Those technical challenges on The Great British Bake Off just seem to get harder and harder. Last week it was Paul Hollywood's devilishly difficult mini pear pies, while tonight, things stepped up a gear with "Swedish princess cake". This right royal sweet treat required 14 different stages - and the poor bakers only had two-and-a-quarter hours to make it.
But what's the story behind this unusual confection? Swedish princess cake is probably the most famous cake in Sweden, with no birthday or celebration considered complete without one. Consisting of alternating layers of sponge, crème patisserie, whipped cream and jam topped with a layer of green marzipan, it was originally published as "green cake" in a book by the home economics guru Jenny Akerström, in the 1940s. It gained its more regal moniker because it was particularly popular with the Swedish princesses Margaretha, Märtha, and Astrid, who Akerström taught.
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In Sweden, the fourth week in September is known as the week of the “Prinsesstårta”, with a proportion of each sale donated to Crown Princess Victoria’s Fund - a charity for chronically ill and disabled children in the country. All the cakes are decorated with a little crown to celebrate.
if you want to sample this classic Swedish treat, London's Scandi Kitchen, a café and shop which sells Britain's biggest range of Scandinavian food, sells readymade princess cake - but if you fancy getting your apron on, Bronte Aurell, co-founder and director, has an excellent recipe which isn't too tricky to make at home. You can dye marzipan green easily enough with food colouring, but readymade green lids are available in the shop. We don't imagine the royal princesses could be bothered to get their hands dirty.
Scandi Kitchen's Swedish princess cake recipe
INGREDIENTS
- 75g raspberry jam
For the vanilla patisserie cream
- 1 vanilla pod
- 500ml whole milk
- 6 egg yolks
- 140g caster sugar
- 45g corn flour
For the cake layers
- 5 eggs
- 150g caster sugar
- 130g plain flour
- 1 tsp vanilla sugar
For the whipped cream
- 700ml whipping cream
- 2tbs icing sugar
- 1tsp vanilla sugar
To garnish
- 1 marzipan lid (available at Scandi Kitchen) - or 300g marzipan and green food colouring
- 1 tsp icing sugar
Marzipan rose
- 40g marzipan
- 1 drop red food colouring
- 1 drop green food colouring
METHOD
To make the patisserie cream, split the vanilla pod and scrape out the seeds and add to a saucepan with the milk. Bring to the boil. Take care not to burn and turn off heat as soon as boiling point is reached.
Whisk the egg yolks and sugar until it goes almost white, then turn off the whisk and add the corn flour. Turn the whisk back on medium and slowly add the hot milk to the bowl, whisking continuously.
Pour the mixture back into the saucepan and bring back to the boil and cook for 1 minute to thicken. Turn off, sieve the mixture into a bowl, cling film and cool down completely in the fridge before using.
Heat the oven to 200C/400F/gas 6
Trace 3 identical circles onto baking paper – approximately 20-22 cm diameter. Place baking paper onto flat baking trays.
To make the cake layers, whisk the egg and sugar until white and fluffy. The key here is to whisk for a long time to incorporate as much air as possible as there are no raising agents in the mixture.
Sift the flour and vanilla sugar into the egg mixture and fold, very carefully, until completely incorporated. Preserve as much air as possible, so fold carefully but thoroughly.
Carefully divide the batter between the three circles and ensure batter fills the circles all the way around, neatly.
Bake in the oven until just golden brown and done – this will depend on your oven, but 5-6 minutes is usually fine.
Remove from the oven and leave to cool completely on a cooling rack. Very carefully remove the baking paper – if it sticks, wet the back of the paper a little bit and it should come off with more ease.
On high speed, whisk all ingredients for the whipping cream until stiff peaks form. The cream needs to be quite firm to hold when decorating the cake – but take care not to over whip.
Place the first layer cake on the plate you wish to serve on. Spread a nice layer of raspberry jam, follow by a 1cm thick layer of the patisserie cream. Add another cake layer and repeat over again and then add the final cake layer on top (You may have a bit of excess patisserie cream left over).
On the top sponge layer, carefully add the whipped cream in a slightly flat “dome” shape – you will need to use a spatula here to get it quite smooth all over. You’re looking for around 3-4 cm “top” on the cake. Then carefully place the marzipan lid on top and over the edge of the cake, making sure the sides are completely covered and smooth. If you make your own marzipan lid, add the food colouring to the marzipan and roll it out into a round shape which you then put on the cake.
Sift powdered sugar on top, then use a piping nozzle and any leftover whipped cream to pipe rosettes of cream around the edge to hide the bottom of the marzipan and any folds.
To make an easy rose garnish, add few drops of food colouring to the marzipan – add icing sugar if it gets too sticky. Roll out a 1 mm thick piece, 2cm wide and around 10cm long. Roll it up loosely, nip the bottom together, spread the leaves a bit and voila: a marzipan rose for the top of your cake.
This cake greatly improves after a few hours in the fridge so all the flavours are soaked into the cake layers.
Great British Bake Off: Swedish princess cake recipe
Total time: 2 hours
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