Sawsan Abu Farha @ Chef in disguise Cake, Cake decoration, Daring bakers, Dessert

Swedish prinsesstarta

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Korena of Korena in the Kitchen was our May Daring Bakers’ host and she delighted us with this beautiful Swedish Prinsesstårta!

This was one of the best tasting cakes I ever made! It was light, full of flavor and perfectly balanced. I know it seems like alot of work but with a little planning and breaking up the work over a couple of days it becomes really easy! I made this cake over the weekend and the kids helped me make and decorate it. We had a blast.

I am used to working with fondant (both marshmallow fondant and gelatin fondant)and I was looking forward to trying marzipan but I made a couple of mistakes with it because this is my first time. I did not get the almonds fine enough and as a result the marzipan was not as smooth as I would have liked it to be. Then there was coloring it, I couldn’t find gel food coloring and the liquid colors I used made the marzipan sticky. Last but not least, I rolled the marzipan too thin, and as a result the finished cake was not as smooth as I would have liked it to be. Still I really liked the taste of marzipan, it is not overly sweet as fondant is and the kids actually ate it and loved as opposed to leaving it on their plates as they usually do with fondant

Despite all that, the cake was a huge hot at home. The whole family loved it and I know I will be making it again and again.

Thank you Korena for an amazing challenge

princess cake

Traditional Swedish Prinsesstårta

Servings: 8 – 10. Makes one 9” round cake.

Egg-free Marzipan Recipe

(adapted from Cake Central)

Ingredients

4 oz (115 gm) ground almonds

8 oz (225 gm)  icing sugar

¼ cup (60 ml) corn syrup

½ teaspoon (5 ml) almond extract

1 tablespoon (15 ml) lemon juice or water

Directions:

1. Place the ground almonds and icing sugar in the bowl of a food processor and pulse to combine and break up any lumps

2. Add the corn syrup and almond extract and pulse again to combine. The mixture should be quite dry and crumbly still.

3. With the food processor running, slowly drizzle in the lemon juice, stopping as soon as the mixture starts to clump together.

4. Scrape the marzipan out onto a work surface and knead it into a ball. Wrap in plastic and chill overnight in the refrigerator to let the flavours ripen. Makes just over 1 lb.

Pastry cream

You can find the recipe here

Strawberry jam

You can find the recipe here

Sponge Cake

Ingredients

Fine dry breadcrumbs for the pan (such as crushed panko)

4 large eggs, at room temperature

1 cup (240 ml) (225 gm) (8 oz)  granulated white sugar

½ cup (120 ml) (70 gm) (2½ oz) all-purpose (plain) flour

½ cup (120 ml) (65 gm) (2¼ oz) potato starch (or cornstarch)

1 teaspoon (5 ml) (5 gm) baking powder

1/8 teaspoon salt

Directions:

Preheat the oven to moderate 350°F/180°C/gas mark 4 with a rack in the lower third of the oven.

Thoroughly butter a 9” (23 cm) round springform pan, line the bottom with a circle of parchment paper, then butter the paper.

lining the pan

Dust the buttered pan with enough breadcrumbs to coat the bottom and sides, just like flouring a cake pan. Set aside.

Place the eggs and granulated white sugar in a mixing bowl and beat on medium-high speed with an electric mixer or stand mixer with whisk attachment until the eggs are tripled in volume and very light coloured and fluffy, about 5 minutes. The mixture should fall from the beaters in thick ribbons. Don’t overbeat the eggs – once they form thick ribbons and stop growing in volume, stop beating.
 Sift the all-purpose (plain) flour, potato starch, baking powder, and salt into a bowl, then sift the flour mixture over the whipped eggs. With a balloon whisk, fold the flour into the eggs until blended, keeping as much air in the batter as possible. Use large, gentle yet confident strokes, bringing batter from the bottom of the bowl to the top. Once mixed, the batter should be quite thick and smooth.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan, spread it out evenly, and bake in the lower third of the preheated moderate 350°F/180°C/gas mark 4 oven for about 40 minutes or until golden brown on top, springy to the touch, and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with a few moist crumbs sticking to it.
Let the cake cool in the pan for a few minutes then run a knife around the edge and remove the sides of the springform pan. Don’t worry if it sinks a bit in the middle.
Invert the cake onto a cooling rack and peel off the parchment paper. If the cake is lopsided, press gently to make it level, then allow it to cool completely before continuing. The cake can be made a day ahead and stored, well-wrapped in plastic, at a cool room temperature.
princess swedish cake

Marzipan Covering and Rose

Ingredients

10 oz (285 gm) marzipan

Green and yellow food colouring

Icing sugar or corn strach, for rolling Red food colouring

Directions:

Set aside a small amount of plain marzipan (about the size of a walnut) to make a rose for decoration.

Knead the remaining marzipan on a surface dusted with icing sugar until it becomes softer and smooth (the warmth from your hands will help this).

Add a small amount of green food colouring (I used 3 or 4 drops of liquid food colouring) and knead it into the marzipan to get the desired shade of green. You might need to add a little more green or yellow food colouring to get the right colour – anything from pastel green to bright spring green (just not neon green!) Wrap tightly in plastic and refrigerate until you are ready to cover the cake (or store as directed on the marzipan package).

