No products in the cart.
The showstopper of all showstoppers
Today’s recipe for a Swedish princess cake is a true showstopper, perfect for any special occasion. It’s traditionally eaten on birthdays and weddings in Sweden, where the cake has its origins. Of course, it’s no secret that Europeans love a layer cake (see our recipe for Danish birthday cake), but this is a classic dessert that has grown popular beyond Europe. It has even made its way into American bakeries and gone viral on TikTok.
What exactly is a princess cake? It’s a layer cake filled with plenty of vanilla pastry cream and raspberry jam, topped with even more whipped cream, and covered in a beautiful layer of green marzipan and a pink marzipan rose. You may think that it looks like something you can’t make at home. But we’re here to tell you that if we can do it, you can too! It might take a little bit of practice to get the marzipan coating perfect, but the other components are simple enough.
What is the origin of the Swedish princess cake?
Why do we call it a princess cake? Jenny Åkerström, a home economics teacher, created the recipe, and she actually taught the Swedish princesses cooking and baking in the early 1900s. She included this recipe in her Princess Cookbook, originally called “green cake”. Obviously, it then quickly became known as princess cake – a much catchier name! In Sweden, this is one of the most popular desserts, with hundreds of thousands sold each year. While the original recipe does not appear to have used jam, most modern versions include a layer of berry jam, which we think goes so well with the rich cream and pastry cream. Some may say that as soon as you include jam, it should be called an opera cake – whatever you want to call it, it’s recognizable, and without a doubt, delicious.
Dreamy layers of princess cake
What makes princess cake so delicious is both the flavors and textures. You obviously can’t go wrong with the flavor combinations of tart raspberry, sweet vanilla, rich whipped cream, and a touch of almond from the marzipan. Our version also has a bit of almond and vanilla in the sponge itself, to add even more flavor. We also make sure to keep the whipped cream layer not too sweet, although we do add a bit of sugar to help stabilize it. This ensures a well-balanced cake, where you get enough sweetness, but also richness and tartness to help balance it out.
And the textures are equally as wonderful – each bite is so enjoyable. Like our lagkage, we like a firm sponge, although you will see some recipes for princess cake that use a super light sponge. But we think that the sponge layers should provide structure and should be able to handle the added fillings, so they don’t just absorb the jam and custard and get super soggy. Then, pile a load of perfectly thickened (but not overwhipped) cream on top, which is soft and just melts in your mouth. And the marzipan wrapped around has a lovely bit of firmness to it, keeping the cake intact, but it’s still so nice and soft.
Perfect for any occasion!
Next time you’re looking for a cake to make on a special occasion, this is the one to try! If you aren’t yet convinced, let me tell you that this is simply a beautiful cake to make. You can also switch up the decoration from the traditional one if you prefer, but pink and green are the colors in the classic version. To me, they scream spring and summer, so it would be a great Easter showstopper or a very impressive cake to bring to a summer party or event.
Ingredients you’ll need
The cake consists of 5 main components: the sponge, jam, vanilla pastry cream, whipped cream, and marzipan. For the sponge, you’ll need: eggs, sugar, milk, butter, vanilla and almond extract, all-purpose flour, baking powder, and salt. The jam is raspberry jam, so you’ll need raspberries (frozen or fresh), sugar, salt, and lemon juice. To make the pastry cream, you’ll need egg yolks, sugar, salt, vanilla extract, cornstarch, milk, and butter. Finally, you’ll need whipped cream and marzipan. We make our own marzipan with ground almond or almond flour, powdered sugar, pasteurized egg whites (or water), almond extract, and green food coloring. You’ll also need a bit of red food coloring for the pink rose.
This is obviously a complicated recipe in terms of how many components you need, so we would suggest making the recipe the way it’s written, at least the first time. If you’d like to switch up the flavors in the future, the easiest way to do this is to change up the fillings. For example, add a chocolate ganache or a salted caramel instead of the pastry cream. Add a strawberry or even a rhubarb jam instead of raspberry. Just a few ideas!
How to make a Swedish princess cake
To make the cake, we like to make the jam and pastry cream a day ahead of time so they have time to fully cool down in the fridge. In a pinch, you could make them in the morning and let them cool while you bake the cake, but this will be more challenging to manage. Follow the detailed steps to make each of those components in the recipe.
Next is the sponge. This sponge is made by whipping the eggs and sugar together first until very fluffy and light in color. Add the almond and vanilla extract. Combine the dry ingredients in a separate bowl, and then melt the butter and milk together in another bowl or measuring jug. Add these wet and dry ingredients to the egg and sugar mixture, and carefully mix or fold together so you don’t deflate the eggs. Then just bake the cake and let it fully cool!
