Swedish Easter Cake Påsktårta

Happy Easter everybody! No matter where you are, I hope you have a wonderful holiday with family and loved ones. 

To celebrate this year, I did an Easter-inspired take on a truly classic Swedish dessert, Prinsesstårta (Princess Cake). In Sweden this is our go-to cake for any big celebration - birthdays, graduations, weddings, you name it. For me, it tastes like home and brings back so many happy memories with family and friends. 

Oh, and it's amazing.

Princess cake is different from your typical buttercream cake. Between layers of light, airy base (often with a hint of orange or lemon zest) you'll find raspberry jam and vanilla custard. On top of that you have a thick layer of whipped cream. And if that's not enough, the whole thing is covered with marzipan. 

Typically, princess cake is green or pink and decorated with a small marzipan rose. I made mine yellow, and instead of the traditional rose, I built a bird's nest out of layers of chocolate. I then added chocolate candy eggs to the nest with a touch of gold leaf. As a finishing touch, I speckled chocolate around the base of the cake to mimic a bird's egg.

You'll find a recipe and a step-by-step guide for the Princess cake below. It takes a little effort, but it's so worth it. As we say in Swedish, Lycka till (Good luck)!

Glad Påsk vänner! I år gjorde jag en påskinspirerad prinsesstårta. Istället för den traditionsenliga marsipanrosen gjorde jag ett fågelnäste utav smält choklad, som jag sedan fyllde med chokladägg och dekorerade med bladguld. Enkelt, men åh så gott! Jag har gjort en steg-för-steg av tårtan här nedan. Lycka till!

Cake base
from Buffé

4 eggs
180 g sugar
60 g flour
80 g potato starch (Bob's Red Mill carries it)
1 tsp baking powder
zest from half a lemon
zest from half an orange
butter and flour for the cake pan


Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 345 degrees.
2. Butter and flour a 9 inch springform pan. 
3. Whip eggs and sugar until fluffy, about three minutes.
4. Mix flour, potato starch and baking powder in a bowl.
5. Sift the flour mixture into the egg mixture. Add the zest. Gently fold with a spatula until a smooth batter.
6. Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake in the lower part of the oven for about 30 minutes.
7. Let cool before slicing into three layers.

Raspberry jam

500 g frozen or fresh raspberries
270 g sugar

Pour berries and sugar into a saucepan. Over medium heat, bring to a boil and let boil for about 10 minutes. Pour into a bowl and let cool.

Vanilla Custard

from Leila Lindholm

500 g milk (3%)

1 vanilla pod

135 g sugar

7 egg yolks

40 g corn starch

50 g butter, softened

 Directions:

1. Split the vanilla pod in half, scrape out the seeds and put both seeds and the pod in a sauce pan with the milk. Bring to a boil.
2.  Whip the egg yolks with sugar and corn starch. Pour in the hot milk, while whisking.
3. Pour the mixture back into the pot and carefully heat the liquid, while whisking. As soon as the vanilla cream has started to thicken, take the pot off the heat and pour the crème into a cold bowl.
4. Add the butter, stir until fully melted, and let it cool in a refrigerator. Stir occasionally to prevent a skin to form.

500 ml heavy whipping cream
1,5 tsp vanilla sugar (small bags by Dr. Oetker sold in many grocery stores by the spices section)

Start whipping the heavy cream, and add the vanilla sugar halfway through. Make sure that the whipping cream is not too lose or too firm. It is made just right when you can turn your bowl upside down and the whipped cream doesn't move.


600 g marzipan (sold in baking isles by brand Odense)
A couple drops of gel food coloring

Knead the marzipan and add the food coloring. Continue to knead until the color has been fully incorporated. Cover the marzipan in plastic wrap until ready to use.

To make the Princess cake:

1. Using a sharp knife, divide the cake into three layers. Insert the knife in the side and gently work your way around the cake until you've reached full circle.

2. Spread the jam on the bottom layer. 

3. Place another cake layer on top of the jam. Spread a generous amount of vanilla custard on top.

4. Add a third cake layer, and top with whipped cream.

5. Once cake is covered, add extra cream on top to create a dome.

6. Make sure the surface of the whipped cream is smooth. This will help you layer the marzipan evenly. Let the cake chill in the fridge for 15 mins to set.

7. In the meantime, melt dark chocolate over a water bath or in the microwave. Using a pastry bag (or ziplock with a hole cut in one corner), pour the chocolate into circles on parchment paper. Refrigerate until set, approximately 10 minutes.

8. Color the marzipan with a color of your choice. Using a rolling pin, roll out the marzipan on a non-stick surface (I use a silicone mat). Remove the cake from the fridge, and cover with marzipan.

9. Gently press down the sides of the cake, making sure to smooth out any bumps. I like using disposable gloves, so my hands don't stick to the marzipan. 

10. Trim the edges of the cake using a sharp knife.

11. To make speckles, mix powdered cocoa with a little water, and using a clean paint brush, splatter onto the bottom of the cake. You should cover up with parchment paper any part of the cake you don't want speckled.


12,  Remove the chocolate from the fridge, and stack them on top of the cake, to create a bird's nest. Fill the nest with chocolate candy eggs.

