Prinsesstårta
A Swedish cake whose recipe is attributed to Jenny Åkerström, cookery teacher to three Swedish princesses — hence the name. Its characteristic shape is not decoration but a consequence of construction: whipped cream piled into a tall dome gives the silhouette, which the marzipan merely covers. Which is why the cream must be whipped genuinely stiff — a loose one settles overnight and the cake flattens under the marzipan.
Your own work in that: 1 h.
- Sponge 45 min
- Custard 15 min
- Cooling 90 min
- Assembly 35 min
- Chilling 60 min
- Marzipan 25 min
Step by step
0 / 8 doneBake a tall sponge
Whisk the eggs with the sugar for 8 minutes to a tripled foam, fold in the sifted flour, starch and baking powder and bake 35 minutes at 175°C in a 22 cm tin. Cool and split into three even layers.
Ingredients: 4 pcs eggs · 150 g sugar · 100 g plain flour · 50 g potato starch · 1 tsp baking powder
Cook the vanilla custard
Bring the milk to a boil with the vanilla, temper the yolks beaten with sugar and cornflour and cook 3 minutes past thickening. Cool completely under film. It must be cold — warm custard melts the cream the whole structure stands on.
Ingredients: 350 ml milk · 4 pcs egg yolks · 80 g sugar · 35 g cornflour · 1 pcs vanilla · 200 g raspberry jam · 700 ml whipping cream (30–36%)
Whip the cream genuinely stiff
Whip the very cold cream to stiff peaks that do not curl on the whisk. This is not overstatement: seven hundred millilitres of cream has to hold a dome overnight under the weight of marzipan. Towards the end whisk more slowly and watch it — a few seconds too long and the cream starts turning to butter.
Ingredients: 350 ml milk · 4 pcs egg yolks · 80 g sugar · 35 g cornflour · 1 pcs vanilla · 200 g raspberry jam · 700 ml whipping cream (30–36%)
Build the two lower layers
Lay the first sponge, spread the raspberry jam, then all the cold custard. Cover with the second layer and spread a thin layer of cream. The order is fixed: jam always beneath the custard.
Ingredients: 350 ml milk · 4 pcs egg yolks · 80 g sugar · 35 g cornflour · 1 pcs vanilla · 200 g raspberry jam · 700 ml whipping cream (30–36%)
Pile a tall dome of cream
Pile on the remaining cream as a tall mound and smooth it with a spatula into a dome running evenly to the edge of the sponge. This mound gives the cake its silhouette — a flat layer gives an ordinary cake wrapped in marzipan.
Ingredients: 350 ml milk · 4 pcs egg yolks · 80 g sugar · 35 g cornflour · 1 pcs vanilla · 200 g raspberry jam · 700 ml whipping cream (30–36%)
A tall mound smoothed into a dome — this is the shape.Cover with the third layer and chill
Lay the third sponge over the dome, pressing gently so it takes the curve, and coat the whole cake in a thin layer of cream. Chill an hour — marzipan goes onto set cream.
Ingredients: 350 ml milk · 4 pcs egg yolks · 80 g sugar · 35 g cornflour · 1 pcs vanilla · 200 g raspberry jam · 700 ml whipping cream (30–36%)
Roll the marzipan very thin
Knead 400 g of marzipan with the green colouring to a pale green and roll it into a 35 cm circle, 3 mm thick, on icing sugar. Thin — thick marzipan dominates the flavour and cracks over the curve of the dome.
Ingredients: 500 g marzipan · 4 pcs green food colouring · 2 pcs pink food colouring · 60 g icing sugar
Three millimetres — thicker cracks over the curve.Drape the marzipan and shape a rose
Roll the marzipan onto the pin, unroll it over the cake and smooth with your hands from the top downwards, pushing out air. Trim the excess. From the remaining marzipan tinted pink, roll a rose from tapering petals and set it on top.
Ingredients: 500 g marzipan · 4 pcs green food colouring · 2 pcs pink food colouring · 60 g icing sugar
From the top down, pushing air ahead of your hands.
Before you start
The green should be pale
A classic prinsesstårta is pale pistachio green, not vivid. Add colouring a drop at a time and knead fully after each — the colour deepens for several minutes after mixing and is easy to overshoot.
The marzipan must be pliable
Firm marzipan cracks as it is draped. If stiff, knead in a teaspoon of glucose syrup or warm it 10 seconds in the microwave. It should feel like modelling clay, but not sticky.
Two days in the fridge
The cake keeps two days in the fridge, and the marzipan protects the cream from drying out. Sponge and custard can be made a day ahead — whip the cream and assemble only on the day of serving.