To assemble, cut the sponge into 3 layers. Then, layer the sponge, then the jam, then sponge, then pastry cream, then sponge again. Whip up the cream until it’s thick, and pile it on top of the cake. Carefully smooth it into a dome. Finally, roll out the marzipan and gently lay over the top of the cake. Finish it off with a beautiful marzipan rose on top! Slice and enjoy this absolute showstopper of a princess cake.
Prinsesstårta (Swedish Princess Cake)
A breathtaking classic Swedish layer cake, perfect for any special occasion and fit for royalty!
Ingredients
Jam Filling:
- 170 grams raspberries (frozen or fresh)
- 75 grams granulated sugar
- ⅛ tsp salt
- ½ tbsp lemon juice
Pastry Cream Filling:
- 2 large egg yolks
- 25 grams granulated sugar
- ⅛ tsp salt
- ½ tsp vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste
- 13 grams cornstarch
- 200 ml milk
- 14 grams unsalted butter
Cake Sponge:
- 4 large eggs (room temperature)
- 200 grams granulated sugar
- 240 ml milk
- 45 grams unsalted butter
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ½ tsp almond extract
- 240 grams all purpose flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp salt
Marzipan:
- 375 grams almond flour (best to use super fine, blanched almond flour)
- 375 grams powdered sugar
- 4-5 tbsp water
- 2 tsp almond extract
- Green food coloring for the layer covering the whole cake (we use gel food coloring)
- Red/Pink food coloring optional, for the rose! (we use gel food coloring)
Whipped Cream:
- 700 ml heavy whipping cream
- 1½ tsp vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste
- 3 tsp powdered sugar optional, but adds stability to the whipped cream!
Instructions
Jam:
- Add raspberries, sugar, salt and lemon juice in a small pot on the stove. Heat over medium to low heat, stirring until the sugar dissolves. When the jam has thickened after simmering for around 10-15 minutes (stir occasionally to make sure nothing is burning; adjust the burner temp if it's cooking too vigorously), take off the heat and let cool for at least twenty minutes. Transfer to a container and place in the fridge to cool down all the way.
Make up to three days ahead of time to save time when assembling the cake. You can also use storebought jam!
Pastry Cream:
- Add egg yolks, sugar, salt, vanilla extract/vanilla paste, and cornstarch to a heat proof bowl and whisk very well to combine, making sure there are no lumps.
- Place milk in a pot on the stove and heat over medium heat until it is just starting to simmer/steam. Turn off the heat.
- Pour at least half of the milk into the bowl with the egg mixture, whisking vigorously while pouring so the eggs don't scramble. Place the pot with the rest of the milk back on the stove, then add in the egg mixture, whisking while you pour. Turn the burner back onto medium/low heat.
- Whisk constantly until the mixture starts to thicken. It has to reach around the boiling point for the starches to thicken, so adjust the burner temp if needed!
- When thickened, add in butter and whisk until incorporated.
- Turn off the heat and transfer pastry cream to a separate container. Place cling film/plastic wrap across the surface of the pastry cream so it doesn't form a skin. Let cool at room temperature for around 15 minutes, then place in the fridge to cool down completely.
Make pastry cream a day ahead to save time.
Sponge:
- Preheat oven to 325F (165C).
- Line and grease a 9 in or 9.5 in (23 cm) round cake pan – you can use a 10 in (25.5 cm) cake pan, but it may be difficult to cut three layers out of it!
- Melt butter and milk together on the stove and then set aside to let it cool until just a little bit warm (about 10-15 mins).
- Beat room temperature eggs and sugar together, either in a stand mixer with the whisk attachment, with a hand mixer, or by hand with a whisk. The eggs and sugar should about double in volume and become light in color and a little bit thicker than liquid. When you lift the whisk out of the mixture, the mixture that flows back into the bowl should sit on the surface for just a second before sinking back in – that's ribbon stage, and it should be ready for the next step!
- Add the vanilla and almond extracts to the eggs and sugar and mix together.
- Combine flour, baking powder, and salt in a separate bowl.
- Now you are going to add your cooled wet ingredients and dry ingredients into the fluffy egg mixture in batches. You can do this by hand or with a paddle/whisk attachment on your stand mixer. First, sift in half of the dry mixture and fold together gently or run the mixer for just 10-15 seconds on low.
- Then, add half of the wet mixture (butter/milk) and fold together gently, or run the mixer for another 10-15 seconds on low. If you see dry ingredients stuck on the sides of the bowl, make sure to use a spatula to fold it in.
- Repeat the process of sifting in the rest of the dry ingredients, mix, then add the rest of the wet ingredients and mix together, either by folding the ingredients together or running the mixer.
- Finally, fold everything together a few times at the end until you have a smooth cake batter, making sure nothing is stuck on the sides or the bottom of the stand mixer bowl.
- Pour batter into the prepared cake pan. This amount of batter goes completely up to the edge of the cake pan, but it shouldn't overflow in the oven – if you're worried about it, make sure to put a baking pan on an oven rack underneath the cake pan so you don't have cake batter burning to the bottom of your oven!
