Princesstårta

(the Swedish princess cake)

When I came to Sweden, I came to know that this cake is my husband's favourite. That's when I decided to make it for his birthday and started research on it. I had to take recipes form different places and blend them up so that it looks and tastes like the one you get at Maxi. It's supposed to be a very easy recipe, but well, I'm new to baking.
This was a surprize for him and he was certainly happy that I made it just after 3 months of being in Sweden. I think things work best when you do them for a special reason, in a special spirit. :)
So here goes!

THE BASE

I made the cake from Kungsörnen's sockerkaka (which means sugar cake or sweet cake). It costs something like 13 kr. The instructions on the packet say you need to add water, and if you want it softer, u can add an egg and little butter. I added all three.

When the cake is cooled down to room temperature, slice it into three layers. My cake wasn't very thick, so i made only two layers. Also remove the bulging brown part on top.

If you know any other way of making a simple sponge cake, you can use that.
OR you can easily get a 'tårtabotten' from market that is already sliced into three layers. Costs almost 13 kr.

For a neat result, be careful while handling the layers of the cake, don't let them break.

THE LAYERING

The special things about Princesstårta are Raspberry jam (Hallon sylt), vanilla custard (vaniljsås) and the layer of marsipan (tårta lock).
Try not to miss out any of them for best results.

This video is not very good but still gives an idea about layering.

Layering from bottom to top:

1. A layer of cake.

2. A generous amount of Hallon sylt (Raspberry jam). The layer should be 1/4 of an inch. I used Bob's squeezy Hallonsylt because it's easy to use and doesn't have bits of berry.

3. A layer of whipped cream, about half an inch thick.

You can use any cream that is almost 35 to 40 % and is called 'vispgrädde'. You will need almost 500 to 700 grams. Whip it slowly with an electric beater until it becomes ready. Add a little vaniljsocker (vanilla sugar) while whipping, that helps the cream to harden and stay hard.
Don't over-whip and don't go too fast, otherwise it will turn into butter.

4. A layer of cake.

5. Vaniljsås (vanilla custard). You can shop a powder that you only have to whip with cold milk to make vaniljsås. I took 'Ekströms Marsan - snabb vaniljsås'. It was a 90 grams packet and I used both the satchets inside. The instructions ask you to add 6 dl milk, but the trick for a thick custard is to add only 3 dl. Do check that there are no Haram E-codes, if you buy any other.

6. Layer of cream about half an inch thick. But if you have only two layers, make this layer as the final one.

7. Last layer of cake.

8. Now comes a thick layer of cream that should be spread in the form of a dome, almost an inch thick in the center and slanting towards the edges to almost a fourth of an inch. Cover the sides with little cream as well.

9. Tårtalock (Marsipan). Available in Green (grön), pink (rosa) and white (vit) colours. I got the from MAXI and it was from ICA. There were non-halal E-codes on the green and pink one, so I used the white one. This video might be helpful in learning how to cover the cake with marsipan. You don't need to roll the ready- made marsipan of course.

10. Sprinkle some icing sugar (florsocker) on top with the help of a stainer.

11. The pink marsipan rose/ roses and/or green leaves. You can buy them ready-made from the store. I couldn't find the leaves though. OR you can buy marsipan and make the roses yourself. OR you can use a real rose.

This is what my cake looked like.