To make the rose, tint the reserved plain marzipan with a tiny bit of red food colouring.
Dust your work surface with icing sugar and roll the marzipan into small balls. With a rolling pin or your finger tips, roll the balls out into thin circles. Use plenty of icing sugar  or corn starch so that the marzipan doesn’t stick.
rose petals

Begin rolling up one of the circles to form the center of the rose

Making marzipan roses

Add petals by placing the center of the new petal on the place where the previous petal ends. You will need 6-7 petals per rose

Gently flare out the petals of the rose with your fingertip.

marzipan rose

When the rose is large enough, cut off any remaining marzipan ribbon. Pinch off the excess marzipan from the bottom of the rose and set aside to dry slightly.

princess cake@ chef in disguise

Prinsesstårta Assembly

Ingredients

2 cups (480 ml) heavy cream, chilled

Granulated white sugar, to taste

Sponge Cake, cooled

1/3 cup (80 ml) homemade strawberry jam

Creme patessier, chilled

Marzipan Covering and Rose

Icing sugar, for rolling and dusting

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, whip the heavy cream until soft peaks form. Add sugar to taste (keep in mind that the rest of the cake components are sweet, so the whipped cream should be very lightly sweetened at most) and continue whipping the cream until stiff. You want it to be sturdy enough to provide structure to the cake, but not over-whipped enough to make butter. Set the whipped cream aside.

2. With a long serrated knife, slice the sponge cake into three even layers. This cake is very delicate, so do this as carefully as possible. Use a gentle sawing motion to move the knife through the cake instead of trying to pull it through the cake. Use a spatula to help you lift off each layer after you cut it. Set aside the middle layer – this will become the top layer of the assembled cake as it is the most flexible and therefore easiest to bend into a dome over the whipped cream.

3. Place one of remaining layers on a cake board or serving platter and spread it evenly with the strawberry jam.

filling princess cake

4.  Add the second layer of cakeSpread or pipe half the chilled pastry cream leaving enough room around the edges so that it doesn’t spill over the sides of the cake.

5. Reserve ½ cup (120 ml) of the stiffly whipped cream. Pile the rest into a mound on top of the custard. Spread it into a thick layer with a thin, flexible spatula or off-set spatula, then hold the spatula at an angle to shape the whipped cream into a dome, piling it up in the middle of the cake as much as possible.
6. Place the final layer of sponge cake (the one cut from the middle of the cake) on top of the whipped cream. Do not press on the top of he cake – instead, gently tuck the edges of the cake layer into the whipped cream, so that they are flush with the cream. This will create a smooth, seamless dome on top of the cake.
7. Gently spread the reserved ½ cup (120 ml) of whipped cream over the entire cake to fill in any cracks and even out the surface. If necessary, refrigerate the cake to firm it up before continuing.
layering the princess cake

8. Dust your work surface with icing sugar and press the marzipan into a 6-inch (15 cm) disc (knead it a bit to warm it up first). Coat both sides with icing sugar and roll it out into a 14” (35½ cm) diameter circle less than 1/8” (3 mm) thick. Use plenty of icing sugar to prevent it from sticking. Alternatively, you can roll the marzipan out between two wide sheets of parchment paper (still use plenty of icing sugar).

marzipan

9. Use the rolling pin to drape the rolled-out marzipan sheet over the cake and smooth it around the cake gently with your hands.

If it seems like it wants to fold or buckle around the cake, gently lift and stretch it away from the cake with one hand while smoothing it down with the other.
Trim the excess marzipan from the bottom of the cake with a paring knife or spatula blade.

10. If desired, cut leaves out of the scraps of green marzipan (you can knead in another drop of green food colouring to make the leaves a slightly darker green). Use a paring knife to score vein-like lines, then pinch one end of the leaf to give it some shape.
Dust the cake with icing sugar, then place the marzipan rose and leaves in the middle of the cake. (You can also use melted chocolate, royal icing, or piping gel to pipe a design on top of the cake, if you wish.)

11. To serve, cut the cake into wedges with a large, sharp knife (run the blade under hot water and wipe it clean after every cut for neater slices). The cake can be served immediately but will be easier to slice after chilling in the refrigerator for at least an hour.

sliced cake

Notes

There are other flavor combinations for this cake that I look forward to trying

  • Hallonprinsesstårta, or raspberry prinsesstårta, made with custard, whipped cream flavoured with raspberry jam, whole raspberries, and topped with pink marzipan
  • Karl-Gustav tårta, made with custard, sliced banana, a chocolate-covered meringue disc replacing the middle layer of cake, and covered with yellow marzipan
  • Williamtårta, made with custard, poached pear, whipped cream, topped with marzipan, covered with a shiny chocolate glaze, and garnished with toasted sliced almonds

If you are allregic to almonds or simply don’t like marzipan, other options to decorate the cake would be

Any marzipan substitute needs to be quite soft and pliable when rolled out and placed over the cake, as a very gentle hand is required to smooth the coating over the cake to keep it from being squashed.

Storage & Freezing Instructions/Tips:

The finished Prinsesstårta should be refrigerated until serving, and any leftovers refrigerated as well. Ideally the cake is eaten the day it is made, but will keep in the refrigerator for a day or so, after which it may lose its structural integrity and aesthetic appeal (but it will still taste good!)

princess swedish cake