Suksessterte (Norwegian Almond “Success Cake”)

I had been waiting until Easter to bake a suksessterte (also called suksesskake and gulkake, or success cake in English), mostly because it’s a festive yellow, but I couldn’t wait any longer so I made it a few days early. But this way you’ll have time to get the ingredients to bake your own suksessterte for Easter! Norwegians will also bake this for any kind of celebration throughout the year, including weddings, confirmations, and holidays.

Suksessterte is a Norwegian almond cake with a lovely yellow egg cream frosting. The almond base is very simple, made with just eggs, almonds, sugar, baking powder, and a couple spoons of flour, and the yellow cream is equally simple, made with egg yolks, sugar, vanilla, and heavy cream.

Suksessterte has always been my favorite Norwegian cake, and in fact I’d say it’s always been my entire family’s favorite cake. My mom usually makes this so I was nervous to make it myself, but I’m happy to report that this is the most delicious cake I have ever baked.

Okay but here is suksessterte’s dirty little secret: suksessterte might actually be Swedish.

Suksessterte was first named in “Den lille bakeboken” which was actually a translation of a Swedish cookbook! In the Swedish version the cake is called King Oscar II’s cake. Apparently suksessterte, also called almond cake in Sweden, was often served at Swedish royal engagements at the end of the 19th century and it was King Oscar II’s favorite cake. Though interestingly King Oscar II also ruled Norway from 1872 until Norway gained independence in 1905. So I guess since he was ruling over Norway, that makes the cake Norwegian as well?

But what matters most here is that suksessterte is delicious and incredibly popular in Norway today.

You’ll often find suksessterte served at Norwegian cafés and bakeries, but to be honest I gave up ordering them because none were ever nearly as good as my mother’s – hers is somehow more flavorful. But don’t worry, she has generously shared her suksessterte recipe with us here so you’ll definitely be making the most delicious version of this almond cake.

Out of curiosity I did compare her recipe to other recipes I found online, and I think I might have figured out the secret: most suksessterte recipes only use egg whites in the almond base, whereas her version uses whole eggs, including the yolks.

As with her fantastic sachertorte, my mother found this recipe in an Alt Om Mat magazine from sometime before 1991, back when Queen Sonja was still the Crown Princess. My family is in good company here, because according to the magazine, suksessterte is also Sonja’s favorite. This recipe comes from Crown Princess [now Queen] Sonja’s handwritten cookbook.

Queen Sonja’s version is a bit fancier, decorated with marzipan, whipped cream, and exclusive candied violets that the magazine recommends buying on your next trip to London. But for us commoners the yellow egg cream alone is topping enough.

I’ve also seen some bakeries drizzle chocolate over the yellow cream, but if you make a good egg cream the chocolate is unnecessary (and detracts from the delicious egg cream flavor).

Tips

Whisk the eggs and sugar until they are combined, but no longer. You don’t want the mixture to get too much air in it.

The baking time will depend on how big your cake form is. I bake mine for about 45 (maybe 47) minutes using a 27 cm (10.6 inch) springform. If you’re using a smaller form you might need to bake longer (around 50 minutes) so that the center cooks through. I bake the cake until the top starts to turn dark brown (before burning) and that ensures that the cake is fully baked but still nice and moist in the center.

I start preparing the egg cream after I put the cake in the oven, because then it will have plenty of time to cool to room temperature before I add in the room temperature butter. It’s crucial that the butter and the egg mixture is the same temperature when you combine them, otherwise the egg cream will thin out.

Cook the egg cream on low enough heat that it doesn’t quite boil, but high enough heat that it does thicken. If you’re unsure if it has thickened it probably hasn’t. You can raise the temperature if it still isn’t thick after fifteen minutes – just make sure it doesn’t reach a full boil as the eggs will start to curdle (a few small bubbles are okay).

I sometimes use an electric mixer when adding the butter, to make the cream a bit more fluffy, but it’s not necessary.

Flip the cake over after taking it out of the form so that you can frost the smoother bottom of the the cake.

You can switch the recipe from US measurements to metric by clicking from “US Customary” to “Metric” under Ingredients.