The kremšnitas are very popular throughout the country and are served in nearly every restaurant or pastry shop in Slovenia.

However, the original - patented by Sava Hotels and Resorts hotel chain - is only made by the patissieres at Park Hotel on the shores of the Alpine lake that boasts Slovenia's only island.

The cream cake was invented by Ištvan Lukačević, who moved to Bled in the 1940s from Serbia to become the pastry chef at Park Hotel.

To create the now famous dessert of custard and cream layered between thin sheets of puff pastry, Lukačević used a traditional recipe from his native region of Vojvodina, substituting half of the custard used in Vojvodina cakes with whipped cream.

In the past 60 years 12 million cakes have been made in Park Hotel. Stacked on top of each other like bricks the original kremšnitas could build a 6.5 metres high wall around some six kilometres of the Bled lake shore or form a line connecting Bled with Rome.

Since 1953, patissieres at Park Hotel used 106 tonnes of flour, 240 tonnes of sugar, five million eggs and 720,000 litres of milk to make the kremšnitas.

On any given day between 1,000 and 1,500 cream cakes are made, but on sunny spring and autumn weekends between 2,500 and 3,500 are made.

The record was however broken in the 1970s, when the lake frequently froze over attracting many ice skaters and up to 6,000 cakes were made on a single weekend.

Those interested to see how the kremšnita is made at Hotel Park can take a guided tour of the hotel's patisserie today.