Princess Cake
Classic swedish princess cake.
Classic Swedish princess cake (prinsesstårta) is excellent for all types of celebrations. The cake, which is filled with cream, raspberry jam and vanilla cream and covered with colored marzipan, is an authentic Swedish classic and a favorite for the whole family - about half a million of them are sold in Sweden every year. When the Crown Princess daughter Estelle was born in 2012, the princess cakes were sold out all over the country.
The marzipan coating is normally green and powdered with a little icing sugar. A red or pink rose of marzipan is also a common decoration. The cake comes in many other varieties, including yellow (prince cake), pink or red (opera cake) coating. Instead of making a round cake, it is possible to make one (or more) oblong instead, which is easier to decorate with the marzipan coating and can be cut into a number of princess cakes.
The name princess cake has been around since the end of the 19th century, but then referred to other recipes than what we today consider to be a princess cake. The first time a recipe was published in a cookbook was in 1948 and it was compiled by Jenny åkerström. In that cookbook, the cake was called "green cake". Although all the varieties I have eaten over the years have contained raspberry jam, it is not actually part of the original recipe. The original coating was not marzipan either, but almond paste. Jenny åkerström was a food writer and home economics teacher who held a housewife school in Stockholm in the early 20th century. Some of her students were princesses Margaretha, Märtha and Astrid. Jenny collected the recipes used in the training in the cookbook "Prinsessornas kokbok husmanskost och helgsdagmat".
Princess Cake Week falls September 20-26. During this week, SEK 10 of each purchased princess cake (SEK 2.50 of each princess cake) goes to Victoriafonden that works to provide support to chronically ill and disabled children and young people.
You should not be discouraged by the amount of ingredients and steps in the recipe, but this cake is excellent to make at home with a little practice. However, I put it in the category of "difficult" as some parts of the recipe require a little practice before perfecting it. A little trick can be to instead of a round cake, start with 2 oblong instead as this is easier to shape and then cut into pastries instead. Another thing to keep in mind is when making the sponge cake, do not skip sifting the flour - it will easily become lumps if you do not. When beating eggs and sugar, do not stop too early - feel with your fingers and make sure you do not feel any sugar crystals - then it is ready. You must also be careful when turning the flour in the egg batter so that you retain as much of the air you have whipped in - otherwise the sponge cake may not rise as intended in the oven. When you then cut up the sponge cake, you must also be careful as it is a little fragile - just be careful and use aids such as frying pans or other flat and wide kitchen utensils to lift the various layers in place. I used a pizza spade last time and it worked really well actually. Should you get a sponge cake that is not high enough to divide into 3 layers, you can simply divide it into 2 layers instead and put both fillings in this layer - no one who eats the cake will complain.
If you want to cheat a little, you could buy both sponge cake base and finished marzipan in many larger Swedish grocery stores. I think I have seen finished marzipan decorations as well.
Ingredients
Directions
- Set oven to 175 degrees celsius.
- Whisk 240g egg and 200g sugar until you cannot feel any sugarcrystals in the batter.
- Sieve 60g all purpose flour, 70g potato starchand 6g baking powder to get rid of any lumps - fold the dry ingredients into the sugar/egg mix.
- Melt 25g butter, fold into the batter.
- Pour the batter into a springform pan (about 24 cm diameter), place low in the oven and cook for 35-40 minuter.
- Allow it to cool.
- Mix all ingredients (300g double cream, 300g milk, 6 eggyolks, 30g corn starch, 40g sugar and 1g vanilla powder) in a pot.
- Heat while stirring until proper consistency.
- Allow it to cool.
- Cut the cake into 3 layers.
- First layer - sugercake with raspberry jam spread across it.
- Second layer - sugarcake with half of the vanilla cream.
- Now add the third sugar cake layer.
- Whisk the rest of the double cream (500g) hard and add the rest of the vanilla cream. Put the cream mix on top of the third layer and creat a done-shape.
- Mix the marsipan with green food coloring and roll to a thin sheet. Use corn starch to stop the marsipan from sticking. Roll the marsipan sheet on a wide rolling pin, roll out on top of the cake and cut off any excess marsipan. Use a small amount of the marsipan (50g) and red food coloring to create a simple rose.
- Melt the chocolate (57 degrees celsius) and curl over the cake. Place the marsipan rose on top of the cake.
- Let the cake rest in the fridge for a few hours and preferably overnight.
- The cake lasts 2 days in the fridge. You should not powder the cake with icing sugar until just before serving.
Nutrition Facts*
| Total | Serving | 100 g | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Energy | 7189 kcal | 599.08 kcal | 350 kcal |
| Carbohydrates | 704.52 g | 58.71 g | 34.30 g |
| Fat | 438.32 g | 36.53 g | 21.34 g |
| Protein | 125.5 g | 10.46 g | 6.11 g |
| Sugar | 523.15 g | 43.6 g | 25.47 g |
| Salt | 3.29 g | 0.27 g | 0.16 g |
* The nutritional information provided is approximated and calculated using the ingredients available in the database. Info will vary based on cooking methods and brands of ingredients used.I am not a certified nutritionist. Please consult a professional nutritionist or doctor for accurate information and any dietary restrictions and concerns you may have.
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Drygast
Foodie, amateur cook, software developer, dog owner and generic old guy.
