coconut warmed in a pan is spread over the surface. When the cake goes back into the oven, the topping browns and melds with the surface of the cake.

Adding the topping partway through baking produces two distinct layers: a soft cake base and a sweet layer with the grainy texture of coconut. The coconut leaves a fine texture as you bite into it, while the brown sugar and butter add a toasty aroma. Because it is baked in a tray and cut into pieces, it is easy to take along to gatherings.

From a grandmother’s kitchen to a recipe card

It is sometimes called “dream cake from Brovst,” after Brovst in North Jutland. Jytte Andersen learned to make this cake in the kitchen of her grandmother, whom she visited during the holidays. Her grandmother, Marie Nielsen Højgaard, is said to have baked the cake, which had been handed down in her own family home, for special occasions such as Christmas. At the time, coconut was precious and was not an ingredient that could be used whenever one liked.

According to Andersen’s recollection, in 1960, when she was 13, she brought the cake to a gathering of housewives in Brovst. A baking consultant from the milling company Amo who was there took the recipe home, and it was later printed on one of the company’s recipe cards under the name “dream cake from Brovst.” Andersen says she came across the card in a shop about six months later and that no one had contacted her beforehand.

Amo’s current description states that the cake later won the company’s recipe competition. Andersen herself, however, says that the gathering she brought the cake to was not a competition. Both accounts agree that the cake she learned from her grandmother spread by way of the gathering in Brovst. However, these two accounts alone do not make clear how the later competition described by the company relates to the gathering she brought the cake to.

Glossary