There's loads of cake under the alphabet K’s thumb and most are humble ones or using a generous amount of custard. Baked, no-bake to assembled cakes, each country has their signature cakes shaped by decades of the country’s history, migration and the various communities that have thrived in their spaces. Here are some of the dessert cakes starting with K.
A dessert from Indonesia, Kuih lapis is a pudding-like cake made from rice flour. It has sago (tapioca), sugar, salt, coconut milk, and food coloring that dyes the dessert green, pink or red. The ingredients are mixed and steamed and it looks like a layered pudding with a bouncy texture. It's then cut into pieces and served. It's popular in Malaysia, Brunei, Singapore and Suriname.
This cake is also known as Cardinal Slice and comes from the musical city of Vienna, Austria. It's a layered meringue cake and the colours of the cake are supposed to represent the Catholic Church colours of white and gold, represented by the yellow of Genoise sponge cake and the white of the meringue. The thick meringue has a strong flavor of coffee and the topping is either jam or fresh berries. The cake batter uses cornmeal and is quite airy with a little crunch on the outside as you bite into it. Pair it with a glass of sweet one and take a bite.
Perhaps one of the most rare desserts in the world, this Greek dessert uses watermelon and is a specialty of the Greek island of Milos during peak summer. The watermelon flesh is mixed with flour, sugar, thyme honey, cinnamon and olive oil. This is transferred to a baking dish, flattened and topped with sesame seeds and baked. A crispy crust forms on the watermelon while the inside remains pillowy soft after baking.
One of the select steamed desserts of Malaysia made with rice and tapioca flour, Kuih kaswi is a beautiful dark brown colour that comes from the local palm sugar used to prepare it. The pudding is steamed in small Chinese cups that make them jiggly and have a certain shape and these are served with dessicated coconut. Modern versions use pandan leaves instead of adding the dark palm sugar which makes them a more appealing bright green.
This is a German cheesecake with a thin shortcrust pastry and the soft filling is made of quark cheese and eggs. It might look similar to the American cheesecake but the use of quark cheese makes it both sweet and sour. It's often dusted with powdered sugar and had partly inspired the Japanese souffle-like cheesecake.
Kyiv cake or Kyivski tort comes from Ukraine's capital city and this cake doesn't use sponge cake. Instead the cake is made of a meringue with nuts in it because of which it has a crunch to it whilst being airy. The nuts used are generally walnuts but over the years it was replaced with cashews then hazelnuts. The meringue layers are sandwiched using buttercream frosting in vanilla and chocolate flavours. It's sprinkled with more nuts and left to chill for the cake to turn into a silky mousse.
Coming from the Croatian region of Međimurje, is Krapci which is a traditional cake. The cake is made with the usual ingredients with cottage cheese, sour cream and heavy cream and also fillings like walnuts, apples and cinnamon. They are baked in woodfire ovens and you will find them during local festivities and social occasions in some parts of Croatia.
A traditional Norwegian cake that comes from the Kvæfjord from the island of Hinnøya. The cake has meringue layers, vanilla cream, and sliced almonds. This cake has a local nickname that dubs it the “world's best cake”.
This Polish dessert is a variation of the classic cremeschnitte, a delicious custard treat popular in many central and eastern European countries. In its simplest form, kremówka has vanilla-flavored pastry cream between two layers of thin, crisp puff pastry. It is usually dusted with powdered sugar, some variations add a layer of whipped cream. In Poland, kremówka is also called Napoleonka, named after a similar French dessert with three layers of puff pastry coated with pastry cream.
Another cake from Croatia, this one is a chocolate cake made with sugar, eggs, almonds, chocolate, breadcrumbs, and a bit of prošek (sweet wine). It hails from the Kastela area in Dalmatia and the breadcrumbs that go into the cake are soaked in the sweet wine and egg whites. It's baked in the oven and then glazed with a mix made of chocolate, sugar and butter diluted with water. It's chilled and served with halved almonds.