Prinsesstårta Recipe and TotallySwedish’s 10th Birthday Party!

This Swedish layer cake is very festive and tasty; sponge cake, full of custard, raspberry jam, whipped cream, covered in a bright green marzipan and decorated with a beautiful pink marzipan rose. What more perfect celebration cake for TotallySwedish’s 10th Anniversary!?

The Prinsesstårta is a Swedish classic and a cake with history; it first appeared in print in 1948 and became known as the Princess Cake because it was the preferred sweet treat by the Swedish Princesses of the time. Today the cake even has its own official Prinsesstårta week and there’s no Swedish celebration without it!

So when TotallySwedish, the Scandinavian food store in London, turned 10 years – they celebrated with Prinsesstårta. And as this cake was so tasty we had to ask for the recipe, to share with you of course!

Ingredients
For the vanilla custard
600ml whole milk
1 vanilla pod, split in half lengthways and seeded scraped out
6 free-range egg yolks
100g caster sugar
50g cornflour (or ‘potemel’)
50g unsalted butter

For the raspberry jam
200g/7oz raspberries
175g/6oz jam sugar

For the sponge
4 large free-range eggs
150g white caster sugar
75g cornflour (we use ‘potetmel’)
75g plain white organic flour
1 tsp baking powder
50g butter, melted

Filling and decoration
750ml pints double cream
50g dark chocolate, melted
For the marzipan
400g ground almonds
150g caster sugar
250g icing sugar, plus extra for dusting
2 medium free-range eggs, beaten
1 tsp almond extract (optional)
green food colouring paste
red food colouring paste for the rose

Method
Vanilla custard
Add milk, vanilla seeds and the vanilla pod into a pan and place over a low heat until simmering. Remove from the heat. In a large bowl, whisk the egg yolks, sugar and cornflour together until pale and creamy. Remove the vanilla pod from the warm milk. Stir the warm milk slowly into the egg mixture. Pour the mixture back into the pan and cook over a low heat for 4-5 minutes, whisking, until the mixture is very thick. Remove from the heat and beat in the butter until melted and incorporated. Pour the custard into a bowl, cover with clingfilm and leave to cool. Set aside to chill in the fridge.

Raspberry Jam
Add fresh raspberries into a deep saucepan with the sugar and two tablespoons of water. Cook gently over a low heat, stirring occasionally, until the sugar is dissolved. Bring the mixture to the boil and boil vigorously for a few minutes. Transfer to a heatproof bowl and leave to cool completely.

Sponge
Set the oven to 180C. Grease and line the base of a 24cm springform tin. Whisk together the eggs and sugar until pale and thick. Sift the cornflour, flour and baking powder over the mixture and carefully fold in using a large spatula. Then fold in the melted butter. Pour the mixture into the tin and bake for 25-30 minutes until the sponge is golden-brown. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool.

Assemble the cake
Cut the cake horizontally into three even layers. Place one of the sponges onto a serving plate and spread a very thin layer of custard over the base. Then spoon a layer of raspberry jam. Then
whip 600ml of the double cream and fold half of it into the remaining custard. Spread one-third of the custard cream over the jam, before placing the second sponge on top and spread over the remaining custard cream. Place the third sponge on top. Spoon over the remaining whipped cream covering the sides and smoothing into a small dome shape on the top. Set aside in the fridge for an hour.

For the marzipan, mix the ground almonds and sugars, before adding the eggs and almond extract. It’s a lot easier to make your marzipan than what you would think and it tastes so much better when homemade. Knead in the bowl until it forms a stiff dough. Turn out onto a surface dusted with icing sugar.
Put aside some marzipan for the rose, to which you add the red food coloring. See how to make the marzipan rose, here. Note that the marzipan rose needs to sit in the fridge for at least 1 hour, so make this one before the cake!

Add a tiny amount of green food colouring and knead to the dough features a bright green colour. Roll out the marzipan on a surface lightly dusted with icing sugar, to a 40cm in diameter circle. Lift the marzipan up over the cake and shape it around the sides of the cake to get a smooth finish. Trim any excess. Add more green food colouring to the excess to make rose leaves.

Dust lightly with icing sugar before placing the rose and the leaves at the top of the cake.

Here are a few photos from the 10th Anniversary party at TotallySwedish in Marylebone, London.

Totally Swedish decorated for it’s 10th Anniversary.

Supplier Jon Anders from Amathus Drinks and Annethe from TotallySwedish.

Tasting of Swedish products, like this 100% blueberry all-natural-goodness drink.

Little A having some Prinsesstårta and enjoying the party.

A small flavour of what’s on offer at Totally Swedish

Annethe Nathan, the founder of TotallySwedish, to the right and Little Scandinavian’s Bianca to the left.

I first discovered Totally Swedish in the Spring of 2012 when chatting to a Norwegian friend about what we missed about Scandinavia. I mentioned Scandinavian food, to her surprise, as most things, as she told me then, are available from Totally Swedish. And what a delightful discovery! The charming little shop is situated in 32 Crawford Street, just a stone through away from Baker Street and Marylebone. There’s another branch in Barnes too, plus an online shop, at totallyswedish.com

So, anyone up for Prinsesstårta? Let’s get baking! x