Happy Easter, and Glad Påsk! I'd love to hear how it turns out for you, so please feel free to comment below.

Speckled Easter Cake



 

 

Easter is one of my favorite holidays. Not only is it a key celebration in the Christian faith, but it's also such a bright and colorful holiday. The heavy jackets have been put away (depending on where you live), the trees are budding, colorful tulips and lilies are standing on our tables, and most importantly, it's a time for family to come together. Oh, and candy. Lots of candy.

This year we were invited over to our friends Brandon and Sarah's house for an Easter potluck, and I just had to bake a cake. Well, I didn't have to bake a cake, but this was a great excuse. I'm always browsing on Pinterest for some inspiration and remembered how impressed I'd been with a speckled cake I saw from the Cake Blog. It's not your traditional fluffy bunny butt cake or hatching chicken cupcake. I had never seen anything like it, and as a learning baker, I love a challenge.

 



 

 

As a base, I used this incredibly moist and rich coconut cake recipe. I baked this cake for my husband a couple of months back, and he swears it was the best cake he has ever had. To keep it light and fresh, I made a pineapple curd filling. Oddly enough, there are not a lot of recipes for pineapple curd out there (let me know if you have one!), so I tried the one that had the best reviews. Unfortunately, it came out a little too sweet for my taste, so I ended up making a lemon curd and mixed the two together. The tartness from the lemon cut the sweetness from the pineapple, and vice versa. It worked perfectly.

Now, a cake needs frosting. Before I found this buttercream recipe, I was walking around thinking I was a cream cheese frosting kind of girl. Because, frankly, how appealing does a butter spread on a cake sound? But I was wrong, it's delicious. This recipe is not overly sweet and has a nicely hidden salty note in it. It's definitely a crowd pleaser. 

 

A tip though, when using gel food coloring, be careful to not put in too much. The frosting will get darker the longer it sits. My light aqua cake turned a lot darker within just a few hours.

 

The eggs were the easy part. I just dyed some fondant and then rolled them into the shape of eggs. Make sure you put them in the fridge to cool so the fondant hardens. That way they will keep their shapes nicely when they're on top of the cake.

 

The most fun, and the messiest, part was speckling the cake to look like an egg. I used a clean paint brush and then gently dabbed it in a small bowl of water and cocoa. Then I splattered the cake to get the effect I wanted. My hubby laughed at me, because not only did I get cocoa spots all over my kitchen counter, cabinets and stove, but I also ended up looking like a polka-dotted version of myself! Next time I'll remember to put down some towels first.

 

So, if you're looking for a delicious springtime cake recipe, this one's great. It's light and has a perfect balance between sweetness and tartness. You'll love it!

 

 

 

 



Incredible Coconut Cake 

from Taste of Home

5 eggs, separated

2 cups sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup canola oil
1 teaspoon coconut extract
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
2-1/4 cups cake flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk
2 cups flaked coconut, chopped - I used finely shredded coconut
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar


Instructions:

1. Place egg whites in a large bowl; let stand at room temperature for 30 minutes. 
2. Preheat oven to 325°. In another large bowl, beat sugar, butter and oil until well blended. Add egg yolks, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in extracts. 
3. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt; add to creamed mixture alternately with buttermilk, beating well after each addition. Stir in coconut. 
4. Add cream of tartar to egg whites; with clean beaters, beat on medium until stiff peaks form. Fold a fourth of the egg whites into batter, then fold in remaining whites. 
5. Transfer to three greased and floured 9-in. round baking pans. Bake 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks to cool completely.

 

Vanilla Buttercream Frosting
from add a pinch

1 cup butter (2 sticks), softened
3 - 4 cups confectioner’s sugar, sifted
2 teaspoons vanilla
pinch salt
2-3 tablespoons heavy cream


Instructions:

1. Place softened butter into the bowl of a stand mixer that has been fitted with the paddle attachment. Turn the mixer on a medium setting and cream the butter until it is smooth and has lightened in color, about 3 minutes.
2. Add confectioner's sugar, ½ a cup at a time. After each cup has been incorporated, turn the mixer onto the highest speed setting and for about 10 seconds to lighten the frosting.
3. Add vanilla and a pinch of salt and combine until well-incorporated.
4. Add heavy cream until the frosting has reached the preferred consistency. For a firmer frosting, add more confectioner's sugar, a ¼ cup at a time. For a softer frosting, add more cream, a tablespoon at a time.

 

 

Fantastisk Kokostårta

från Taste of Home

5 ägg, separerade

4,7 dl socker
113 g smör, rumstemp
1 dl veg olja
1 tsk kokosnötextract
1/2 tsk vaniljextract
1 krm mandelextract
5,4 dl mjöl
1 tsk bakpulver
1/2 tsk bikarbonat
1 krm salt
2,4 dl buttermilk (mjölk + 1 tsk vinäger. Låt stå i 10 min före användning)
4,7 dl kokosflingor

 Vaniljsmörkräm Frosting
från add a pinch220 g smör, rumstemp
7-9 dl florsocker, siktat
2 tsk vaniljextrakt
nypa salt
2-3 msk grädde