A high altitude tested recipe for brunsviger or Danish coffee cake, made with a soft, fluffy yeast dough that’s subtly spiced with cardamom and vanilla, topped with butter and brown sugar. This classic Danish treat is a cross between bread and cake, with a sweet caramelized crust that’s just irresistible.
You might also love these recipes for Danish red berry pudding, ebelskivers or Danish pancake balls, and almond pound cake.
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What is Brunsviger?
Brunsviger is a yeasted cake that’s popular in Denmark, and is a wonderful treat to serve with coffee, both for breakfast and dessert. But since it’s made with yeast dough, it’s not really a cake at all, but rather a sweet, fluffy bread with a butter and brown sugar topping.
Before adding the topping, you’ll dimple the dough with your fingers, much like you would when making focaccia. Then the butter and brown sugar are melted together and poured over the cake to make a gooey, caramel like topping as it bakes, with all the dimpled pockets holding the sweet syrup. Instead of combining the butter and sugar, you can also sprinkle the sugar over the buttered dough, which results in crunchy sugary bits all over the top, which I really liked, too. It’s delicious either way!
Honestly, it tastes a lot like cinnamon rolls (but without the cinnamon), although you could certainly add cinnamon to it, too. It’s sometimes also called caramel bread or caramel cake, and it would be fantastic for Thanksgiving or Christmas morning.
I develop all the recipes on my site for Denver’s high altitude of 5,280 feet. If you’re at a lower or higher elevation, please see my FAQs for guidance on adjusting recipes for your altitude.
See the recipe card at the end of the post for the full ingredients list and instructions.
Ingredients
- Butter. You’ll need unsalted butter, both for the dough and the topping. This will add a rich, buttery flavor and melt together with the brown sugar on top.
- Milk. Use whole milk for the dough, to add richness and moisture.
- Yeast. You can use either instant/rapid-rise or active dry yeast. This is what makes the bread rise. My preferred yeast for bread making is Red Star Platinum Premium Instant Yeast.
- Sugar. You’ll be using a little granulated sugar in the dough, but most of the sweetness will come from the brown sugar topping.
- Flour. Use all purpose flour to give the cake structure and strength.
- Eggs. Adds moisture and strength to the dough.
- Salt. Balances the sweetness.
- Cardamom + Vanilla Extract. Flavor.
Instructions
Make the Dough
- Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add the milk and stir. Warm the mixture just until it reaches between 110-115 degrees F. If it gets too hot, let it sit for a few minutes until it cools down to the correct temperature. It’s important that you check the temperature – if it’s too cold, it won’t activate the yeast, and if it’s too hot, it will kill the yeast.
- Remove the saucepan from the heat. Stir in the yeast and 1 teaspoon of the sugar. Let stand for 5 to 10 minutes until it begins to foam and bubble; this will let you know that the yeast is active.
- In the bowl of your stand mixer, combine the flour, sugar, salt, and cardamom. Add the warm milk mixture, eggs and vanilla. With the dough hook, knead on medium/low speed for 10 minutes. The dough will be soft, sticky and loose, but don’t add more flour.
- Lightly spray a large bowl with nonstick spray. Scrape the dough into the bowl, cover tightly with plastic wrap, and set in a warm place to rise until doubled in size, about 1 hour.
- If your oven has a bread-proofing setting, you can use that to proof your dough. If not, let your oven preheat to the lowest setting, turn the oven off, and then set your dough inside to rise.
Add the Topping
- Melt the butter for the topping, then brush 2 tbsp of the melted butter inside a 9×13 inch baking dish.
- Gently deflate the dough by scraping down the sides of the bowl with a spatula, then scrape the dough into the buttered baking dish. Turn the dough to coat it in the butter, then gently stretch it to fill the bottom of the pan.
- Set the pan in a warm place to rest until the dough is puffy, about 20-30 minutes. Do not let the dough puff up so much that it fills the pan and comes up to the top edge, since it will puff up quite a bit more when it bakes.
- With buttered fingers, gently dimple the dough all over; make the dimples fairly deep, so the sauce can puddle in the dimples.
- In a saucepan, combine the rest of the melted butter with the brown sugar, and warm it over medium low heat for several minutes, just until smooth and the sugar is dissolved. Pour the melted butter and brown sugar over the dough.
Bake
- Preheat the oven to 350 F, and position a rack in the center of the oven.
- Bake the cake for about 35 minutes, until the topping is a deep golden brown, and a digital instant read thermometer inserted into the center reads between 190-195F.
- Let cool for 10 minutes, then serve warm. This cake is fantastic plain, although my kids liked to eat theirs topped with jam. A scoop of ice cream melting over the warm cake wouldn’t be bad, either.
