May the Cream Be With You

« A princess cake / prinsessakakku / prinsesstårta in a Yoda-green marzipan robe. »

I was working hard on my sofa coma on Friday evening by drinking a beer and scanning my newsfeeds when I saw that someone had made one of those funny green cakes from possibly the most pointlessly complex cake recipe I've ever seen. One of the reviewers of the cookbook the recipe was taken from, Birthday Cakes: Recipes and Memories from Celebrated Bakers concurred with my dim view of the recipe:

Finally, several of the recipes are ridiculously complicated for the home baker. "The Princess Cake," for example, requires following four lengthy pages of instructions!

Many of the other reviewers remark at how pretty the book is to look at which I had to laugh at since you know right there they are just in it for the picture porn, not the practicality of the recipes. The princess cake is, in spite of its looks, a simple cake: sponge cake layered with pastry cream and topped with a marzipan shell. Why on earth anyone would put themselves through such torture for something that should be rather simple? I was surprised the recipe didn't also encourage the baker to make their own raspberry jam from hand-picked organic berries or grind their own flour. It's a bad recipe if only for the silly rum 'moistening' solution for the cake since it boils off the alcohol in the rum and then adds more sugar to, perhaps they forget, distilled cane sugar. If the cake wasn't bone dry in the first place it wouldn't be necessary but not only that, rum is not a flavour associated with traditional cakes in the Nordic countries. If you want rum flavour, add a bit of extract to the cream or just brush some of the dark rum right onto the cake. If you've got a good bottle of Meyer's Dark Rum and feel the urge to boil it, please come to my house and don't forget to bring the bottle. :) The Finnish recipes occasionally mention using a wee bit of orange juice for the same purpose but it seems highly optional and up to the discretion of the baker.

So, I went hunting for a recipe since I see these cakes all the time but, aside from getting intense flashbacks to Hostess Snoballs, I've never actually tried one. It's also a cake I can share without regret since I'm not overly fond of marzipan. :) In the late 1920s, Jenny Åkerstr�m, who ran a cooking school for young ladies, published the Prinsessojen Kokbok which featured three cakes, one for each princess; Margaretha, M�rtha and Astrid [a copy of the recipes and illustrations from the 1951 printing in Finnish - 1.6mb pdf]. They were very elaborate cakes, not terribly suited to the home baker. Astrid's cake most closely resembles the princess cake in its current form and even features canned pineapple which was just becoming popular at the time. Annika Larsson, a baker at the Grillska Konditoriet in Stockholm, is credited with combining features from the three cakes and creating the princess cake [pdf, swedish] that has become a tradition. It appeared in Finland not long after it became popular in 1930s Sweden and has remained a traditional cake ever since, particularly for graduation and end of school year parties. The cake may also be known as the operat�rta.

Surprisingly, online there are more recipes for the cake in Finnish than there are in Swedish. And one of the MTV3 cooking shows featured a princess cake recently as well. None of my cookbooks at home had a recipe for it and I even went looking through the cookbooks at Akateeminen and found only two books that had a recipe and neither of them looked very good. I compared all the recipes I could find online and there was little difference save for the cream where there were two camps: pastry cream and plain whipped cream with one Swedish recipe mixing both together which is properly known as "diplomat cream". I turned to CI to compare both the sponge cake and pastry cream recipes and they featured the same ingredients only with far more detailed instructions and perfected technique so I used theirs instead. The sponge cake recipe is ace and, since such cakes are common components in Finnish desserts, I can't recommend it highly enough as it was tasty, moist and spongy just as a good cake of its kind should be.

There are also a few different styles of cake construction. Two layers or three layers, round or rectangular log, cream dome or sponge cake covering the dome as the top layer. It doesn't seem to matter as long as all of the key ingredients are there. The log looks interesting and easier to slice, but getting a sponge cake to bend like that without breaking or popping out of shape would require a few tricks I suspect.

The cream filling is where things get a bit dodgy in many of the recipes since the instructions are vague and don't mention the time needed. I tried the Swedish version of the pastry cream which featured gelatin as a thickener and, from a structural standpoint, I thought it might be the most successful at providing needed firmness to hold the shape of the cake. It eventually set, but the directions were limited and somewhat misleading. The pastry cream should be made the night before as it needs five hours or more to set. It's not difficult to make and it's good to have one less thing to juggle in the kitchen. Americans averse to dairy and/or cream could likely just use Cool Whip™ to replace the pastry cream and whipped cream thus making the cake even easier. We've got so many cream and dairy products that there must be a state embargo on non-dairy products like Cool Whip™.

