The World's Best...

Dish of the week:  Kvæfjordkake- The World's Best

We had a ten year anniversary celebration for the CEO of my company today, and staff were asked to bring in a traditional dish from their home country to celebrate this special occasion. I decided to bring a cake that my grandmother used to bake for every big occasion when I was younger. Kvæfjordkake stems from the far north of Norway in Troms county, and was recently crowned the national cake of Norway. Until last year I didn't know this cake by any other name than 'The World's Best', and although it may look a bit dull on the photos don't let the looks fool you as it tastes great!

Ingredients: 

150g of butter (room temperature)

150g of sugar

5 egg yolks

4 tablespoons of milk

150g of plain flour

1 teaspoon of vanilla sugar

1 teaspoon of baking powder

Meringue:

5 egg whites

180g of sugar

100g of flaked almonds

Custard Cream:

1 vanilla bean

300 ml of milk

6 egg yolks

50ml of sugar

1 tablespoon of cornflour

Approximately 200ml of whipped cream

How to Make the Cake: 

Set the oven to 175 degrees Celsius

Mix together the butter and sugar until it is light and has an aerated texture. Stir in the egg yolks (save the egg whites for the meringue) and the milk. Add the flour, baking powder and vanilla sugar and mix well together.

Use a long baking tray (24cm in diameter) and cover it with baking paper and evenly spread out the cake batter. 

How to Make the Meringue:

Put the egg whites in a kitchen machine or mixer and whisk it for half a minute or so, pour the sugar in while it is still mixing in a thin stream. Whisk it until the mixture looks glossy and form long stiff peaks. (I usually stop the mixer a few times during this process to check on it, as I don't want to under or over do it). 

Pour the meringue mix over the cake batter in the baking tray and spread it evenly, use a spatula to 'lift' the meringue so that it doesn't just lie flat on the batter,and sprinkle flaked almonds over it. Put it in the oven on 175 degrees Celsius (this depends on your oven) and let it bake for 15-20 minutes. When finished allow for it to cool down on a tray.  Whilst the cake is baking in the oven start making the custard cream. 

How to Make the Custard Cream

Split the vanilla bean in two and scrape of the vanilla seeds with a knife and add it to a saucepan. (I normally put the rest of the vanilla bean in with 300ml of milk in the saucepan, in order to get as much of that yummy vanilla taste out of the bean, and just remove it when the custard is finished). Add six egg yolks to the saucepan along with 50 ml of sugar. Pour one tablespoon of cornflour in a small container and add one tablespoon of water and mix it well together then stir it into the saucepan.


Cook the custard on low heat, and be careful and make sure that it doesn't come to a boil  to avoid it from separating. I use a thermometer in this process which allows me to control the process, and I normally don't let it get above 80 Celsius degrees. Stir the custard occasionally and when it has reached a thick texture pour it in to a bowl, and leave it standing in the sink with cold water. Make sure that you keep stirring the custard while it cools down, and add 200 ml of whipped cream when the custard is cold and mix it around.

How to Ensemble and Serve the Cake:

You may want to leave the custard cream in the fridge for a while until it thickens. When the cake has cooled down use a good knife and split the cake in two. Lay half of the cake with the top down on a cake stand, pour the custard cream over it, and then add the other half of the cake with the top side up. You can probably see on the photos that I added a lot of custard between the two layers, as I don't mind it spilling a bit on the side, and think one can never have too much custard cream!

I hope you enjoy 'The World's Best' Cake as much as Norwegians do, and it is a great cake to serve with an afternoon tea. 

Linnemoren