Verdens Beste

Hello everyone, I hope, that you are all doing just fine!

Now I want to tell you about my experience of baking a cake and how I found it and everything. It’s just something unforgettable, if you want to know the truth, because I saw a picture of that cake somewhere and then I started digging it and I found it somewhere else and then somehow  I got its name and then googled it and things were in Norwegian or something like that and I was translating them and, well, there were some videos, which I couldn’t translate and , well, finally, I baked that cake, however, I put some of my corrections in it and stuff like that, however, finally, everything went well and  I was pretty proud of myself for doing all those stuff and the cake came out delicious! So, now you know the brief history of this cake, and  I want to share those details with you and, at the same time, have those memories written here on my blog, so that if I want to I can visit this article and remember all those things that I did to bake that cake.

Well, to be honest, I really love cakes, however, there are certain cakes that I really like and there are some of them, which I can eat only sometimes, when I really want them. However, cakes with white milk cream, I mean, the porridge and butter cream, are my favourite and many times I have this urge of eating them, just like I have an urge of eating this sandwich ice cream from time to time. You know, there’s this sandwich ice cream of Tolia, it has two soft and moist biscuits and there’s a coffee flavoured ice cream between them, and I just love this ice cream, if you want to know the truth. And the portion is just enough for me, it’s not very large or very small, it’s just perfect!

About Verdens Beste Kake

Well, this cake is called “The World’s Best Cake” or “Kvaefjord Cake” and let me tell you why. There was a voting in 2002 in Norway and Norwegians voted this cake to be their national cake and so that they chose it to be their best cake, of course.  They have this cake on large celebrations and weddings and stuff like that, so it’s a pretty big deal, if you want to know the truth.

According to a legend, there was this café owner in the Kvaeffjord region, which is in the Northern Norway, and this café owner bought this recipe in the 1930s for 200 kroner. And they say that it was a lot of money back then! Then the recipe became pretty popular in Norway and it spread in the whole country and now it’s that Verdens Beste and it’s very famous there.

How it all started

Anyways, I was just scrolling some social media, or maybe even googling some cake photos or something, when I saw a picture of this cake. It was all white and stuff with all those red strawberries and it looked just really fluffy and tasty and I just wanted to know what it was made of and things like that. And, well, I thought, that baking it would not be that hard. I was pretty determined to find what cake it was, if you want to know the truth, however, I didn’t even know what the name of the cake was.

It was really a great deal for me to think about methods of how  I could find out what that cake was and how to find its recipe. I just couldn’t find it anywhere, because I didn’t know its name and I was kind of doomed there. I had only this photo of the cake and that was all. To be honest, I really don’t remember how I found it. I guess, I tried googling many things there and every time I googled something, I got closer and closer to the cake’s identity and somehow some time later it came out that this cake was called Verdens Beste, which I didn’t know what it meant or anything and I was just looking for its recipe to bake it and, well, technically, I didn’t really need its name if there was just a recipe for it.

Well, finally, I found out that this “Verdens Beste” meant something like “The World’s Best” and that it was called “The World’s Best Cake” and it had some other name, too, and this all was just a mess for me, I mean, there was so much information and so many foreign words, that I couldn’t understand much, if you want to know the truth. However, I read, that it was a Norwegian cake and so that those words were in Norwegian, I guess. Well then, I copied this Verdens Beste and googled it and then I copied that other name and googled it, too, and there were some recipes that came out , but all of them were in Norwegian or something like that and I couldn’t understand a word there, so that I asked my old friend _ google translate _ to translate the page for me and so the google translate translated me that page. Well, now things got clearer and I could read the recipe in English, so that I could know about the ingredients and the preparation process, too. However, that still was not enough, I guess, because I didn’t really know, whether the translation was exact or not. Well, it would probably not be that exact, of course, because this translation of google is not exact in any case, if you ask me. There was the list of the ingredients, that this cake needed and I understood that one well, however, I wondered if there was any video of it, so that I googled it and found this one website, where there was this one woman explaining and showing how to prepare this cake, however, she was talking in Norwegian or something like that, and, of course, I didn’t understand her, because I didn’t know the language. Though it was still good, that I saw how she prepared that cake. You know, visualizing is always better, than the reading.

