Prinsesstårta … or simply a princess cake for #Pinktober

“Cake is happiness! If you know the way of the cake, you know the way of happiness! If you have a cake in front of you, you should not look any further for joy!”
C. JoyBell C.

Prinsesstårta … a princess cake my way to mark Pinktober. Every October begins with a pink cake in support of breast cancer research, or Pinktober, as it is popularly known. October is the National Breast Cancer Awareness month. International campaigns are run each year to raise awareness and funds for research. In addition, the campaign also offers information and support to those affected by breast cancer.

The first week of October sees Mr PABs birthday and he’s grown used to a pink birthday cake. I might be torn for time, tired to the bone, might not bake a cake on any other occasion but the Pinktober one is never missed. Neither is the ribbon. You can see the pink on my earlier  Pinktober posts, else catch them on my PINK board on Pinterest.

The pink ribbon is an international symbol of breast cancer awareness. Pink ribbons, and the color pink in general, identify the wearer or promoter with the breast cancer brand and express moral support for women with breast cancer. Pink ribbons are most commonly seen during National Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

A Princess cake or prinsesstårta is the lads most favourite cake of all time. Years ago I did a recipe testing for Helene of Tartlette which included a Bavarian cream. That was a princess cake of sorts. We still remember how fantastic that cake was, a benchmark of sorts for birthday cake.

A princess cake (prinsesstårta in Swedish) is a traditional Swedish layer cake consisting of alternating layers of airy sponge cake, raspberry or strawberry jam, pastry cream, and a thick-domed layer of whipped cream. This is topped by marzipan, giving the cake a smooth rounded top. The marzipan overlay is usually green, sprinkled with powdered sugar, and often decorated with a pink marzipan rose.^[1][2]

The original recipe first appeared in the 1930s Prinsessornas Kokbok cookbook, which was published by Jenny Åkerström, a teacher of the three daughters of H.R.H. Prince Carl, Duke of Västergötland. The cake was originally called grön tårta (green cake), but was given the name prinsesstårta or “princess cake” because the princesses were said to have been especially fond of the cake.

My version of the prinsesstårta is a little off the traditional mark, just slightly. The layers of the traditional Swedish cake have jam and pastry cream. I skipped the jam as I thought my pastry cream was sweet enough. The dome of whipped cream wasn’t going to happen as I used a low fat 20% cream, so I stabilised it with gelatin. The dome happened in an upside down manner which is how I built up the cake and left it to set overnight.

I hoped it would look fine the next morning …and it certainly did much to my delight! The other deviation was of course the marzipan cover for the cake. I made marzipan too that morning but it did not behave. At all. With October being unseasonably warm at 40C this year, the marzipan really sweated and wouldn’t roll out.

I had to do a rapid rethink as I didn’t want to jeopardise the poor stabilised dome. That would have been a disaster so my next best option was a chocolate coating, tricky but doable. The idea is to have the chocolate coating at a cool, or almost same temperature as the cream dome so that the dome doesn’t melt. It was touch and go. I won!! Sort of.

The dome wasn’t as smooth as I expected it to be, or like I wanted it to be but given the weather, I was happy I had the cake covered! Left to set in the fridge, you can see the uneven bits, or maybe refer to it as an artisanal finish? Taking pictures was difficult again as the icing threatened to melt.

I used the marzipan to make a couple of hurried roses etc. Then the quintessential PINK ribbon. Minimalistic was the sensible and possibly only way to go. Stuck it all on and was just grateful to have a cake. Once cut, the honours done, it was fantastic to taste.

Much to my delight, the boy immediately exclaimed, “Yay, a Princess Cake! I just saw it on the Simpsons this morning.” What a delicious coincidence! The prinsesstårta layers behaved well while being sliced, the cake itself a winner on all counts {other than smooth looks!}. Light, airy, flavourful, creamy and a celebration! Try and challenge yourself to make this, right side up if possible, else use my way home. This is a cake every baker must make at least once. Must!

I’ve done a real fun version of Swedish Prinsesstårta Cupcakes with the Daring Bakers in May 2013. It was hot as hot can be back then, but much easier to do little cupcakes than one huge domed prinsesstårta. Also, then the marzipan was store bought and possibly more smoother and easier to handle than home made. If you rather do pretty cupcake prinsesstårta, then here’s the place to be.

