Meet the Cake People

The Danish Treat Too Fun to Save Just for Birthdays

I made this Kagekone, or Cake Woman, out of pâte à choux and decorated it with modeling chocolate. Any resemblance to the author is purely coincidental.

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And now, back to our regularly scheduled programming:

This cake person was one of my favorites in the recent birthday party I led.

There are few special occasions I love more than a birthday party. So I was thrilled a few weeks back when I heard out of the blue from the mom of a favorite young cooking student of mine whom I hadn’t seen since that awful week back in March 2020 when the world swiftly shut down due to covid.

A few years had passed, but it sounded like this wonderful girl, Cora, had spent them cooking away. And as she approached her 12th birthday, she was looking forward to doing some of the things again that all of us used to take for granted, and wanted me to lead her and several of her friends in a baking-class party.

But she and her mom wanted something a little offbeat. And a project that would be challenging and engaging enough for the serious young bakers like her in the class, but also not too intimidating for the girls who hadn’t spent as much time in the kitchen.

Sounds like my kind of party! I mulled it over for a few moments, and then it came to me: We should make Danish cake people.

These beloved birthday cakes, known as kagekone (“cake woman”) and kagemand (“cake man”) to the Danish kids (and their parents) who love to whip them up, offered us the perfect way to practice both beginning and advanced baking techniques, in a project full of plenty of creativity and whimsy—and, yes, lots of chocolate and candy.

There’s no need for you and your kids to wait for a birthday, though, to create your very own one-of-a-kind, sugary and splendid cake-person masterpiece. Read on to find out how.