So that, I had all the information I needed, I guess, to prepare that cake. And, well, I always want to try new things when it comes to cooking and baking and stuff like that, and I just really wanted to see how this cake would be, so that I prepared everything necessary for it and started baking it.

First of all, I should tell you, that until I started preparing the cake, I had two types of cream filling ready and in the fridge. I didn’t really have in mind to prepare that cake that day , when I prepared those two creams, so that I wanted to use them with the cake, so I decided to have those two creams on top of the cake or something like that, I didn’t know that exactly at that time, however, I knew, that my version of that cake would be much different than the actual one.

Ingredients:

For the dough:

• 1 stick of butter, on a room temperature
• 1/2 cup white granulated sugar
• 4 eggs yolks
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 3 tbs milk

For the meringue:

• 4 egg whites
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 1and  1/2 cups white granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup sliced almonds

For the cream filling:

• ¾ cup heavy whipping cream
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 cups vanilla pastry cream or vanilla pudding

Preparation process

Well, the preparation process for me was a little bit different besides the dough preparing, I guess. So. Let’s start with the dough. First of all, you just mix together that butter and sugar very well, until they get all fluffy and light. Well, maybe a couple of minutes. And when you do that in a standing mixer, you can just leave it like that and let it mix.

After that, you should separate egg whites from egg yolks, because you need egg whites for the meringue, you know. Then you should add those egg yolks into the mixture in your standing mixer and then add the milk too and let it mix for a while. Then you can add the baking powder and the flour, too and let it mix well.

So then, now it’s time for the meringue. It’s not that philosophy or something. You should just whisk those egg whites for a couple of minutes, until they are stiff and white and stuff like that. Probably something like  5 minutes or so. And after that, you can add sugar little by little with the mixer mixing them.

This recipe is for two 9 inch round pans or 9x13 inch pan (it’s like approximately 25x35 cm), so that you should know that. Well, my pan was a little larger. I mean, way larger. So that it was kind of double in size, than that 9x13 inch pan. So that I poured the whole dough into one pan, if you want to know the truth. However, in this 9x13 inch pan, you can have two doughs baked. So, you take two 9x13 inch pans and have some baking sheet in then and oil the bottom and pour half of the dough in each of them. Well, the dough is not that soft or that thick, it’s just a medium consistency and you can just pour it into those pans and if you need to, you can adjust the dough a little. After pouring them there, you should add half of that meringue to each of those pans, I mean, you pour the meringue on top of the dough and that’s it. then you can have those almonds sprinkled on the top of that meringue.

Well, of course, you should preheat the oven on 350 F (175 degrees Celsius) and put those round pans or 9x13 inch pan into the oven and let it bake for about 25-35 minutes. The cake biscuit will be well-baked and the meringue will have set and will be kind of golden-brown. Well, to be honest, I didn’t have almonds that time, when I baked the cake and, so that I didn’t have them on my cake. However, you should know, that you shouldn’t overbake the cake, because then those almonds will get burned!

After the cake is baked, you should take it out and let it cool and then, after it’s cooled completely, get that cooking sheet off of it and put it on something, where it’s comfortable for you to  decorate it and stuff like that, of course. Well, usually they take one of those biscuits and turn it upside down and that’s how it’s put, I mean, there’s the meringue part on the bottom, if you want to know the truth, while there’s this cream filling in the middle and then there’s another biscuit on the top, but this one has the meringue on the top now.

Well, now about that cream filling and the pastry creamand stuff.