[print_this]Recipe: Prinsesstårta, Princess cake for Pinktober

Summary: Prinsesstårta. Light, airy, flavourful, creamy and a celebration! Try and challenge yourself to make this, right side up if possible, else use my way home. This is a cake every baker must make at least once. Serves 10-12

Prep Time: 1 hour Total Time: 2 hours plus cooling, chilling time
Ingredients:

• Strawberry sponge {Make 2 X 3 egg cakes}
• 6 eggs
• 170g sugar
• 170g plain flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• pinch salt
• 1 tsp strawberry essence
• 1 tsp vanilla bean powder {or vanilla extract}
• 1 tbsp Grand Marnier {optional}
• few drops red food colour {optional}
• Simple sugar syrup
• 25ml water
• 50g sugar
• Pastry Cream
• 4 eggs
• 100g sugar
• 40g cornflour
• 250ml milk
• 200ml low fat cream
• 1 vanilla bean, scraped
• Whipped Cream
• 400ml low fat cream, chilled
• 1 tsp gelatin, sprinkled over 2 tbsp warm milk, cooled
• 75g icing sugar
• 1 tsbp Grand Marnier, optional
• Chocolate coating
• 200g 70% dark couverture chocolate
• 80g unsalted butter
• 20g honey
• Marzipan for roses and ribbon etc

Method:

1. Sponge Cake
2. Line 2 loose bottomed 8″ baking tins with parchment paper.
3. Place the eggs and sugar in a large bowl and whip on high speed till thick and moussey, 8-10 minutes. Add the strawberry essence, pinch of salt, baking powder and vanilla bean powder {and liqueur and food colour if using} and beat again.
4. Sift over the flour in 4 lots, gently folding in each time.
5. Transfer the batter into the 2 tins and bake at 190C for 35-45 minutes until done.
6. Cool on racks, then cut horizontally into 2 layers each.
7. Pastry Cream
8. Whisk the egg yolks and sugar with a wooden spoon in a big bowl until the mixture becomes pale and light. Stir in the flour slowly until it is thoroughly mixed with the egg mixture.
9. Pour the boiling milk into the mixture a little by little while whisking continuously to avoid curdling. And then stir in the rest of the cream until the mixture is well combined.
10. Transfer the whole mixture into a pot, with the seeds scraped from the vanilla bean, and heat it under low setting. Stir it constantly with the wooden spoon or spatula scraping the sides and bottom until it has thickened quite  a bit.
11. Once the custard has thickened, take it off the heat, and strain it into a clean bowl. Cover top with plastic wrap, cool and chill.
12. Once chilled, whip in 1 cup of the reserved whipped cream from below until silky smooth. The pastry cream will be quite thick.
13. Thermomix Recipe
14. Place sugar and vanilla bean in TM bowl, and process for 30seconds on speed 10.
15. Add remaining ingredients, plus vanilla bean shell and cook on 90C/Speed 4 for 7 minutes {until thick}. Strain into a bowl immediately to cool. I chilled it overnight.
16. Sugar Syrup
17. Place sugar and water in small pan, simmer until the sugar melts. Cool.
18. Whipped cream
19. Whip cream and sugar on high speed until medium high peaks form. Whip in liqueur if using. Gently fold in the gelatin mixture. Reserve 1 cup for pastry cream
20. Assemble
21. Take a glass bowl the top of which can comfortably fit the cake {think upside down}. Line it with cling wrap overlapping the sides.
22. Turn the whipped cream into the bowl, level out and place the first layer of sponge on it. Paint with sugar syrup, and add 1/3rd pastry cream. Level it out. Repeat with the remaining layers of sponge, using the sugar syrup and pastry cream.
23. {I used mousse strips to keep the side of the sponge and pastry cream in place}
24. Cover the bowl with cling wrap or foil, and lave to set in the fridge as is {cream side at the bottom}
25. Next morning, turn the cake onto your serving platter, and gently peel off the plastic wrap that lined the bowl. {Refer picture}
26. Chocolate coating
27. Place chocolate, butter and honey in a heatproof bowl and melt over double boiler until the chocolate is melted. Stir until smooth. Cool to a nice room temperature {the chocolate shouldn’t be warm at all else it will melt the dome}
28. Gently pour over the cake so that the chocolate covers the dome right around.
29. Chill in fridge
30. Garnish with marzipan roses etc if required.
31. Chill until ready to serve.
32. Slice with a sharp knife dipped in hot water and wiped dry to get neat slices.

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