Swedish Princess Cake

Since I first made this recipe, I have made some alterations. Specifically, when it comes to the ingredient measurements of the pastry cream. I have done this so that it is more stable. I have also added all-purpose flour to the ingredients list to help thicken it. I will eventually update the video.

Preheat oven to 180°C / 350°F degrees. Coat 2 large baking sheets with oil spray, line each with parchment, then spray parchment.
Combine cake flour, almond flour, and salt in a medium bowl. Set aside
Add eggs, yolks, and granulated sugar in a mixer bowl set over a pot of simmering water.
Whisk until sugar dissolves and mixture is warm to the touch, about 2 minutes. Add the whisk attachment to your stand mixer, and whisk mixture on medium speed for 2 minutes. Please note: You may need to do this in two goes. It’s quite a lot of mixture and some stand mixers won’t be able to whisk it all at once. So do it in two goes.
Raise speed to high, and whisk until mixture is pale and thick. About 4 - 5 minutes.
Sift flour mixture over egg mixture, and gently fold. When almost incorporated, slowly add melted butter, and fold.
Pour the batter into the baking sheets, spread evenly, and bake until golden brown and springy to the touch. About 8 -10 minutes. Once they’re baked, allow them to cool completely. Let cool.
Use a 7” cake ring, cut out 4 circles.Choose the 2 thickest cake circles, reserve the other two for another cake if you wish. This cake can be quite crumbly so it’s best to have more cake and have extras in case you need them.

Add the milk to a medium sized saucepan and heat on medium heat.
Add the vanilla extract to the milk and stir. Use a silicone whisk or wooden spoon to stir until small bubbles begin showing around the sides. Take off the heat and set aside.
Add the corn starch, flour and sugar into a large mixing bowl and use a whisk to combine. Add the egg yolks and whisk until well combined and smooth.
Place a sieve over the bowl and add a quarter of the hot milk and then whisk immediately. Repeat these another 3 times until all the milk is in there. You want to add the milk slowly or it will scramble the eggs and make your pastry cream grainy.
Pour the mixture back into the pot and place on medium heat. Mix continuously until it thickens. When bubbles start making their way through the thickened pastry cream turn the heat off and add 1/2 the cold butter. Whisk until well combined. Then add the remaining butter and repeat. You want to do this slowly, so the custard doesn’t split.
Pour through the sieve into a large bowl to ensure no lumps are in it. Cover with plastic wrap and chill for a couple hours or overnight. Use a whisk to mix until smooth before using.

To assemble this cake, you’ll need to use a large mixing bowl. The one I used was about 7 ½“ in width at the widest part of the bowl.
Cover the inside with plastic wrap. Place a couple tbsp of the pastry cream. Add the first layer of cake on top and cover with half the raspberry jam. Use a spoon to spread around evenly. Add the remaining pastry cream and use a spatula to smoothen. Add the remaining jam and use a spoon to spread around. Then add the final cake layer on top. If there isa gap between the cake and the bowl fill with pastry cream if you have any leftover.
Chill in the fridge overnight.

To make the flower, roll out a little ball of pink fondant. Then roll one end to cream kind of a small cone shape. Use a food safe brush to brush with water.
Roll out the remaining pink fondant fairly thin. Use 4 different sized oval cookie cutters to cut out 4 ovals of each size.
Begin with the smallest oval shapes to stick them to the top part of the fondant cone. Keep overlapping the fondant oval shapes until you’ve used them all. Set aside to dry.
To make the leaves you’ll need a leaf fondant cutter to cut out 5 of the mint colored fondant.

To color the mint marzipan, add 100g of the mint colored fondant into the marzipan and knead until evenly colored. Please note: you’ll need to use good quality rollable marzipan for this recipe. Cheap marzipan is often dry and will crack and crumble. Alternatively, you can mix half marzipan and half white fondant together to make up your marzipan portion of the recipe.
Roll the fondant out about 4mm thin.

Carefully take the chilled cake out of the bowl by lifting it up by the plastic wrap. Unwrap the plastic wrap and place onto a serving plate.
Carefully place the rolled-out mint marzipan onto the chilled cake. Use the palm of your hands to stick it to the cake. Cut the excess fondant away.
Finish by painting a little water on top of the cake, place the leaves on top, followed by the fondant rose. Dust with powdered sugar before serving.