- Bake for 30-35 minutes, until the top is golden and a cake tester comes out clean. Depending on how hot your oven runs, this could take longer than 30 minutes, so make sure you're checking with a tester! Once done, remove from the baking pan and cool to room temp on a wire rack. Then, either move on to assembling the cake, or wrap in cling film and refrigerate overnight.
You can bake the sponge a day ahead to save time.
Marzipan:
- Add almond flour, powdered sugar, almond extract, and 4 tbsp of water to the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, or in a large mixing bowl.
- Mix together until a combined dough starts to form. If it's still crumbly, add another tablespoon of water and knead/mix again until the marzipan holds together. It should feel like play-doh, and shouldn't be too sticky/wet, nor too crumbly.
- Separate a chunk of the marzipan to make a rose (honestly, we don't measure this accurately, but you shouldn't need more than a ball with a diameter of about 2in/5cm) and set aside.
- The larger amount of marzipan will be colored green to cover the whole cake. Add 5-6 drops of green gel food coloring (with liquid, you may change the consistency of the marzipan, so we recommend going with gel!) and knead the dough together to distribute the color. Feel free to add more if it's not turning green enough. You may need to knead it by hand to get the color even throughout.
- Add a very small amount of red or pink food coloring to the smaller ball of marzipan – less than a drop. Then knead to distribute the color.
- Wrap up the green and pink marzipan in plastic wrap and store in the fridge until ready to assemble, or proceed with the next few steps if you're ready to assemble!
- To make a marzipan rose: roll out the red dough into a circle about 1/8 in (0.3 cm) thick. It helps to roll it out on a silicone pastry mat so it doesn't stick. Using a shot glass or a small round cutter, cut out round circles. Take a circle and fold it in half, pinching together the bottom; repeat with one more circle. Press the pinched ends together, then start wrapping the other circles around the outside, building up the rose. You can cut out more circles by re-rolling the marzipan if needed. We used about 12-15 circles to make the rose.
- Next, roll out the green marzipan on a silicone pastry mat (makes for easy transfer and smooth surface! You could also use parchment paper for this) into a large circular shape with 1/4" thickness. Try not to make it any thinner, as this could cause the marzipan to tear. The circle will be much larger than the cake, and you will have some leftover, but it's better to be on the safe side with too much marzipan than not enough.
You can use store bought marzipan for this to save time! We do prefer to make our own because we can control the almond content and consistency.
Whipped Cream:
- Right before assembly of the whole cake, whip the cream by adding cream, vanilla, and powdered sugar to the bowl of a stand mixer with a whisk attachment, or a large bowl if you're using a hand mixer. Whisk until the whipped cream has reached stiff peaks.
Assembly:
- Get your cake assembly station ready: have a plate/dish/stand that you want your cake to sit on for the final display. Get your jam and pastry cream out of the fridge – you may have to stir both well to get the consistency to be spreadable. We like to use a serrated knife to cut the cake layers, and we cut the cake on a wire rack so it's a bit elevated from the table surface.
- Put your sponge on the wire rack and trim off the very top of the dome of the cake – not cutting a layer, but just making the top more flat and even. Feel free to snack on the off cut!
- Cut the remaining cake into three layers by making two evenly spaced cuts along the height of the cake. Using a serrated bread knife (since they are usually quite long) makes it a bit easier to make it even across!
- Start assembly by placing a layer of sponge on your plate/dish; then spread all the jam over the top; place another layer of sponge; then spread the pastry cream evenly on top; add the last layer of sponge on top.
- Now it's time to build the whipped cream dome! This works best using an offset spatula to shape it, but you can also use a regular knife or spoon.
- Pile the whipped cream on top of the cake and smooth it out to create a dome. Take a little bit of the extra whipped cream and spread it over the sides of the cake to create a smooth surface for the marzipan to sit on.
- Once you're happy with the dome, gently place the green marzipan sheet over the top; this is easier said than done, but try to do this in one movement! It helps to use the silicone mat to transfer the marzipan, but you can also use parchment paper, or try to roll the marzipan layer up on a rolling pin and unroll it over the top of the cake. Smooth out any air pockets and trim off the excess from the sides with a knife. It's okay if it's not perfect at the bottom, as you can add decoration to cover any imperfections.
- This is where you can get creative! Use the remainder of the green marzipan to make a collar for the bottom – we use a mold that's typically used to make decorative pie edges, but you can also make a simple flat collar and wrap that around, or a collar with a scalloped edge. Add the marzipan rose to the top of the cake.
- Some people also dust with powdered sugar, but we like the super clean and simple look without it.
- Slice and enjoy!! Best enjoyed within 3-4 days, and make sure to store this in the fridge.
You can assemble the cake layers with the pastry cream and jam a day ahead of assembling the final cake, and then just make the marzipan and whipped cream the next day.
