Conditori La Glace

Six Generations of Cream

4 of 5

Conditori La Glace has been selling cake on Skoubogade since 1870, when a young confectioner named Nicolaus Henningsen opened the doors. It calls itself the oldest konditori in Denmark and, with very little modesty, probably the best. After a century and a half of evidence I am inclined to let them have it. Three generations of Henningsens ran the place. The Stagetorn Kolos family has had it for three more.

The rooms do half the work. Some of the furniture goes back to the 1890s and the interior to 1924, with an extension added in 2015, and the whole thing feels like a parlour where nobody has raised their voice in decades. The counter is a long parade of layer cakes named for writers, composers and royals. Karen Blixen has a cake. So does Lise Nørgaard. So does Carl Nielsen. This is a country that honours its artists with whipped cream, which strikes me as the correct way to do it.

Order the sportskage. It was first made for a play called Sportsmænd, which opened at the Folketeatret on 18 November 1891, and it has been the house specialty ever since. A macaron base, a hill of cream folded with crushed nougat brittle, and caramelised little choux puffs on top. A slice runs 89 kroner, which is the going rate for a piece of Danish history. The Othello and the walnut cake are the classics for a second round. Take a table, not a box.

Order this: Sportskage, Othello layer cake, Walnut cake, The Karen Blixen cake
The damage: $$
Go: A weekday afternoon, with time to sit; serving stops 30 minutes before closing
Find it: Skoubogade 3-5, 1158 København K
Website: laglace.dk