Cakes & Custards

🇩🇰Denmark

Aeblekage

Æblekage

Apple purée with caramelised breadcrumbs/macaroon crumbs and whipped cream.

🇿🇲Zambia

African Polony

Chikanda

Zambian dish made from boiled root tubers of wild ground orchids; mixed with groundnut meal, baking soda, and spices; boiled into a slurry that thickens into a cake; texture resembles bologna; also called African polony; eaten as a snack, dessert, or accompaniment to nshima; traditionally associated with the Bemba tribe; served at weddings and special occasions; a TasteAtlas-listed must-try.

🇱🇧Lebanon

Aish el Saraya

عيش السرايا

Toasted bread soaked in sugar syrup, layered under ashta or cream and finished with pistachios — a syrup-soaked Egyptian dessert.

🇲🇩Moldova

Alivenci

Maize flour beaten with fresh curd, eggs and soured cream, poured onto a cabbage or walnut leaf and baked into a squat golden cake.

🇬🇷Greece

Amygdalopita

Αμυγδαλόπιτα

An almond sponge soaked in syrup and perfumed with orange blossom, cut into diamonds and served with Greek coffee across the mainland.

🇦🇩Andorra

Andorran Sweet Flatbread

Coca masegada

Traditional Andorran sweet flatbread; synonymous with popular celebrations and special occasions; a sweet dough baked flat and topped with sugar and sometimes pine nuts; similar to Catalan coca; found at bakeries and festivals; the sweet flatbread of Andorran celebrations; a festive treat shared at gatherings.

🇺🇸United States

Angel Food Cake

An airy, snow-white sponge cake made only from whipped egg whites, sugar, and flour, baked in a tube pan.

🇰🇭Cambodia

Ansom Chek

អន្សមចេក

Glutinous rice wrapped around a banana with coconut milk and black beans, rolled in banana leaves and steamed for hours.

🇦🇬Antigua and Barbuda

Antiguan Sugar Cake

Sugar Cake

Chewy confection of grated coconut cooked down with sugar, often tinted pink and flavoured with ginger or nutmeg; a classic Antiguan sweet treat; the mixture is often divided into two batches, one coloured pink and the other left white, poured one over the other to form a pink and white cake; found at markets and schoolyards; the sugar cake of Antigua.

🇩🇪Germany

Apple Cake

Apfelkuchen

Traditional German apple cake in various forms including sheet cakes, tarts, and layered cakes.

🇷🇺Russia

Apple Charlotte

Шарлотка

Apple Charlotte is a Russian home-style cake made with apples and whipped egg batter.

🇩🇴Dominican Republic

Arepa Dominicana

A Dominican sweet cornmeal cake cooked with milk, coconut milk, sugar, and cinnamon, baked until golden. Different from the Colombian/Venezuelan arepa, it's a sweet, dense cake.

🇬🇵Guadeloupe

Avocado Feroce

Avocat Féroce

Spicy little cakes made with avocado, salt cod, and manioc; a Guadeloupean appetizer; perfect for an aperitif or starter; the avocat féroce that is a Guadeloupean bar snack.

🇲🇩Moldova

Baba Neagră

Dark, dense cake of maize and wheat flour with soured cream, butter and burnt sugar, baked slowly until the top blackens.

🇵🇱Poland

Babka

A Polish sweet, airy yeast cake, often with raisins, baked in a fluted mold. An Easter tradition, light and fluffy, served with coffee or tea, a national dessert.

🇺🇦Ukraine

Babka

Бабка

Babka is a Western Ukrainian Easter bread made with milk, butter, eggs, sugar, raisins, saffron, vanilla, and lemon peel.

🇧🇸Bahamas

Bahamian Rum Cake

Rum cake

A dense butter cake soaked repeatedly in dark rum syrup until it keeps for weeks without drying.

🇲🇾Malaysia

Bahulu

Light and airy texture with golden color, especially during Hari Raya.

🇧🇧Barbados

Bajan Sweet Bread

Sweet bread

A dense coconut loaf with cherries and raisins, brushed with sugar water so the top glazes, sold by the slab in bakeries.

🇺🇸United States

Baked Alaska

A dramatic dessert of ice cream atop sponge cake, blanketed in meringue and quickly browned in a hot oven.

🇵🇭Philippines

Baked Rice Cake

Bibingka

A rice cake baked in a clay pot lined with banana leaves, topped with salted egg, cheese, and butter, a Christmas staple.

🇨🇷Costa Rica

Baked Tamale

Tamal asado

Baked corn dessert with cheese, sour cream, sugar, and coconut, moist texture between cake and pudding, a Costa Rican specialty.

🇮🇩Indonesia

Bamboo Tube Cake

Putu Bambu

Steamed rice cake in bamboo tubes with palm sugar center, street snack

🇮🇩Indonesia

Banana Steamed Cake

Nagasari

Steamed cake with banana slices wrapped in rice flour batter and banana leaf, soft and fragrant.

🇬🇧Wales, United Kingdom

Bara Brith

A dense tea loaf of dried fruit soaked overnight in tea, mixed with mixed spice and baked, sliced and buttered.

🇪🇬Egypt

Basbousa

بسبوسة

A Egyptian semolina cake soaked in sugar syrup, topped with almonds or coconut, a daily and sweet shop classic

🇱🇾Libya

Basbousa Bil Tamr

A Libyan semolina cake sweetened with date syrup (tamr) instead of sugar, moist and sticky.

🇩🇿Algeria

Basboussa

An Algerian semolina cake soaked in syrup, dense and sweet, often topped with an almond.

🇸🇩Sudan

Baseema

A Sudanese semolina cake sweetened with syrup and scented with cardamom.

🇬🇧England, United Kingdom

Battenberg Cake

Pink and yellow sponge baked in four bars, joined with apricot jam in a chequerboard and wrapped in marzipan.

🇮🇳Goa, India

Bebinca

Goan bebinca is a many-layered coconut-milk and egg confection, baked one thin layer at a time until bronzed.

🇩🇪Germany

Bee Sting Cake

Bienenstich

German yeast cake with a honey-almond topping and vanilla cream filling, crispy and creamy.

🇸🇱Sierra Leone

Benne Cake

A crisp, sweet Sierra Leonean sesame wafer made by cooking sesame seeds in a sugar base, rolling it thin, and cutting it into diamond shapes; a traditional crunchy sweet snack.

🇸🇱Sierra Leone

Benni Cake

A Sierra Leonean sesame confection cooked with sugar into a crisp, nutty cake.

🇧🇲Bermuda

Bermuda Black Rum Cake

Black Rum Cake

A rich, dark Bundt cake made with flour, sugar, butter, eggs, pecans, and Gosling's Black Seal Rum in both the batter and the glaze; a year-round dessert but especially popular at Christmas and special occasions; a Bermudian tradition.

🇧🇩Bangladesh

Bhapa Pitha

ভাপা পিঠা

Ground rice flour packed loosely into a bowl over grated coconut and date molasses, then steamed through a cloth into a soft cake.