A quick post to share a recipe that I've always wanted to make and this year's birthday was the perfect excuse. I'm talking about Swedish prinsesstårta, for me the loveliest cake in the world. The original recipe was published in a 1929 cookbook by Jenny Åkerström, teacher of home economics whose pupils included Prince Carl's three daughters. Initially called grön tårta ('green cake'), it was re-named along the way because the princesses liked it so much. The same dessert has been popular in Australia since 1922, when Balfours Bakery developped the frog cakes, i.e. individual cakes shaped like the open mouth of a frog and topped with green, red or brown fondant.
The Swedish version is very impressive, wrapped in green-coloured marzipan that looks like a cloak and is usually decorated with a crown or flower. It was originally made of three parts: vanilla-flavored sponge cake was spread with one layer of custard, another of whipped cream and, finally, with the green icing. Modern versions of 'princess cake', however, are often enriched with red fruit or jam. In the mean time, cakes topped with yellow and red icings, named prinstårta and operatårta respectively, have also become popular.
Since fairy tale princesses are best represented by pink colour and my own -wholesome- version of green icing turned out rather earthy, I nicknamed the recipe shared below frog princess cake. It was meant to be a joke but when I looked up The Frog Prince by Brothers Grimm, I discovered that several versions of this popular fairy tale exist with the male and female roles inversed (though not as in Disney's 2009 film). There are German, Hungarian, Russian, Italian versions, in which simple girls with a liking for green foods or princesses envied by ugly witches have been changed into frogs. Fiona, the ogre princess from Shrek, and Kermit from The Muppet Show (originally a 1971 film called The Frog Prince) might also deserve this green cake.
FROG PRINCESS CAKE (PRINSESSTÅRTA)
Because I dislike artificial food colouring, I made the icing with ground pistachios. I also made three layers of cake instead of two in order to avoid icing on top of the whipped cream.
I n g r e d i e n t s
for the sponge cake:
170g flour
150g confectioner's sugar
6 eggs, separated
50g melted butter
for the custard:
300ml whole milk
4tbsp flour
4tbsp granulated sugar
1/2 vanilla pod+seeds
for the whip:
200ml heavy cream
100g confectioner's sugar
for the icing:
115g ground pistachios
150g confectioner's sugar
1tsp vanilla sugar
1tsp green matcha powder
1/8tsp cardamom powder
1 egg white
M e t h o d
1. Preheat the oven to 180C. 2. Beat the egg whites into stiff meringue. Beat the yolks and sugar until thick, gradually adding the butter. Carefully stir in the meringue, alternating with the flour. 3. Pour half of the batter in a greased 20cm baking pan and divide the rest between two others. Bake on the middle rack of the oven until light brown, taking out the thin cakes earlier. Leave to cool on wire racks. 4. In the mean time, combine the flour and sugar to make the custard. Place in a saucepan, add the milk and the vanilla and cook very gently, stirring from time to time. Leave to cool. 5. Whip the heavy cream, gradually adding the powdered sugar. Refrigerate for a while. 6. To make the icing, combine the ground nuts with the sugar and the powders. Add the egg white, knead and set aside. 7. Adjust a cake ring on a serving dish. Fit in the double-thick cake and spread with the custard. Cover with a thin cake, the whipped cream, the second thin cake and -finally- the icing. Refrigerate for at least 3 hours before serving.
V a r i a t i o n
Use almond paste from the original recipe and colour with green matcha tea or spirulina powder.
Comments