Fyrstekake (Norwegian Prince's Cake)
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!
Ingredients
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!