Name: Verdens Beste Kake (The World's Best Cake)
Yield: Serves 8-10
Ingredients: 2 cups (500 ml) whole milk; 1 vanilla bean, seeds scraped; 1 whole egg plus 1 egg yolk; ½ cup (100 g) superfine sugar; ¼ cup (30 g) cornstarch; ½ tsp. salt; 2 Tbsp. (25 g) butter; 1¼ sticks (150 g) butter; ⅔ cup (130 g) granulated sugar; 5 egg yolks; 1 cup plus 2 Tbsp. (150 g) all-purpose flour or cake flour; 1 tsp. baking powder; 1 tsp. vanilla extract, or the seeds from 1 vanilla bean; ⅓ cup plus 1 Tbsp. (100 ml) whole milk; ⅔ cup (150 ml) whipping cream; ½ portion of pastry cream; 5 egg whites; A pinch of cream of tartar; 1¼ cups (250 g) granulated sugar; ⅔ cup (75 g) slivered almonds

Overhead shot of Verdens Beste with the borders cut off.

Photo by Peter Cassidy

Calling something the “world’s best cake” is quite a statement but not something taken lightly by Norwegians. This cake contains the most delicious whipped cream, sponge, pastry cream, and meringue—it’s everything you could ever want wrapped up together in one bite. This cake is so seriously good that it is often labeled the national cake of Norway. Verdens Beste Kake is also known as Kvæfjord cake. Kvæfjord is a municipality in Tromsø in northern Norway, an absolutely stunning place with picture-perfect rolling green hills, rocky fells, and deep blue fjords. To eat this cake in that setting: it doesn’t get better than that, at least not in my mind.

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