Princess cake ('Prinsesstårta') – recipe

Approximately 8 portions.

Ingredients:

Sponge cake: 

• 4 eggs
• 140 g of caster sugar
• 2 dl of self-raising flour
• 25 g melted butter

Vanilla / Custard cream:

• 6 egg yolks
• 6 dl double cream
• 6 dl standard milk 
• 1 vanilla pod
• 3 tbsp of caster sugar
• 4 tsp cornstarch

Mounting:

• 300 g/10,5 oz of frozen raspberries
• 6 dl double cream
• 600 g marzipan, green coloured
• 50 g marzipan, pink coloured (to shape the rose)
• Icing sugar

Method:

1. Begin with the sponge cake. Grease and flour (or line) a round tin with removable edges (about 24 cm in diameter). Add egg and caster sugar to a bowl that fits in a saucepan with water. Bring the water to boil meanwhile whisking the eggs and sugar. Whisk and heat the mixture until it is about 60°C (140°F). Measure with a kitchen thermometer. Remove the bowl from the saucepan and continue whisking (or whisk it in a stand mixer) at low speed until the mixture is cooled down and you have a white and fluffy egg batter. It takes about 10 minutes. Sift and fold in the flour, 1/3 at a time, in the batter (use a spatula). Finally, fold in butter into the egg batter. Pour the batter into the cake tin and bake in the middle of the oven at 180°C (355°F) for about 30 minutes or until the cake is set. Allow the cake to cool completely, loosen the tin sides and cover the cake with cling film or a kitchen towel. Don’t worry that the cake will be dry, it's even better if you bake this the day before assembling the cake. 
   
2. Now make the vanilla cream. Mix everything in a saucepan (add both seeds and the scraped pod from the vanilla pod) and boil on medium heat while stirring. Leave to boil until the mixture thickens, and then pass it through a fine sieve. Pour the sauce into a clean bowl and place it in a cold water bath. Whisk the sauce until it has cooled down and is nice and thick. You might have to change the water in the water bath to cool it quicker. Vanilla cream can be prepared 1-2 days before making the actual cake. 
   
3. Divide the sponge cake into three parts (use a long sharp knife, such as a fillet knife). Take the first bottom of the sponge cake and put it on the cake stand (cut wide strips of parchment paper and lay them around, they can then be removed when the cake is finished). Spread a layer of vanilla cream over the bottom layer of the cake, and divide the raspberries on top of the vanilla cream. Put on the middle bit of the cake on top of this. Add vanilla cream and form it into a little hill in the middle. Lay the top layer but turn it upside down to have the cut side up. Add a big dollop of cream and shape this into a soft hill in the middle. Then cover all visible portions of the cake with cream.
   
4. Press the marzipan into a round marzipan lid big enough to cover the cake. Save some of the marzipan to form small leaves for the rose (or use what you cut away from the edges of the cake when shaping it). Put the lid on top of the cake, and shape it around the sides, using your hands so that there are no folds. Cut off leftover marzipan at the bottom of the edge. Dust the cake with icing sugar. Make a small rose of the pink marzipan and use some leftover green marzipan to create small leaves to decorate your Swedish princess cake.
   

Recipe by Lisa Lemke