Prinsesstårta or princess cake is a classic Swedish cake that was invented in the 1920’s by Jenny Åkerström, a home economics teacher to the three Princesses of Sweden. The recipe for this cake was published in her book “Princess' Cookbook” and was originally named grön tårta (green cake) but once the public got wind of the fact that this cream filled sponge cake covered in marzipan was the Princesses favourite, it became known as Princess cake and to this day it’s Sweden’s most popular dessert with 70% of all cakes sold from Swedish pastry shops being princess cakes. And I’m not surprised it’s popular, what’s not to like!? The cake consists of 2-3 layers of fluffy sponge, pastry cream, jam and a dome of whipped cream all covered in a thin layer of green marzipan. Traditionally princess cake doesn’t contain jam but I think we can agree that the addition of jam is always a good idea.
Before developing this recipe I’d never made a princess cake but I absolutely loved the process and it’s definitely something that I’ll make again. As it was my first time I kept the flavours quite traditional but made sure each of the elements would be the best they could be so let’s have a look at them: