Blueberry & Earl Grey Rapunzel
NOT a traditional prinsesstårta
Ever since princess cake-gate (I got heat off some Swedes for making an unconventional princess cake) I’ve been wary of making another one, but the truth is, I LOVE princess cake and I understand why Swedish people are so protective of it! The combination of sponge, jam and custard encased in marzipan is perfection but just because the traditional cake is excellent that doesn’t mean that there isn’t a little wiggle room for some experimentation.
I wanted to play with the flavours but I also wanted to be culturally sensitive and not run around messing up a Swedish national treasure. I saw a comment that said “it’s ok to be inspired by princess cake, but don’t call it that if you’re going to change it”. So instead of calling my cakes Princesstårta or princess cakes, I will be naming them after Disney Princesses, and because I love them so much, I’m going to make this a series. The cakes will mostly be matched to princesses which match their colours/general aesthetic, where possible I might also try to match some of the flavours.
I would like to caveat this post by saying I’m not a Disney adult, I just like to give myself parameters to work within as I find that it helps with creativity!
Princess Cake Non-Negotiables
While I’m not making classic Swedish princess cakes, I still want these cakes to honour the original so here are my non-negotiables when making cakes for this series:
Sponge - For me, the sponge needs to be a super light and airy sponge, genoise or chiffon are both fine in my book, I’d even go as far as using a super light chocolate sponge but I will not be using anything like pound cake.
Pastry Cream - There absolutely has to be a pastry cream element, I’ll mess around with the flavours but as long as it’s present I’m happy.
Fruity Filling - This is where I’m going to stray from the classic, the original princesstårta didn’t have any jam in at all, but these days almost all bakeries add a layer of raspberry jam, a wonderful addition in my opinion. However, I don’t want to be restrained by the shackles of jamminess so instead of sticking to jam, I’m going to allow myself the options of including a curd, compote or jelly instead.
Cream - Of course we need a mountain of whipped cream on top but I’m no purist so I will be allowing additions to this, this crème fraîche, mascarpone, maybe a touch of booze.
Marzipan - I recently saw someone making a princess cake with fondant instead of marzipan, this is absolutely shocking behaviour and probably the reason that the Swedes have trust issues. All of my cakes will involve a layer of marzipan, not necessarily almond marzipan but some form of nutty paste.
Ok let’s chat about today’s cake - the Rapunzel. Of course for Rapunzel, I wanted to make a purple cake to match her beautiful dress so the fruity element in this cake is a layer of blueberry & lavender jam, this jam works well with any purple berries, blackcurrants and blackberries would be lovely here, just use whichever is in season.
To go with the jam, I wanted to add an Ear Grey element, I’ve been seeing people all over Instagram make London Fog cakes and I love Earl Grey so I decided to hop on the trend. However, upon further research I was left confused as to what a London Fog actually is. I thought it was a drink made with Earl Grey and lavender but some sources suggest it’s just Earl Grey and vanilla? In any case, I’m adding the lavender but if floral flavours aren’t for you, feel free to miss it out!
I will say that if you’re not sold on floral flavours, pairing them with Earl Grey is a great way to introduce them, Earl Grey has a lovely fragrant flavour so pairing it goes really well with something like rosewater or lavender and helps to balance out any soapiness.