Fyrstekake (Norwegian Prince’s Cake)

We are so excited about today’s recipe! It’s our first attempt at posting a Norwegian recipe, so we certainly hope we do it justice. But also, this cake is just so delicious and classic! It combines some of our favorite flavors – almond, vanilla, and rum – along with the BEST buttery and flaky pie dough. All of these elements come together to create a lovely masterpiece called fyrstekake, or prince’s cake.

The recipe is quite simple! The dough is similar to what you would use for hindbærsnitter or medaljer, and it’s not too difficult to work with. Just make sure you aren’t overhandling it, or it will begin to melt and cause you problems! The filling is a combo of almond flour, powdered sugar, egg whites, almond extract, and rum. It sounds a bit weird, but trust me, it turns out super moist and delicious!

The hardest part of the recipe is probably the lattice decoration, and even that looks a lot more difficult than it is. If you’re confused by our instructions at all, a quick Google or YouTube search can also help you! Anyway, we hope you try out the recipe below and let us know if you do 🙂

Fyrstekake (Norwegian Prince’s Cake)

4.12 from 9 votes

This fyrstekake (prince’s cake) is absolutely delicious! The filling is moist, sweet, and flavored with almond and rum, and the pastry itself is buttery, flaky, and beautiful!

Servings 8 servings

Prep Time 1 hour hr

Cook Time 45 minutes mins

Total Time 1 hour hr 45 minutes mins

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IMPORTANT NOTE:

We always bake using a digital scale and the metric system (grams and milliliters). We can’t promise that our cup measurements will be as accurate! Additionally, we bake and develop our recipes in a convection (fan) oven.

Ingredients

  

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DOUGH

• 300 grams (2 1/2 cups) all-purpose flour
• 50 grams (1/2 cup) powdered sugar
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 200 grams (14 tbsp) unsalted butter, cold
• 3 large egg yolks (save whites for the filling)
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tbsp very cold or ice water

FILLING

• 300 grams (about 3 cups) almond flour
• 300 grams (about 2 and 2/3 cups) powdered sugar
• 4.5 egg whites (from large eggs)
• 1 tsp almond extract
• 2 tbsp rum (optional, but recommended!)
• 1 egg for egg wash

Instructions

 

• To make the dough, add the flour, powdered sugar, baking powder, and salt to a food processor and pulse to combine. Or, if you don't have a food processor, simply add the ingredients to a large bowl and whisk or stir together to combine.
• Add cold butter and pulse in the food processor until it looks like sand. If doing this by hand, just break up the cold butter with your fingers and crumble until it reaches a sand-like consistency.
• Add egg yolks, vanilla extract, and ice water and pulse until the dough starts to come together. If working by hand, add to your bowl, mix to distribute, and gently press together until your dough forms a ball. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
• In the meantime, you can make your filling. Simply mix together the almond flour, powdered sugar, egg whites, almond extract, and rum until you have a paste (not too thick though – I would describe it as a pourable/spreadable paste!).
• Once your dough has chilled, preheat your oven to 180 C (355 F). Butter a pie tin or a cake tin (whatever you usually use for pies or quiches). You can also line the bottom of the tin with parchment paper (this is optional, we just have tins that are no longer nonstick lol).
• Roll out 2/3 of the pie dough into a large circle – larger than your pie tin (we used a 10inch round pan), as this will also be the sides of the pie! Use plenty of extra flour on the surface so that the dough doesn’t stick. Carefully transfer the dough into the pie tin. Patch up any holes!
• Pour your filling into the pie and spread it out so that it’s smooth and even.
• Roll out the other 1/3 of the pie dough into a rectangle. Cut into at least 10 strips of equal width – this will be your lattice top! Start by laying half of the strips (on our pie, 5 strips) down horizontally. Now, fold back the second and fourth strips, so that they’re all still attached along the left side of the pastry but there’s room to lay down the first vertical strip. Lay down the first vertical strip (farthest to the left in the picture) so that it goes over, under, over, under, over the horizontal strips. Then, fold the second and fourth horizontal strips back to where they were. Fold back the first, third, and fifth horizontal strips. Lay down the next vertical strip – this time the pattern should be under, over, under, over, under. Fold the first, third, and fifth strips back to where they were. Repeat this process, laying down the rest of the vertical strips and alternating which horizontal strips you fold back. The pattern should alternate as well and this creates the lattice look!
  
• Egg wash the top of the lattice.
• Bake for 40-45 mins, or until golden brown on top. Enjoy!

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: Norwegian

Keyword: almond, buttery, classic, flaky, rum, traditional

Difficulty: Intermediate