A Princess Torte for a Prince

The day before the baptism I baked and filled the cake. One of our girls came in the kitchen and asked what I was making. I said that I was making a Princess Torte. “A Princess Torte for a boy?” was the next question. I had to explain that it was just the name of the cake and that it would work fine for our little Prince Hugo.

The princess torte is originally Swedish and according to Wikipedia it was originally called Grön tårta or Green torte. The original recipe appeared in a cook book written by Jenny Åkerström who also taught the three daughters of Prince Carl, Duke of Västergötland. And since the princesses really came to like the cake, it was renamed “Prinsesstårta”. I really liked eating this cake as a child, as it was made and sold at the Wuollet Bakery, which is our family bakery. I don’t make it very often, but when I do, we savor each bite.

My Princess Torte for the baptism was not covered with the traditional green marzipan, but a creamy white. I tied a green ribbon around it in a little bow. For the cake I used a Victoria Sponge cake filled with pastry cream that had been mixed with whipped cream and fresh wild raspberries from the patch down the road mixed with a good quality raspberry preserve. I moistened the cake with a little milk. But it is important that the cake does not get too wet!

The Perfect Victoria Sponge (slightly altered from the Word of Mouth Blog)

I doubled the recipe below since I was serving a larger amount of people and wanted my cake to be taller with more servings. Instead of splitting the batter into two 21 cm/8 inch forms, I poured the doubled recipe into two 23 cm/9 inch forms.

3 large eggs weighed in their shells (mine were 200 g)
same weight of lightly salted butter, sugar and flour
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp milk
caster sugar on top (if preferred)

Grease and base-line two 21 cm/8 inch spring form pans.
Beat the butter and sugar until it is light and fluffy. Whisk the eggs together in a separate small bowl or glass and add them in little by little. Beat on high. I used the paddle attachment with my stand mixer. Mix the dry ingredients together and fold into the batter. Add enough milk so that the batter drops easily off of a spoon but does not run off. I used a little more than in the recipe. I poured the entire doubled batter into 23cm/9 inch forms.

Bake at 180 C/350 F for about 25-30 minutes or until a test skewer comes clean.

Allow to cool and split both cakes.

Pastry Cream

The custard in the pastry cream is the same as in my banana cream pie. It can be found here.
Once the custard has been chilled, whip 4 dl/1.7 cups of whipping cream adding 2 tablespoons of sugar to it. Mix the whipped cream with the custard until smooth. This recipe is generous and I did not quite use the whole amount of pastry cream with the cake. The little left over cream we enjoyed with some fresh raspberries.

Raspberry filling

300 g/10.5 oz good quality raspberry preserves or jam
4 dl/1.7 cups fresh raspberries
Mix the raspberries with the jam.
If using frozen raspberries reduce the amount of milk for moisturizing the cake since the frozen berries let out juice.

I spoon milk on each layer of cake(about 1.5 dl/ 1/2 c for the whole cake) before adding a layer of raspberry filling and then pastry cream. Spoon the pastry cream so that it starts to form a dome shape. Cover with cling film and refrigerate for at least a couple of hours or overnight.

Remove the cling film and trim the sides so that they are even. Spread a layer of buttercream over the entire cake. This helps the marzipan stick to the cake.

Basic buttercream (from the book, Maailman Parhaat Kakut by Barbara Maher)
125 g/4.4 oz unsalted butter
250 g/8.8 oz confectioners sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1-2 tbsp milk or cream to make it more pliable

Beat the room temperature butter with the sugar until it is light and fluffy. Add the vanilla and milk or cream until it has reached the desired consistency.

Roll 500 g/17.5 oz of marzipan on a table surface sprinkled with confectioners sugar. Gently lift it over the cake and smooth down starting from the top.

Macarons with a chocolate ganache and pistachio filling

These macarons are a great option for a party. Almost everyone likes them and they are gluten free as well for those who cannot eat gluten.

The macaron recipe used is from my Happy Easter post. The only alteration was the color of food coloring. This time it was green.

Filling:
1 dl/0.4 c heavy cream
175 g/6 oz dark chocolate cut into chunks
pistachio, finely chopped
(if preferred some fleur de sel)

Bring the cream to a boil and remove from heat. I prefer using the microwave. Add in the chocolate and mix until it is shiny and smooth. Add in the finely chopped pistachio. Spoon a little filling on half of the macarons and sprinkle a couple grains of fleur de sel on the ganache before covering with a second macaron shell. Due to the warm day, I stored mine in the fridge before serving.

Last weeks post has more on the baptism and its menu