I am in a bit of a pickle, it’s Dan’s birthday soon and I am planning to make a cake for him. 

Part of me thinks making him a ‘Kagemand’ (Cake Man) would be a good idea, as he has never had one and he loves gummy bears, gummy worms, sour gummies, rainbow laces, skittles and M&M’s – essentially everything that can be used to decorate the ‘Kagemand’.

However, I do have an idea for a cake that I really want to try out while I have the time plus it is for a get together with his friends and to be honest, it is a pretty strange tradition to have to explain.

In fact, my mother and I were talking about it recently because I wanted to learn how to make one (we made one for my birthday in Feb) and as always she repeated the ‘hilarious’ story of how I was in tears and terrified at the age of 3, when I was told I had to cut up the ‘Cake Girl’ my Mormor (Maternal grandmother) made for my birthday. 

For context and in my defence, the tradition is that you make this cake of Choux pastry (Vandbakkelse) decorated with icing sugar and all sorts of yummy sweets in the shape of a man/woman. Then the birthday girl/boy basically has to kill/dismember/decapitate the cake man/girl while everyone cheers or makes screaming type sounds (depending on how sardonic/dark your family is). Cool tradition eh?

Is it really any surprise that I was terrified? There I was about 3 years old, in a new place, surrounded by these ‘strange people’ (my mum’s side of the family who I did not know very well because we lived halfway across the world and people did not travel like they do today!), singing Happy Birthday before cheering loudly expecting me to stab/kill the cute cake girl? When I repeated this to my mother she said “Well, when you put it like that it sounds kind of dark!”

What do you think? Should Dan get one too?

Either way, I leave you with my Kagepige (Cake Girl) that I made on my birthday. She might look a little flat, but that was because I expertly did not let her cool down slowly in the oven and she collapsed a little more than we would like when I took her out to room temperature (so do not do this). Other than that she tasted great and looked pretty cute – if I may say so myself. 

Recipe

Ingredients 
Cake 
120 gm butter 
300mls warm water 
150 gm flour 
4 eggs ( 3 if they are big ones) 

Decoration 

Anything you want! We used :
Icing sugar – dusted on top, but you can mix it into a paste
M&M’s
Gummy Bears
Gummy Worms
Chocolate biscuit sticks – Peppero

Method 

1. Preheat oven to 200 C. 
2. Melt butter (melt it completely so it combines quicker – or e even if impatient it will combine with the water eventually) 
3. Add 300mls hot water to the melted butter 
4. Let it come to a boil and combine 
5. Turn down heat and stir in flour slowly. 
6. Turn off heat and stir until dough is combined – you will get a really sticky dough here.
7. Let the dough cool in another container (Pick one that is big enough and that you can use with an electric mixer for later)
8. Whisk eggs in another bowel lightly, one at a time 
9. Once the dough is warm, start mixing in the egg mixture bit by bit until combined. 
10. You should get a more fluid dough now though it will still be incredibly sticky.
11. Use two tablespoons to put the dough on the baking sheet in man/woman type shape.
12. Put in oven for 25 – 30 minutes
13. Do not open the oven door at all! Any sudden drop in temperature will cause it to collapse.
14. Once golden brown on top, turn off oven and let it cool down slowly for about 20 minutes. If you take it out immediately to room temperature it will collapse! 
15. Let it cool completely and have fun decorating!

Now the recipe in the video is 1/2 the measurements above because we only have a small oven at home – so if you can only fit 25cm X 30.5cm baking tray in your oven, go for half measurements! 

Here’s a GIF of me decapitating her! 

NOTE – Don’t forget the Danish Flags 😉