Cakes & Custards

🇦🇷Argentina

Patay

A sweet paste from Santiago del Estero made from carob (algarrobo) pods, shaped into small cakes. A pre-Hispanic, naturally sweet food of the Chaco and northwest.

🇦🇺Australia

Pavlova

Pav

A baked meringue dessert with a crisp shell and soft centre, topped with cream and fruit; Australia and New Zealand both claim its origin, so this record preserves the contested history.

🇦🇴Angola

Pavê de Ginguba

Layers of biscuit and ground-peanut cream chilled into a set icebox cake.

🇧🇳Brunei

Penyaram

A Bruneian kuih made from rice flour, corn flour and coconut milk, deep-fried so the broad crisp rim surrounds a soft, slightly chewy centre. The UFO-like shape is part of its named identity.

🇳🇮Nicaragua

Perrerreque

A Nicaraguan cornmeal cake with cheese and sugar, baked golden, a daily and home classic

🇩🇪Germany

Pflaumenkuchen

Pflaumenkuchen is a yeast or shortcrust sheet cake covered with halved plums whose juice sinks into the crumb.

🇵🇱Toruń, Poland

Piernik

Polish gingerbread cake, made with honey, spices (cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, pepper), and often layered with jam. A Toruń specialty and Christmas tradition, dark and spicy, a national dessert.

🇺🇸United States

Pineapple upside down cake

A cake baked with pineapple rings and cherries caramelized in butter and brown sugar, then inverted.

🇦🇷Argentina

Pionono

An Argentine rolled sponge cake filled with dulce de leche, cream, or savory fillings like ham and cheese. A classic of panaderías and home baking, sliced into pinwheels.

🇪🇸Andalusia, Spain

Pionono

A small rolled sponge cake from Santa Fe, Granada, soaked in syrup and filled with cream, named after Pope Pius IX (Pio Nono).

🇦🇷Argentina

Pionono Salado

A savory Argentine rolled sponge cake filled with ham, cheese, roasted peppers, lettuce, or tuna. Sliced into pinwheels for parties and picadas.

🇸🇮Styria (Slovenia), Slovenia

Pohorje Omelette

Pohorska omleta

Rolled sponge omelette filled with cranberry jam and whipped cream, invented in the mountain huts of the Pohorje range.

🇩🇪Germany

Poppy Seed Cake

Mohnkuchen

German dessert with poppy seeds, typically open-faced or streusel cakes with creamy poppy filling on shortcrust.

🇮🇪Ireland

Porter Cake

Cáca pórtair

An Irish rich fruit cake with stout, spices, and dried fruits, a festive and tea classic

🇵🇹Portugal

Portuguese Sponge Cake

Pão de Ló

Pão de Ló is a Portuguese sponge cake with a light crumb and, in some regional forms, a soft or partly molten centre.

🇷🇺Russia

Potato Cake

Картошка

Potato cake is a Russian dessert made from crushed biscuit or cake mixed with butter, condensed milk, and cocoa, shaped like a potato.

🇸🇮Slovenia

Potica

Thin-rolled yeast dough spread with a filling — most often ground walnuts beaten with cream and honey — coiled into a ring tin and baked. Counted in dozens of regional fillings: tarragon, poppy seed, cracklings, cottage cheese.

🇬🇺Guam

Potu

Potu is a steamed rice cake with a soft, slightly chewy crumb; it is portioned for a Chamorro snack or celebration table.

🇨🇦Quebec, Canada

Poutchine au sac

A Quebec 'bag pudding': a dense, boiled pudding cake of fruit and molasses, steamed in a cloth bag.

🇲🇺Mauritius

Poutou

Rice flour steamed in small cups with grated coconut and sugar until it sets into a soft white cake.

🇸🇪Sweden

Princess Cake

Prinsesstårta

Layer cake with sponge, vanilla cream, whipped cream, and raspberry jam covered in green marzipan.

🇲🇹Malta

Prinjolata

Dome of sponge, almonds, butter cream and pine nuts covered in white icing and drizzled with chocolate, built for Carnival.

🇩🇪Bavaria, Germany

Prinzregententorte

Prinzregententorte is a dessert made with a defined local recipe and ingredients.

🇵🇷Puerto Rico

Puerto Rican Brazo Gitano

Brazo gitano

A thin sponge rolled around guava, pineapple or cream cheese filling and sold by the whole log rather than the slice.

🇬🇫French Guiana

Pumpkin pone

Poné de citrouille

A traditional dessert cake of pumpkin and coconut in a cornmeal, water, and sugar batter with spices (cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla); baked until golden; a Creole sweet of French Guiana.

🇦🇹Vienna, Austria

Punch Cakelets

Punschkrapferl

Small square sponge cake cubes with nougat and jam, soaked in rum and covered in pink icing, a classic Viennese coffeehouse treat, festive and rich.

🇧🇳Brunei

Punjung

A named Brunei/Labuan kuih made from rice flour, shaped into a cone and filled with a soft jelly-like centre. The rice-flour cone is a sweet cake, separate from ketupat and other leaf-wrapped rice foods.

🇵🇭Philippines

Purple Bamboo Rice Cake

Puto Bumbong

A purple glutinous rice steamed in bamboo tubes, traditionally sold during Christmas Simbang Gabi masses.

🇵🇭Philippines

Purple Yam Rice Cake

Inutak

A purple yam and rice cake from Taguig, with a creamy, dense texture and a caramelized top.

🇲🇾Singapore, Malaysia

Putu Piring

Putu Piring is a steamed rice-flour cake filled with palm sugar and served with grated coconut.

🇵🇹Centro, Portugal

Pão de Ló de Ovar

A feather-light sponge cake from Ovar with a moist, slightly underbaked center.

🇧🇷Brazil

Pão de Mel

A Brazilian honey cake soaked in a spiced syrup, filled with dulce de leche and coated in dark chocolate. Moist, dense and popular as a gift.

🇲🇿Mozambique

Pão de Mel Moçambicano

A spiced Mozambican honey cake served with tea.

🇳🇮Nicaragua

Pío Quinto

A Nicaraguan rum-soaked layer cake with a custard filling, topped with meringue — a Christmas and fiesta favorite.

🇧🇱Saint Barthélemy

Pône

A dense St. Barthélemy coconut cake made from grated coconut, sugar, and cassava or wheat flour, baked until deeply caramelized.

🇸🇻El Salvador

Quesadilla Salvadoreña

A Salvadoran sweet cheese cake with rice flour, Parmesan, cream, and sesame seeds, a daily and breakfast classic