Swedish Princess cake (Prinsesstårta)

Today is my birthday! This birthday cake brings me back to my childhood, so I just have to share it with you.

This is a Swedish Princess Cake which is a classic Scandinavian torte with layers of sponge cake, strawberry jam, vanilla custard and whipped cream. On top is marzipan tinted green.

This cake has a long history, and I found some information about it; it was founded by Jenny Åkerström, in 1920. She was a home economics guru working for the princesses Margaretha, Martha and Astrid. They loved the cake that much, that the name became Princess cake. Still today, the cake is baked all over Sweden and is popular for all special occasions.

With that said, my mom always baked this cake on my and my siblings birthdays. The problem was only, at that time, I didn’t like the sweet marzipan layer. Today, that is my favorite part. 😉

It might look advanced and difficult to make, but it is not. Just follow the instructions below. And remember, there is many different colors available when it comes to food color, it’s just that the most common colors on our Princess cake is green or pink (using small amount of red food color).

Ingredients (1 cake):

Sponge cake

• See my cake recipe here

Filling and topping

• 1 cup vanilla custard (see my vanilla custard recipe here)
• 4-5 tbsp strawberry jam
• 1 1/2 cup whipped cream
• 1 tbsp confectionary’s sugar

Marzipan

• 1 1/3 cup whole almonds
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 egg white
• 1 1/2 tbsp water
• 1 1/2 cup confectioner’s sugar
• 2-3 drops green and red food color

Start with preparing the sponge cake. Slice it into three layers (keep it in the freezer for half an hour before slicing the layers, that make it much easier).

Then prepare the vanilla custard, see recipe here. Or you can use a ready one if you prefer.

Place the lower layer of the sponge cake on a serving plate. Spread the strawberry jam all over the first layer cake. Place the second sponge cake layer on top of the strawberry jam. Then, spread the vanilla custard over the whole second cake layer. Place the third and last cake layer on top of the vanilla custard.

Whip the whipped cream in a bowl with an electric handmixer. Whip until it’s thick (not liquid), but stop before it gets too wrinkly. Spread the whipped cream over the whole cake, also on the side. Try to cover the whole cake, but if you see some parts of the cake, it’s ok because it will be covered by the marzipan layer. On top of the cake, try to make a conic shape so it’s more cream in the middle. This will help when you place the thin layer marzipan on top.

Marzipan

Place the almonds in a sauce pan. Cover them with water and heat until they simmer. Now scald and then peel the almonds (drain in cold water, otherwise they can be really hot). Let them dry on a paper towel.

Place the almonds in a food processor. Add the sugar and mix together until it’s a fine powder. Add the egg white and 1 tbsp water and now mix until you have a dough. Add the confectioner’s sugar little by little. If the dough feels dry, add additional water. Now the marzipan is done.

When the marzipan is done. Take a 1/2 inches piece and save it for the rose. Add 1 drop red food color into this marzipan piece and knead until the marzipan piece is pink. In the biggest part marzipan, add 2-3 drops green food color. Use your hands and knead the color into the marzipan.

With the rest, use a rolling pin and roll the marzipan to a thin circle. Use more confectioner’s sugar if the marzipan is too sticky. When you are happy with the size of the circle (big enough to cover the cake), roll the thin layer marzipan on to the rolling pin and lift it up above the cake. Start from one side, roll the marzipan layer over the cake. Now use your hands to carefully press the marzipan onto the sides of cake. Pull it a bit to avoid the marzipan to fold and try to keep it stretched. Use a knife to cut off the marzipan edges that were too much. Then try to press the cut edges in underneath the cake.

Sprinkle confectioner’s sugar over the cake.

Take the pink marzipan piece and roll it out to a thin rectangle with the rolling pin. Take one of the short sides and roll it sidelong towards the other short side. Bent the edges carefully on the side where the circles are wider from each other. Stick the rose into the marzipan layer.

Roll out some of the left over green marzipan. Take a knife and shape two leaves. Place them next to the rose.

Smaklig måltid!

My plate is my grandma’s retro plate.