- For a crunchier topping, pour the melted butter over the dough, then sprinkle with the brown sugar. This way, the brown sugar will not fully dissolve in the butter, and you’ll get crunchy, sugary bits all over the top. While the sugar might look like it’s burnt in the photos below, it’s not at all.
- I really liked this variation, but the traditional method was my favorite.
Be sure to read all of my BAKING FAQs where I discuss ingredients, substitutions and common baking questions, so that you can be successful in your own baking!
Frequently Asked Questions
Like most yeast breads and cakes, brunsviger is best enjoyed warm from the oven when it’s so soft and fluffy. But you can keep the leftover cake in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days. Reheat individual pieces in the microwave for 20 seconds at 50% power.
Since the dough is soft and sticky, you would not be able to knead it by hand without adding far too much flour. If you don’t have a mixer, you can beat the dough by hand with a Danish dough whisk for 10 minutes, until smooth.
You can use either one! Dark brown sugar will result in a darker color on top of the cake.
Some of the melted butter and brown sugar will puddle on top of the cake, and some will run around the sides, caramelizing the bottom of the cake, which keeps it moist and just delicious. I absolutely loved it this way. But if you want more of the topping to stay on the top, you can create a sort of “dam” of dough with your fingers when you’re dimpling the dough, to keep as little as possible from running over the edge of the cake. And while I didn’t have any issues with the syrup bubbling over the edge of the pan and dripping onto the bottom of my oven, some bakers recommend first lining your baking pan with parchment paper to catch any drips that might want to escape.
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High Altitude Brunsviger (Danish Coffee Cake)
All recipes on Curly Girl Kitchen are developed for high altitude at 5,280 feet. See FAQs for adjusting to higher or lower elevations.
Equipment
- Stand Mixer with Dough Hook
- 9×13 Baking Dish
Ingredients
Dough
- 4 tbsp unsalted butter
- 1 ¼ cups whole milk
- 2 ¼ tsp (1 packet) instant/rapid rise yeast or active dry yeast
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- 4 ½ cups all purpose flour, fluffed, spooned and leveled
- 1 tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
- ½ tsp ground cardamom
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
Topping
- ¾ cup (12 tbsp) unsalted butter, melted
- ¾ cup light or dark brown sugar, lightly packed
Instructions
Make the Dough
- Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add the milk and stir. Warm the mixture just until it reaches between 110-115 degrees F.If it gets too hot, let it sit for a few minutes until it cools down to the correct temperature. It's important that you check the temperature – if it's too cold, it won't activate the yeast, and if it's too hot, it will kill the yeast.
- Remove the saucepan from the heat. Stir in the yeast and 1 teaspoon of the sugar. Let stand for 5 to 10 minutes until it begins to foam and bubble; this will let you know that the yeast is active.
- In the bowl of your stand mixer, combine the flour, sugar, salt, and cardamom. Add the warm milk mixture, eggs and vanilla. With the dough hook, knead on medium/low speed for 10 minutes. The dough will be soft, sticky and loose, but don't add more flour.
- Lightly spray a large bowl with nonstick spray. Scrape the dough into the bowl, cover tightly with plastic wrap, and set in a warm place to rise until doubled in size, about 1 hour.
- If your oven has a bread-proofing setting, you can use that to proof your dough. If not, let your oven preheat to the lowest setting, turn the oven off, and then set your dough inside to rise.
Add the Topping
- Melt the butter for the topping, then brush 2 tbsp of the melted butter inside a 9×13 inch baking dish.
- Gently deflate the dough by scraping down the sides of the bowl with a spatula, then scrape the dough into the buttered baking dish. Turn the dough to coat it in the butter, then gently stretch it to fill the bottom of the pan.
- Set the pan in a warm place to rest until the dough is puffy, about 20-30 minutes. Do not let the dough puff up so much that it fills the pan and comes up to the top edge, since it will puff up quite a bit more when it bakes.
- With buttered fingers, gently dimple the dough all over; make the dimples fairly deep, so the sauce can puddle in the dimples.
- In a saucepan, combine the rest of the melted butter with the brown sugar, and warm it over medium low heat for several minutes, just until smooth and the sugar is dissolved. Pour the melted butter and brown sugar over the dough.
Bake
- Preheat the oven to 350 F, and position a rack in the center of the oven.
- Bake the cake for about 35 minutes, until the topping is a deep golden brown, and a digital instant read thermometer inserted into the center reads between 190-195F.
- Let cool for 10 minutes, then serve warm. This cake is fantastic plain, although my kids liked to eat theirs topped with jam. A scoop of ice cream melting over the warm cake wouldn't be bad, either.
Made this for Thanksgiving breakfast and it was delicious! I added the nutmeg to the dough and cinnamon to the topping as suggested. It was so fluffy inside and the topping was slightly crisp.