In Sweden, the one baked good they are crazy about (besides cinnamon buns) is Swedish Princess Cake, also known as Prinsesstårta. I recently spent a week in Stockholm, Sweden and saw these gorgeous green cakes everywhere. I've made a full size one before after the Great British Bake Off featured them as a technical challenge, but I thought turning them into cupcakes would be really cute and fun! Plus it's a simpler way to get the delightful taste of the Prinsesstårta without making a full sized one.
I started by making the creme patisserie the night before so I could cool it in the fridge overnight. I've only made creme patisserie once before and the recipe worked beautifully so I decided to use it again. This did make far too much for the 7 cupcakes I needed, so I made another 12 the next day! So you may wish to half the creme patisserie recipe if you're making a smaller number of cakes. I heated 500ml whole milk with the seeds from a vanilla pod until it reached boiling point. I then took it off the heat and poured into a jug.
In my food mixer I whisked up 6 egg yolks with 140g caster sugar until pale and thick. I added 45g cornflour and mixed that in. I then put the mixer on a medium speed and poured the milk in slowly as it mixed.
I poured the mixture back into the pan and heated it up whilst stirring continuously. There is a moment when it suddenly thickens, I started whisking it at this point to keep it smooth and stop any lumps.
I put it in a bowl, and covered it with cling film. I made sure the cling film was touching the creme pattiserie so that a skin doesn't form on it. I left it in the fridge overnight to cool.
The next day I made the cupcakes. I was taking them to a dinner party where one of the guests had a gluten intolerance so I made regular cupcakes with gluten free flour. Ideally I would have made genoise sponge cupcakes as this is the traditionally sponge. So it's up to you which to use if you try this recipe. I creamed together 120g butter and 120g caster sugar. I then whisked in 2 eggs and 1 tsp vanilla extract.
I added 120g gluten free self raising flour and 3 tbsp whole milk, and mixed in. If you don't need these to be gluten free, just use regular self raising flour.
I divided the cupcake mixture into 7 cases as that's how many I needed, but I reckon you could stretch the mixture to 8 cupcakes. As I mentioned before, as the creme patisserie recipe makes quite a lot so you can make a lot more cupcakes to use it up if you wish.
I baked on 175C/350F/Gas Mark 4 for 20 minutes until golden. I left them to cool completely.
While they were cooling I kneaded some green food colouring into 100g natural marzipan and cut out 2.5 inch circles. I got exactly 19 circles from this much marzipan. I left the marzipan out to harden up.
I used a tiny dab of water to stick a pink heart sprinkle into the middle of each marzipan circle. Traditionally a pink flower is put on top of a Prinsesstårta, but I had these pink heart sprinkles in the cupboard from Valentine's Day baking and I thought they looked really cute!
Once fully cool I used a knife to scoop out the middle of the cupcakes. If you have a cupcake corer you could use that instead.
I half filled the holes with seedless raspberry jam, about 1 tsp per cupcakes.
Then I topped them up with the creme patisserie and smoothed the top.
I whipped up a 250ml tub of double cream and piped swirls onto each cupcake. I kept the swirls flat so I could place a circle of marzipan on top.
I was so pleased with the final result! I found making a full sized Prinsesstårta really tough in terms or decorating as I'm not skilled with covering cakes in fondant/marzipan, but these cupcakes are so much simpler. Everyone at the dinner party loved the cupcakes. The Swedes really have it down, I mean, cream, custard and jam in a cake - how can you go wrong?!
I'm entering this Swedish treat into myself and Cakeyboi's baking challenge Treat Petite. Cakeyboi is hosting this month and the theme is Eurovision.
