A chocolate cake made for Denmark's newly crowned king

12.02.2024 - 15:25 / bbc.com

Conditori La Glace in the heart of Copenhagen has been crafting cakes and confectionery since 1870. From weddings to silver jubilees, Denmark's oldest patisserie has a tradition of celebrating royal occasions.

On the morning of my visit, people were huddled outside its shopfront, taking photos of its window display where royal family portraits and vintage gold candlesticks stood alongside trays of fancy cakes.

Danes were left stunned when the country's much-loved Queen Margrethe announced she would hand the throne to her eldest son Frederik, during her annual New Year's Eve speech.

La Glace's owner, Marianne Stagetorn Kolos, told me that she too was overwhelmed. "I like the royal family. I'm a fan."

The next day, La Glace's team of pastry chefs quickly set to work preparing a new royal recipe fit for a king. The result? A rather regal and sumptuous chocolate financier.

"It is a very masculine cake. At the same time, [it has] some elegance and lightness about it," Stagetorn Kolos explained. "It basically melts in your mouth."

The small buttery almond cake is made in a circular mould with chocolate and Danish favourite, marzipan, then crowned with a caramel crémeux that's thicker and denser than a mousse. At its centre is salted caramel and hazelnut praline. That's all dusted, of course, with gold, then decorated with a disc of toasted hazelnuts and three kinds of chocolate.

For Stagetorn Kolos, it was important that the Frederik X cake should be "loved by the people for many years", just as Queen Margrethe's cake has been.

Ever since she came to throne in 1972, La Glace has made a cake in her honour. Consisting of a Florentine biscuit with soft nougat and smooth hazelnut praline, the "Margrethekage" is topped with a signature white marzipan flower in tribute to the queen's nickname, "Daisy".

Tucked away behind the pastry shop is La Glace's four-storey production house. Climbing the steep, narrow staircase, I passed a century-old ice cream machine and was met with wafts of caramel and the sweet scent of chocolate. In a third-floor kitchen, trainee chef Amelia Heimann was piping hazelnut paste and salted caramel into the centre of each financier. "It's just a nice surprise in the middle with all the lovely flavours," she told me. Finally, she gently placed circles of gold-dusted hazelnuts and chocolate on top. "There's a kind of crown-look," she pointed out.

It all sounded rather rich and decadent, but when I tasted it, I was surprised to find it quite light and not as sweet as I'd imagined. It seems others might agree; the Frederik cake has been selling fast.

Having outlasted four monarchs, Conditori La Glace has changed little over its 150-year history. Inside, its pink-panelled walls, vintage clocks