The pastry cream

The pastry cream is pretty delicious, if you want to know the truth. And it doesn’t really need much effort, if you ask me. You will need some other ingredients for it, besides those ones mentioned above for the cake.

Ingredients:

• 4 egg yolks
• 1/4 cup white granulated sugar
• 1 and 3/4 cups whole milk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tbs cornstarch

Preparation process

So, you should whisk those egg yolks and sugar very well, until they get all fluffy and light yellow in colour. And meanwhile, you should bring the milk to a simmer in a saucepan. After that, you should pour that egg a9nd sugar mixture into the milk while whisking and add some vanilla. Of course, you can add that vanilla, after you take the saucepan from the gas, and, I guess, it’s better if you add vanilla then, because it will have its flavor more.

Well, after a couple of seconds, you can add the cornstarch little by little while whisking and allow it to fully dissolve. The mixture will start to thicken little by little and you should stir occasionally. Well, it will need 3-5 minutes for it to thicken enough , so that you can turn the heat off after that. You should allow it to cool, perhaps put it into the fridge or on an ice water bath, and when it gets all cold and stuff, you should add the whipped creamand mix them together with a spatula.

That’s the pastry cream filling for the cake, however, as I’ve mentioned already, I didn’t use it in my cake, because I had already prepared something like this pastry cream filling, and it was really plenty for everything, if you want to know the truth, so that, I didn’t need to have another pastry cream or vanilla pudding or whatsoever, because I already had the cream. And I had two types of cream, I mean, one of them was vanilla cream and the other one was cocoa cream, so it would be a delicious cake if I used both of those cream fillings, I thought, and I was right!

Well, let me tell you how I prepared that cream filling of mine.

First of all, I had this sugar and flour mixture made, which consisted of 5 tbs of all purpose flour and 5 tbs of white granulated sugar. I just mixed them together and meanwhile, I had one litre of water brought to a boil. After the water boiled, I took some of it and poured it on my dry mixture and mixed it well, so that everything would dissolve and things like that and then I poured that mixture back into the saucepan , where that water was boiling and I whisked the mixture and let everything mix together. And I turned the heat on a medium level and let it be like that for a half an hour or so, stirring occasionally, until it got thicker, like a porridge. Well, technically, it’s a porridge and they call it that way, too, if you want to know the truth.

In parallel to this process, I had another mixture made, though this one had 5 tbs of white granulated sugar and 5 tbs or all purpose flour and it had some cocoa powder, too, and by “some”, I mean, lot’s of cocoa powder, because I just love when something has a perfect cocoa taste in them. So that, I did the same thing here: I brought another 1 litre of water into a boil and then took some of it and poured it in a bowl full of that flour and sugar and cocoa powder and whisked it and then poured that mixture into the saucepan and whisked it and let it be like that for more than half an hour, because it wouldn’t get thicker like a porridge and I didn’t want that cream to be light and things like that. I wanted it to be thick, because that cake needed a thick cream and not the light and soft one, if you want to know the truth. You know, preparing that one was kind of strange, because I hadn’t prepared cocoa porridge until that and it was a little bit different, than the plain porridge to make.

So, I was stirring both of them occasionally and waited for them to get thicker, so that I would turn the gas off and let those two porridges to cool down, so that I could proceed with the preparation. Well, it was something about 40 minutes, I guess, when I turned the fas for the plain porridge, and something like one hour when I turned the gas off for the cocoa porridge.

Then, after some time of cooling down, I just put those two into the fridge and let them get cooler. Meanwhile, I had margarine out of the fridge, I mean, I had this margarine on the room temperature, so that it would be soft, you know. I used this margarine called Margarine Ona Cream, it’s a really good one and I usually use it in my cream fillings, because it has some sweetness in it or something like that, I mean, it doesn’t resemble any other margarines, and it’s kind of especially made for cream fillings, I guess.

