Lagkage (Danish Layer Cake) with Berries & Vanilla Cream

Danish lagkage, or layer cake, is probably the most popular birthday cake in Denmark, but you’ll see it at all sorts of celebrations in Scandinavia. It’s simple, but oh so delicious, and very reliable. Lagkage is a vanilla sponge cake with layers of raspberry (or other berry) jam and vanilla pastry cream, all topped with icing as well as whipped cream along the edge of the cake.

And while I didn’t make this to celebrate a birthday, I was celebrating my friend Vanessa coming to visit me in Bergen!

The fun thing with lagkage is that you can make lots of little adjustments to the flavor while still getting the same type of lagkage that is always so delicious. You can change up the type of jam you use, you can combine the jam and vanilla cream in each layer or keep them separate, and you can change the flavor of the icing on top.

For this cake I used raspberry jam and an almond icing, which gives this lagkage a distinctly Scandinavian flavor. I also decided to skip the whipped cream, because to be honest I’m not a huge fan of whipped cream on cakes, and because the whipped cream doesn’t last quite as long as the other elements of the lagkage.

This is one of those rare cakes that actually tastes better the next day, and the day after that. For parties, Danes will make this cake the night before so that the sponge has time to really soak up the vanilla cream and the jam. In fact it’s now been six days since I baked this cake and Vanessa and I are still enjoying it (I guess it was a pretty big cake for only two people).

This is also partly because I skipped the whipped cream decoration on the edge of the lagkage. I would include the whipped cream if you’re making the lagkage for a party where the entire cake will be eaten the same day, but if you think you’ll be eating this cake for several days, it will taste better without the whipped cream.

You don’t want to overwork the cake batter, so stir everything together just until it’s smooth.

I use a cake pan strip to keep the top of the cake flat, so it doesn’t dome up in the center as it bakes. Well, I actually don’t use a proper cake strip, I just tie a wet tea towel around the cake form, which works just as well.

Prepare the vanilla cream while the cake is in the oven. Cover the vanilla cream with plastic wrap before letting it chill in the fridge, being sure the plastic wrap directly touches the top of the vanilla cream so it doesn’t form a hard shell.

When slicing the cake into the three layers, cut very slowly to ensure that the layer is even, which will make the cake easier to assemble. If you’re using a small cake pan, you could also cut the cake into four layers instead of three, as your cake will be a bit thicker. I’ve cut this cake into four layers, but it is a bit tricky to lift the thinner layers, so if you’re nervous maybe just do three layers.

You can decide if you want to do a separate vanilla cream layer and raspberry jam layer, or if you want both jam and cream on each layer. Here I opted for separating the two, but it’s completely up to the baker – both ways are delicious. Traditionally each layer of the lagkage has both vanilla cream and jam, with vanilla cream on the bottom and jam placed on top of the vanilla cream.

Try to really pile on as much jam as possible. It might look like a lot of jam, but the sponge cake is thick and can handle it.

This time I made the icing with heavy cream, powdered sugar, and almond essence. You could use vanilla extract instead, or you could use juice instead of cream to change the flavor of the icing. Lemon juice also pairs nicely with the raspberry, or you could use berry juice to make a pretty pink cake.

I then decorated the top of the cake with fresh raspberries and sliced almonds. You can of course decorate the cake with whatever you like – berries, nuts, sprinkles, pieces of chocolate, etc.

You can switch the recipe from US measurements to metric by clicking from “US Customary” to “Metric” under Ingredients.