Name: Swedish Princess Cake
Prep time: 75 min
Cook time: 25 min
Total time: 100 min
Ingredients: 500 ml Whole milk; 1 Vanilla pod; 45 g Cornflour; 6 Egg yolks; 140 g Caster sugar; 150 g Caster sugar; 5 Eggs (large); 1 tsp Vanilla extract; 130 g Plain flour; 200 g Raspberry jam ((or strawberry is good too)); 700 ml Double cream; 2 tbsp Icing sugar; 1 tsp Vanilla extract; 450 g Natural Marzipan; Green food colouring; 50 g Dark chocolate; Pink sugar flower(s)

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If you've not heard of a Swedish Princess Cake before then you are in for a treat! It's made up of layers of light genoise sponge, filled with creme pattiserie, jam and whipped cream. Then it's covered with green coloured marzipan and decorated with dark chocolate and sugar flowers. You may remember it being a technical challenge on The Great British Bake Off, and it is quite a complex bake with several different stages. I spread it out over a couple of days by making the creme pattiserie and the genoise sponge the day before, then I assemble and decorate it before serving the next day. If you are up for the challenge I can promise you it's worth it, as it's absolutely yummy!!

For the full recipe with measurements, head to the recipe card at the end of this post.

How to make Swedish Princess Cake

Start by making the creme patisserie as it needs time to cool down. In a pan on a low heat, warm the milk with the seeds from a vanilla pod until it starts steaming. In a food mixer, whisk up the egg yolks and caster sugar until they are pale and thick. Add cornflour to the egg mixture and let it combine, then turn the mixer back on and pour the warm milk in slowly. Then pour the egg and milk mixture back into the pan and heat it up whilst continuously stirring. There is a moment when it suddenly starts to thicken and at that point, start whisking to keep it smooth and stop any lumps.

Once the whole mixture is thick and smooth, take it off the heat and put it in a bowl. Cover it with cling film, making sure the cling film is touching the top of the creme pattiserie. Then leave it in the fridge to cool. Next make the genoise sponge. In a food mixer, whisk up eggs with caster sugar until pale and super thick. When you lift the whisk out the mixture that falls off should stay on the surface for 3 seconds before sinking in - this is called the ribbon stage.

Fold plain flour into the egg mixture very gently so as little volume is lost as possible. Then put it in the tin and bake the sponge for 25 minutes. Once it is fully cool, carefully cut the sponge into three pieces and put the first piece on a cake stand. Spread a thin layer of the creme patisserie onto it, then pipe a border of it around the edge and fill the middle with jam. Put the second sponge on and spread over more creme patisserie and another border around the edge. (Traditionally, there is only meant to be one layer of jam, but I love jam so I added it to both layers!) This time the jam got some whipped cream on top of it too. Place the final sponge layer on, then spread double cream over the whole cake, making a dome shape on top. Then knead green food colouring into natural marzipan and roll it out, then covered the whole cake with it as neatly as you can, and trim the edges. To finish the Swedish Princess Cake, melt some dark chocolate and pipe a design on top, and add some pink sugar flowers too.

When the Swedish Princess Cake was cut the layers were not very well defined as I cut into it immediately! If you let it set in the fridge for an hour the layers will look much better when you cut it. It's a very indulgent cake and there is obviously a ton of cream, so I think the jam is a nice fruity way to offset the sweetness. And even if you are not a huge fan of marzipan, it's not overpowering.

Tips for making the Swedish Princess Cake:

You need to use natural marzipan to cover the cake (as opposed to golden marzipan) because this will take the green colour better. Or if you don't fancy using marzipan, you could cover it with green fondant too.
You can make your own pink flower decoration for the top if you like with pink fondant.
If you can't get hold of a vanilla pod for the creme pattiserie, you can stir vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste in at the end.
If you let the cake set for an hour or so in the fridge before slicing, the layers will be better defined after cutting - as you can see from my photo I didn't wait!

Troubleshooting

If you have any questions about this recipe, or if something went wrong and you need help, please use the comment form below and I will get back to you. You can also get in touch with me on my Twitter, Instagram or Facebook. I'd love to hear from you!

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