So, I took 1/3 of the margarine and put it in a bowl and whisked it with my standing mixer for a couple of minutes, until it got all white and fluffy and stuff like that and then I had this porridge added little by little to it, so that it all could be mixed together very well. I also added some vodka with grapefruit peel in it, and, I guess, it’s no longer a vodka now, because it has this taste of grapefruit and it smells pretty good, however, I haven’t tasted it, I mean, I only use it in my creams and baking and stuff like that, you know. And, I added some vanilla to the mixture and this cream filling was done. So this one was a vanilla cream filling.

For the cocoa cream filling, I used another 1/3 of my margarine Ona Cream and whisked it with the mixer and then added that cocoa porridge little by little and added some vanilla and grapefruit flavoured vodka to it, too, and I also added some cocoa powder to it, so that it would have a strong taste of chocolate. And while doing that, I tasted my cream fillings, of course, because if you don’t taste them, you won’t know, whether they are good or not, right?! And if they don’t taste delicious, you should do something about it, I mean, you should add some things to make it delicious, otherwise, when you use them in your cake and the cake becomes bad, you can’t really do anything then, of course. So that, it’s really necessary to taste those cream fillings, until you use them! So that, everything was ready and stuff and I just had those two cream fillings put into two containers and stored them in the fridge. I didn’t really have this intention of baking a cake, I guess, however, I could just have those cream fillings like that and eat them just like that, or with some biscuits or use them in some baking. It was all up to me, of course. However, then I just decided to bake that cake and use those cream fillings in it.

Now you understand, that my Verdens Beste was not the real Verdens Beste, because I didn’t really prepare it the way it is prepared, however, it kind or resembled it. though I can say, that my cocoa cream filling was so delicious, that it was probably the best chocolate cream filling every, if you ask me.

So, in order to prepare the Verdens Beste, you need to put one of those biscuits with the meringue on the bottom, then spread that pastry cream filling on it and then put another biscuit with the meringue on top of it. you can use some strawberries to decorate the cake and it’s pretty beautiful that way, if you want to know the truth.

However, as I didn’t have any strawberries then and I didn’t have almonds, either, I just used these cream fillings. Well, I had a little change, too, in the dough. Usually it’s a white dough, the plain dough, however, when I made that plain dough, then I divided it into two parts and I added some cocoa powder to one of them, so that I had two kinds of dough and one was white and the other one was black. And, as I had this large round baking pan, I poured those two doughs there and one half was for the white dough and the other was for the dark one and spread some meringue on it and baked it like that. And when the biscuit was ready, I just cut it into two parts, I mean, I had two halves of it and the one was plain and the other one was dark, you know. And I could just put them together with the cream filling between them and that would be just perfect. So, I put this white biscuit on the bottom upside down, and then I had this chocolate cream filling spread on all over it, and I spread it thickly, if you want to know the truth, because I had plenty of that cream filling. And, to be honest, there was some of it left, too , after that. So then, I put that dark half of the biscuit on that cream filling, however, this time its meringue was on top and then I spread the white cream on all over it, so that it was really thick, I mean, I put the whole cream filling that I had on top of it. and, well, as I had left some of that chocolate cream filling, I spread it on the white cream filling and it became all beautiful and stuff like that, you know. It looked just amazing. And, then I decided to decorate the cake with some chocolates, and I had these dark and white chocolate buttons and I just broke them into pieces and sprinkled them on top of the cake.

The cake looked really good, and tasted very delicious, if you ask me. It was so delicious, that I ate the whole cake myself, if you want to know the truth.

Well, I hope, that you liked the recipe and everything and I hope that you will prepare this cake and enjoy eating it or serve it to your friends and family, because it’s a really delicious cake and the Norwegians couldn’t be wrong about their national cake, of course. You know, they have this other cake, too, which they love so much and it didn’t became their national cake, rather this one became the national cake, so that you should think, that there must be something in this cake, that is worth tasting and, well, you should definitely taste this cake!

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