Cakes

(Sorry - this is a rerun from a few years ago...)

Norwegians love their cakes, and with good reason – they are incredibly tasty.  It’s too bad we even have to use the same word in English to describe what they call “kake” because I’ve never tasted anything in America that even comes close to the heavenly mouthfuls of dessert I eat when in Norway.

Cakes are always served at birthday parties, confirmations, baptisms, weddings and any time someone wants people to show up, because if it’s an occasion that calls for a cake, a large turnout is assured. Many churches even serve cake and coffee after the service as a guaranteed way to keep people lingering around and visiting with one another.  No one passes up the opportunity to eat cake - and as my waistline can attest, neither do I.

A Norwegian party is not at all like an American one where we serve one cake, big or small, depending on the number of people expected.  Norwegians serve several cakes and often plan to have one cake for every two people in attendance.  Since all the cakes are different, it’s easy to justify having more than one piece.

My favorite cake has a ground almond/egg white/sugar bottom baked in a spring form pan with ice cream or custard piled on top.  They also make a mean marzipan cake and their cheesecakes always come with a Jello “frosting.”  They also make a fruit cake nothing at all like our Christmas variety – it has a crust made of ground up walnuts and Ritz crackers baked with egg whites and sugar, then mounded with whipped cream and fresh fruit.  Where they come up with these combinations is beyond me, but they are forever in pursuit of great cake recipes. 

Norwegians are generally very composed, but all that changes when they see a table covered with a variety of cakes - the squeals of delight can often be heard by the neighbors.  The more cakes the merrier, and as one cousin says, “We don’t leave until all the cakes are gone,” so parties often last until the wee hours of the morning.

The only weird custom I noted about the whole cake thing is that they don’t cut them symmetrically. If it’s a round cake, we Americans might cut things in nice pie shaped slices - but not Norwegians - any old miss-shapen hunk out of it will do. Same thing with the rectangle cakes – no square cuts for them – they just slice off a piece any old which way and eat as much as they want.

Considering how many ways Norwegians are orderly and precise, it surprises me they are so sloppy with their cake cutting. I guess it’s gotta come out somewhere.