Let me introduce another real Danish classic: The Kaj-Kage (Kaj cake). Kaj is a green frog, and together with his best friend, the parrot Andrea, he used to host my favorite childhood TV show. Even though it’s been a long time since the TV show originally aired, it’s still widely popular, and the cake-version of Kaj has obtained eternal life at many bakeries, particularly in more rural parts of the country.
Kaj is usually filled with buttercream, with a hint of strawberry jam, and he is covered with a layer of green marzipan. Some bakeries make their own, alternative versions, and I’ve even seen a cupcake Kaj, but I prefer the original.
Back in the days, Andrea cakes were sold side by side Kaj cakes, but the cake version of the parrot never really took off, and today, you only rarely find Andrea cakes on the bakery shelves.
When we were kids, my sister and I sometimes got a Kaj cake on Sundays, and for some reason, we always ended up bashing each other’s Kaj cakes with our teaspoons. Please don’t ask me why. Kids do weird stuff..and grown-ups too, so through the years, it has become some kind of tradition. And whenever I have a Kaj cake today, he gets the same treatment. Poor Kaj..