It's all smooth sailing once you've got your cake layers, pastry cream, jam and marzipan all ready to go. Unless you've got some complex about using organic almonds, don't make the marzipan yourself as it's ready-made in all the usual colours for far less money than all the time and effort you would spend making it. The only drawback to using prepared marzipan is that it can be somewhat dry which makes manipulating it an exercise in patience. It also makes your life easier if you have 2 or preferably 3 round cake pans since this reduces the number of cakes you have to cut from a larger one. I like chocolate layer cakes so I've learned to make my life easier by making the layers at bake time since I suck at slicing cakes evenly or unevenly.

So that's all there is to it. Follow the recipes and make your own princess cake for a graduation party instead of paying 40 euro or so for one from a bakery in town. The 30 euro you save can buy a reasonable amount of beer instead. :)

Prinsesstårta / Prinsessakakku / Princess Cake

makes: 1 cake with 12 servings
special tools: good mixer for whipping, round cake pan[s], pizza cutter
time: about 2 hours total preparation time for cake, cream and marzipan

Preparation steps and approximate time

1. Prepare pastry cream (if using), make it the night before or before leaving for work in the morning. (30 mins)
2. Make sponge cake. (45 mins)
3. Make whipped cream and rahka cream (if using).(20 mins)
4. Assemble cake and chill. (10 mins)
5. Roll out marzipan. (15 mins)
6. Cover cake with marzipan. (15 mins)
7. Chill and serve. (1-2 hours)

Sponge Cake:

makes: two 8- or 9-inch cakes
time: about 45 minutes
source: CI

Sift together

• 1/2 cup or 1,25 dl cake flour
• 1/4 cup or 0,75 dl unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon table salt

Heat together, cover and set aside

• 3 tablespoons whole milk
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract or vanilla sugar

separate and mix

• 5 eggs room temperature
• 3/4 cup or 1,75 dl granulated sugar

1. Adjust oven rack to lower middle position and heat oven to 350F/175C degrees. Generously grease and flour two or three round 8- or 9-inch cake pans and cover pan bottoms with a round of parchment paper. Whisk flours, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl (or sift onto waxed paper). Heat milk and butter in a small saucepan over low heat until butter melts. Remove from heat and add vanilla; cover and keep warm.
2. Separate three of the eggs, placing whites in bowl of standing mixer fitted with whisk attachment (or large mixing bowl if using hand mixer or whisk) and reserving the 3 yolks plus remaining 2 whole eggs in another mixing bowl. Beat the 3 whites on high speed (or whisk) until whites are foamy. Gradually add 6 tablespoons of the sugar; continue to beat whites to soft, moist peaks. (Do not overbeat.) If using a standing mixer, transfer egg whites to a large bowl and add yolk/whole egg mixture to mixing bowl.
3. Beat yolk/whole egg mixture with remaining 6 tablespoons sugar. Beat on medium-high speed (setting 8 on a KitchenAid) until eggs are very thick and a pale yellow color, about 5 minutes (or 12 minutes by hand). Add beaten eggs to whites.
4. Sprinkle flour mixture over beaten eggs and whites; fold very gently 12 times with a large rubber spatula. Make a well in one side of batter and pour milk mixture into bowl. Continue folding until batter shows no trace of flour, and whites and whole eggs are evenly mixed, about 8 additional strokes.
5. Immediately pour batter into prepared baking pan[s][makes 9-10dl of batter so ~3dl per cake layer]; bake until cake tops are light brown and feel firm and spring back when touched, about 16 minutes for 9-inch cake pans and 20 minutes for 8-inch cake pans.
6. Immediately run a knife around pan perimeter to loosen cake. Cover pan with large plate. Using a towel, invert pan and remove pan from cake. Peel off parchment. Re-invert cake from plate onto rack. Repeat with remaining cake[s]. Cover with clean cloth until ready to assemble cake to keep the cake moist. **If assembling the cake with the cake layer on top style, you may want to place a layer of cake over a bowl about the size of the cake while it is still warm to make it easier to fit over the cream later.

Pastry cream:

time: about 30 mins - Make at least 5 hours ahead or the night before!
source: CI

Heat until simmering/near boiling

• 2 cups or 2,25 dl half-and-half (half whole milk, half cream)
• 1/2 cup or 1,25dl granulated sugar
• pinch table salt

Whisk together until thick

• 5 large egg yolks, chalazae removed*
• 3 tablespoons cornstarch or arrowroot

Stir in last

• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter (cold), cut into 4 pieces
• 1,5 teaspoons vanilla extract or 1 teaspoon vanilla sugar

1. Heat half&half, 6 tablespoons sugar, and salt in medium heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium heat until simmering (near boiling), stirring occasionally to dissolve sugar.
2. Meanwhile, whisk egg yolks in medium bowl until thoroughly combined. Whisk in remaining 2 tablespoons sugar and whisk until sugar has begun to dissolve and mixture is creamy, about 15 seconds. Whisk in cornstarch until combined and mixture is pale yellow and thick, about 30 seconds.
3. When half&half mixture reaches full simmer, gradually whisk simmering half-and-half into yolk mixture to temper. Return mixture to saucepan, scraping bowl with rubber spatula; return to simmer over medium heat, whisking constantly, until 3 or 4 bubbles burst on surface and mixture is thickened and glossy, about 30 seconds. Off heat, whisk in butter and vanilla. Transfer mixture to medium bowl, press plastic wrap directly on surface, and refrigerate until cold and set, at least 3 hours or up to 48 hours.

