Hulda Ottestad was an enterprising woman. To buy a café as a woman in Norway in the 1920s was a bold and unusual move, but that was exactly what she did. Café Alliance quickly became the posh place to be seen in Harstad in North-western Norway. Desiring to take her already thriving business to the next level, Hulda got in touch with a Danish pastry chef to buy a cake recipe that would add extra fame and fortune to her café. The Danish chef came up with something he called ‘The King’s Cake’ – a sponge cake baked with meringue and almonds and filled with custard and whipped cream. In Hulda’s version it became ‘Kvæfjord Cake’, named after her birth place. Soon its popularity went from a regional delicacy to a nationwide favorite, mostly made for celebrations deserving a little extra. A Norwegian musician even wrote a ‘Hymn to the Kvæfjord Cake’.
In 2002 a Norwegian radio program made a nationwide poll to find their listeners' favorite cake, and with no less than 69% of the votes ‘Kvæfjord Cake’ came in on top. With typical Norwegian modesty the cake with the now long forgotten Danish roots was simply announced to be ‘The World’s Best cake’.
So when we here at Amager Bryghus were contacted by the Bådin brewery from Bodø in North-western Norway – only a solid stone’s throw from Harstad and Kvæfjorden - to do a collaboration beer, it only felt natural to revive this cake in a beer. Sweet friendship in liquid form.
This beer is a collaboration made with Bådin from Bodø, Norway.