Oops, and not forgetting:
Sherry trifle
Summer pudding (although that one makes me gag - wet bread)
You can buy it in the supermarkets here; as part of the Toppa brand range. I know Woolworths carries it, because I’ve bought it from there in the past. Every Ice Cream parlour I’ve ever been into also has it, FWIW.
For those of you that have never tried it, it’s vanilla ice-cream with small bits of toffee in it. It’s very nice and well worth trying- if all else fails, find a New Zealand Natural ice-cream parlour and get some off them. While you’re at it, you can try L&P (a New Zealand soft drink) too. 
According to wikipedia, it’s vanilla ice cream with bits of toffee in it. Sounds yum.
And that’s what it’s all about.
d&r
Actually, I think I have tried it. I have a taste memory of it.
I think my only exposure to that stuff is in ice cream parlours, alongside a zillion other flavours that generally aren’t used at home. I might pick some up at Woolies - thanks for the tip, M E. Been meaning to try L&P too - I see it in heaps of places in Sydney these days (in some areas of this city you’d swear you were in Inzid).
In all seriousness, WRT the “state dessert” question above, I really can’t think of an appropriate one for California. This state is just so diverse in so many ways, food included. If there were to be one dessert to unite us all, though, I imagine it would have strawberries in it.
Mmmm. Strawberries.
Seriously, fresh strawberries, like fresh avocados, are something that other people just don’t seem to “get” the way Californians do. I was sort of thinking about those little differences earlier today when I walked into McDonald’s for the first time in a year. As I reacquainted myself with the reasons I hadn’t eaten at McDonald’s in a year, I looked at the promotional picture of their new breakfast burrito and wondered where on earth people outside of California got the idea that a burrito is an appropriate place for bell peppers. It seems pervasive, and it doesn’t make a damn lick of sense. I mean, really, now. You got your pork, your potatoes, your cheese, your eggs–you don’t need bell peppers. Quit while you’re ahead, people.
These are all good stuff, but just as Chicken Tikka Marsala has become our national main course, wouldn’t ice-cream be our dessert?
Remember to double your insulin injection.
For Quebec, I’d go with pouding chômeur, which, depending on a variety of factors, is also spelled pouding chomeur, pouding du chomeur, pouding au chomeur, pouding du chômeur, pouding au chômeur, pudding chomeur, pudding chômeur, chomeur pudding, poor man’s pudding and gimme some dat, tabaranac!
For the rest of the blessed nation, I’d have to just go with ice cream until Thanksgiving, when every ice cream shop shuts down, and then Betty Crocker Snackin’ Cake till Easter.
In Bulgaria, I’d say creme caramel, but I think that’s borrowed from someone else. It’s pretty ubiquitous, though. Or maybe fruit with yogurt. (Bulgarian yogurt is world-famous in Bulgaria.)
But if you’re going to nominate Nanaimo bars, I guess I could nominate prepackaged sweets, in which case I vote for vafli (wafers). Yum! I’d send you all some vafli so you could see how tasty they are, except they’d probably get crushed in transit.
No sticky toffee pudding?
I agree that Pecan Pie is the National Dessert of Texas. Perhaps topped with a scoop of Blue Bell Homemade Vanilla ice cream?
But Tres Leches Cake is moving up fast.
For Maryland, I’m going to say Banana Pudding. Sometimes it even has bananas, although around here it commonly does not.
For Canada, I say Butter Tarts; although Tarte au Sucre is indeed delicious (I’ve made it for my cousin’s Quebecois husband), it’s not well-known in the West, where the men are handsome and the women foolish enough to bake them foreign desserts. 
What surprises me is that pavlova is so completely unknown in the US, since it would fit right in with the love of sugar and cream.
So much so, in fact, that I feel I should post the Wikipedia entry on pavlova. There is a recipe link at the bottom of the page. They’re not too hard to make, although in Australia there are “pavlova mix” kits, and you can buy them ready to eat in supermarkets and cake shops. I’d be interested to hear the opinion of any Americans who want to try their hand at making one.
They are very nice. And of course, you refer to the thing as a “pav”.
My husband’s favorite dessert is Pavlova (he’s Australian), so I’ve gotten quite good at making them. I usually order cans of passion fruit pulp from the Australian Catalogue Company. I’ve made it quite a few times for potlucks, etc. here in the U.S. and it always gets rave reviews. People love it and several have asked for the recipe. Here in the American South, there’s a little pocket of people sitting around eating Pavlova and listening to Weddings Parties Anything. [hijack]There’s a bar we used to frequent in Coastal South Carolina that allowed you to bring in your own CDs for the juke box. My husband brought WPA and we left it there when we moved. It had become a bar favorite and everyone used to sing along to Ticket in Tatts.[/hijack]
GingeroftheNorth, banana pudding? Really? I’m from MD and we did used to eat banana pudding every once in awhile (the recipe from the back of the Nilla Wafer box), but I had no idea that was a Maryland thing. I’m not sure what I would pick instead, though.
That is a beautiful image, beyond words. sniff
No fruitcake? No plum pudding? And I’m normally the one in the humbug mood in early December 
No it isn’t.
According to a poll in one of the national radiochannels, Kvæfjordkake is the national dessert now.
It’s a cake with a meringue topping and some sort of vanilla cream.
I am however more used to karamellpudding as a default dessert 
I have no idea what Korea’s national dessert would be. Something to do with sweetened red bean paste, I would imagine. Rice cakes, perhaps?
Or rice cakes filled with nuts and brown sugar. Mmmm.
Google is my friend:
Italian New York: cannoli. Maybe tirami sù if you’re feeling a little fancy.
Jewish New York: cheesecake from a recognized purveyor.
Upwardly-mobile-eating-out New York: crème brûlée, ideally browned with a blowtorch for that all important touch of gonzo.
Iowa: ahhhh, shit. I suppose it would have to involve Jell-O.