*Chalazae are cordlike strands of egg white protein that are attached to the yolks--removing them with your fingers is easy and eliminates the need to strain the pastry cream after cooking.

rahka-Fra�che Cream:

• 250g plain lowfat rahka
• 250g vanilla fra�che 5%
• about 1-2 dl fine sugar
• 1-2 tablespoons cornstarch or arrowroot

1. whip together rahka and fra�che
2. add sugar to suit your taste
3. add cornstarch if a bit too moist
4. mix half of the rahka cream with the whipped cream
5. refrigerate

note: since neither of these products are likely available to people outside the Nordic region or the EU, they are basically thick sour milk products that might be substituted by using thick vanilla yogurt and lowfat sour cream.

Whipped Cream:

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract or 1 teaspoon vanilla sugar
• 1/3 cup or 0,75 dl confectioners' sugar (use half of sugar if you prefer less sweetness)
• 3,5 dl or 1.5 cups heavy cream

1. Beat cold heavy cream at medium speed in an electric mixer until thickened. Add confectioners' sugar and vanilla and beat until thick.

Assembling (see also diagram):

• pastry cream or rahka cream
• whipped cream
• raspberry jam or low-sugar/just fruit jam for less sweetness

There are two methods of assembly: the cream dome on top method:

1. Slice cake to create 3 evenly sized layers unless you bake with 3 round pans in which case you already have three cakes ready to use.
2. Place the first layer on top of a sheet of baking paper and spread a thin layer of raspberry jam on top of the cake.
3. Spread a layer of pastry cream/rahka cream on top of the jam and place another cake layer on top and repeat jam and cream application.
4. Place the third cake layer on top and with a serrated knife, trim off edge to round off the top. Mound the whipped cream on top of the cake and smooth with a spatula. You can also mix part of the remaining pastry cream with the whipped cream if you like. Coat the sides of the cake if you have any cream leftover as well.
5. Lift cake onto a plate or baking tray and chill in the refrigerator while you prepare the marzipan shell.

and the cake layer on top method:

1. Slice cake to create 3 evenly sized layers unless you bake with 3 round pans in which case you already have three cakes ready to use.
2. Spread a layer of pastry cream/rahka cream on top of the jam. Place the second cake layer over the cream and make a dome of the whipped cream/rahka-whipped cream mix leaving a thin margin around the edge for where the top layer will rest on the lower layers.
3. Remove the third cake layer from the bowl and spread a very thin layer of jam on top which will serve to anchor the marzipan to the cake. Place the cake layer on top over the cream and smooth into a rounded shape. Witha serrated knife, trim off edge to round off the top if necessary.
4. Lift cake onto a plate or baking tray and chill in the refrigerator while you prepare the marzipan shell.

Marzipan shell:

• 350-400g or 14oz green (or pink or yellow) marzipan
• confectioners' sugar

1. Roll marzipan between 2 sheets of baking paper or plastic wrap so that it doesn't stick to your rolling pin. Mark center of the marzipan and remove it from the baking paper. Dust rolling pin with confectioners' sugar and roll part of the marzipan onto it to make it easier to maneuver the marzipan on top of the cake.
2. Cover the cake with the marzipan. At this point, the dome of the cake will be smoothly covered, but there will be folds or creases on the sides. To remove the folds and creases, smooth the marzipan gently with your hand from the top of the cake to the bottom. This requires some patience so don't try to rush it.
3. Work your way around the cake. Once all the folds are eliminated, rub the palm of your hand around the sides of the cake to further smooth it and eliminate air pockets.
4. With a rolling pizza cutter or small, sharp knife, carefully cut off the excess marzipan along the bottom edge. Reserve excess for making leaves.
5. Dust top with confectioners' sugar. You can make a stencil for the confectioners' sugar to decorate with a crown or add a single marzipan/real rose on top.
6. If you choose a rose as garnish, cut two or three elongated ovals out of the remaining marzipan to make leaf shapes. Lightly score the top of the leaves with a knife to create veins and place on top of the cake. Garnish with real pink rose or make your own marzipan rose.
7. Chill until serving.
8. Slice with a sharp knife with a slow, firm pressure.