Instructions: Its no secret that most so-called American food is imported. In the same spirit that brought us hamburgers, pizza and tacos, Id like to propose an addition to the repertoire: the Scandinavian cookie-cake hybrid called kransekake.

Im making one for the Fourth of July.

Kransekake (KRAN-seh-ka-keh) is made with 18 luscious almond-based cookie rings ranging in diameter from 2 inches to 8 inches. On Independence Day, Ill stack the baked rings in a pyramid, add loops of frosting and decorate the tree with miniature paper flags. This dessert makes a stunning decoration, but its meant to be eaten: Just lift off the rings, from the top down, and break them into bite-size pieces.

Kransekake is the traditional celebration cake in Norway and Denmark. Its served at weddings as a partner to the bridal cake, and each wedding guest is supposed to eat a piece to ensure the marriage will be a lucky one. At Christmas it becomes a festive tree, and for birthdays and anniversaries it can be made with as many cookie layers as there are years to celebrate. Because of its height, you can even hide a bottle of wine inside the stacked rings to give as a gift. Sometimes kransekake is decorated with marzipan fruit as well as frosting; always it is festooned with little national flags to toast the pride of homeland.

Could something that looks so spectacular be easy to duplicate? To learn more, I turned to Sharon Johnson Sullivan of San Jose. Sullivan grew up in Grand Rapids, Minn., and helped serve a dinner for the king of Norway while attending Augsburg College in Minneapolis. The kransekakes that flanked the head table were decorated with tiny Norwegian paper flags, fresh flowers and ferns. She remembers, too, being given a gift of kransekake on her wedding day, one decorated with Norwegian flags and a pair of tiny silver wedding bells. Sullivan was eager to join me in testing. She had a set of kransekake ring molds as well.

This is what we learned.

Professional bakers use three tools to make kransekake: a set of six ring molds, each having spaces for three rings; a cookie press to pipe the dough into the molds; and a pastry bag fitted with a plain tip to apply the frosting. You dont need them all. Ring molds make cookie shaping easy (see list at right), but you can bake the rings free-form, too. It doesnt matter if a few rings are lopsided. The point in stacking them is a celebration, not symmetry. I skipped the cookie press. The dough is easy to roll into strands by hand. I piped the frosting from a disposable plastic pastry bag.

Recipes that come with the ring molds and those found in most Scandinavian cookbooks and on the Internet sound easy: Make a dough of almond paste, powdered sugar and egg whites. Almond paste is convenient to use, but I dont recommend it. I tested doughs with two brands of almond paste. Both contain water. Almond paste doughs dont feel wet, but moisture lurks inside. This makes the cookies rise too much and become porous and hard rather than chewy. They also are impossible to remove from the molds - even those with a non-stick finish. The paste is made with sugar, too, so when its combined with the required powdered sugar and egg whites, the baked cookies were too sweet for my taste.

My choice is to pulverize blanched almonds for the dough. You can do small batches in a nut grinder or blender; with a food processor, a large quantity can be done in a flash. Ground nuts plus powdered sugar and egg whites make a dough that is childs play to work with, and the delectable almond flavor comes through.

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