Swedish princess cake

Sponge cake

Preheat the oven to 175 degrees C. Cover a baking pan (approx. 23 cm) with parchment paper and grease and flour. You can skip the parchment paper, but it makes it easier to take out the very soft cake after baking.

Whisk eggs and sugar white and fluffy, at least for 5 minutes with an electric mixer. This is the most important part of the cake. If you don’t whisk it really well, you will get a flat and hard sponge.

Mix flour, potato starch, vanilla powder and baking powder in another bowl. Sift the flour mixture into the egg mixture. Fold gently with a spatula to a smooth batter.

Pour the batter into the baking pan and bake in the lower part of the oven for about 30 minutes. Check with a toothpick if it’s dry before taking the cake out. Let the cake cool for 10-15 minutes, and then remove from the pan. Let cool completely.

Vanilla Custard

Add all the ingredients in a saucepan and stir together.
Simmer on low heat until the cream begins to thicken. Don’t forget to stir constantly. When thick, pour over to an bowl and cover with plastic film.

Putting the cake together

Whip the whipping cream thick. I suggest you put half a pinch of baking powder in it before whipping. That gives you a firm cream but prevents it from get buttery.

Divide the sponge cake into three parts and place the top layer as a bottom layer of the cake. Cover with the jam, and put the second layer of cake on it. Cover this cake with your vanilla custard, and put the last cake on top of this. I like to put the side I have cut agaist the vanilla, so I get the stiff cake bottom on the top. Remove the parchment paper if it’s still there.

Pour all of the cream on top of the cake and make a rounded shape of it. You want most of the cream in the middle. Cover the sides of the cake with a thinner layer cream. Place the cake in the fridge to set while you roll out the marzipan.

Knead the marzipan until it becomes soft. I use cornstarch to roll out the marzipan, and if you have a rolling mat, use it. Make sure to roll the marzipan as big as possible. I use 500g of marzipan because I like a thin layer of it. If you want in thicker, use 750 g. I had leftovers even from the 500 g, but that’s because of the cutting around the cake edge.

Turn the marzipan over the cake. Smooth out and cut off excess marzipan.

Melt the chocolate and drizzle it on the marzipan in desired shape. Sift some icing sugar on that, and you have an impressive princess cake ready! Let it rest for at least 1 hour in the fridge before eating.