Swedish Princess Layer Cake + Eleven Years Of Hummingbird Excessive » Hummingbird Excessive

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About This Swedish Princess Layer Cake

It’s Hummingbird Excessive‘s eleventh anniversary, and I’m celebrating by including this fancy Swedish princess layer cake recipe to my layer cake assortment!

My recipe is a simple Swedish princess layer cake recipe that differs barely from the unique. It’s made with two layers of moist yellow cake, with a layer of strawberry jam and vanilla pastry cream within the center. The layer cake is then topped with a closing layer of whipped cream and inexperienced marzipan.

This layer cake is modeled after conventional Swedish princess cake, which was popularized in the USA by the furnishings retailer, Ikea.

What’s a Swedish Princess Cake?

Swedish princess cake, additionally merely referred to as “princess cake” or prinsesstårta in Swedish, is a standard Swedish layer cake. It’s made with alternating layers of yellow sponge cake and strawberry or raspberry jam. The cake is then topped with a dome of whipped cream that’s then coated with inexperienced marzipan. It’s completely scrumptious!

I used to be impressed to make a layer cake model of the recipe after seeing a Portland bakery, Papa Haydn, create one for a holiday special. I assumed it could be the right recipe to rejoice my weblog’s eleventh birthday!

@hummingbirdhigh me panicking as a result of #ikea might need discontinued their swedish princess layer muffins #baking #bakingrecipe #cake ♬ Sugar, Sugar – The Archies

A Word For Hummingbird Excessive‘s eleventh Anniversary

Since beginning this baking weblog in November 2011, I’ve celebrated its birthday with a celebratory recipe of some variety. I normally accompany the recipe with an introspective publish taking a look at all of the methods this weblog has modified my life and introduced me pleasure.

However because the years have passed by, I’ve seen a particular shift within the temper of the posts. Whereas I proceed to bake and weblog, it’s grow to be clear that Hummingbird Excessive‘s standing has modified in my life (and in others). And to substantiate this, I discovered that that is the primary yr—after eleven!—that I discover myself struggling to search out new insights and developments to share with you all. Not a lot appears to have modified within the yr since publishing my tenth anniversary publish.

I hinted to some massive adjustments coming quickly in an earlier publish. I want I might announce them right here, however most are depending on issues past my management. Nevertheless, I can share this: after a yr of making an attempt (and failing) at catching up with issues like TikTok, website positioning, and extra, I’m able to return to my roots.

Subsequent yr, I need to spend much less time making an attempt to recreation the assorted social media and tech algorithms. As a substitute, I simply concentrate on baking issues that I need to—issues like recreating those Lafayette Bakery spiral croissants from New York City, or those creme brulee donuts from Saint Honoré Doughnuts in Las Vegas—with out paying an excessive amount of consideration as to if or not they’ll carry out effectively on social media and Google.

Extra quickly, I promise.

Hummingbird Excessive‘s Anniversary Posts

Within the meantime, take a look at all of Hummingbird Excessive‘s anniversary posts:

photo of swedish princess layer cake on gray cake stand

Why You Ought to Make The Recipe

Listed below are all the explanations to make this Swedish princess layer cake:

This Swedish princess layer cake is a enjoyable recipe for folk who need to degree up their baking expertise.

This Swedish princess layer cake is made with fairly easy parts—a fundamental pastry cream recipe, a yellow cake that you simply combine by hand with a bowl and a whisk.

Nevertheless, the issue comes from assembling the cake. You’ll want particular instruments like a cake ring and acetate paper to convey it collectively. It’s the right recipe for folk who need to strive one thing new and a little bit extra superior!

Regardless of being an intermediate-level recipe, this recipe remains to be simpler than a standard Swedish princess layer cake.

That being stated, I feel making a layer cake model of Swedish princess cake remains to be simpler than the extra conventional recipe. A conventional recipe instructs you to form the whipped cream right into a dome over the layer cake. You then cowl your entire factor with marzipan. Each these steps may be extremely difficult!

My recipe, nevertheless, is considerably simpler. You probably have have already got expertise constructing a extra conventional layer cake, you’ll do exactly effective!

The recipe may be simply custom-made to suit into your schedule.

Actual speak—I hardly ever make a layer cake all in sooner or later. Usually, I make a number of (or all) of its parts just like the totally different muffins, fillings, and frostings beforehand earlier than assembling your entire factor.

Why?

Leaving all of it to do in sooner or later simply sucks up your entire day. And I don’t have time for that! It’s a lot better to plan forward, make sure issues prematurely, and save them for assembling later. You’ll discover that once you do, a baking venture that normally would have taken all day now solely takes half-hour or much less over the course of a number of days.

As a result of the Swedish princess layer cake consists of 5 totally different parts complete—cake, pastry cream, jam, whipped cream, and marzipan—one of the best ways to make it at house is to divide up the work over a number of days. Doing so ends in a baking venture that takes only one hour or much less per day, leading to an epic cake on the finish! It makes it very easy to suit right into a busy particular person’s schedule.

And by the way in which—if this type of “recipe time administration” is your factor, I extremely recommend you take a look at my OWN cookbook, Weeknight Baking. I break down sophisticated, time-intensive recipes for layer muffins and pies this fashion so you may extra simply match it into your schedule!

photo of sliced swedish princess layer cake

Elements and Substitutions

Now that I’ve satisfied you to make this Swedish princess layer cake, right here’s your buying checklist for the recipe:

Procuring Checklist For Swedish Princess Layer Cake Recipe

  • complete milk
  • massive eggs
  • granulated sugar
  • cornstarch
  • kosher salt
  • unsalted butter
  • almond extract
  • vanilla extract
  • all-purpose flour
  • baking powder
  • bitter cream
  • canola oil
  • heavy cream
  • confectioners’ sugar
  • marzipan
  • inexperienced meals coloring
  • strawberry or raspberry jam

And let’s discuss some key substances and their potential substitutions:

Marzipan

You want 7 ounces (198 grams) marzipan to make this Swedish princess layer cake.

The place To Purchase Marzipan

Marzipan is often obtainable within the baking aisles of most main grocery shops. It’s normally situated close to the almond paste (which is totally different from marzipan!). Probably the most generally obtainable model in the USA is Odense marzipan. You want 1 (7-ounce) bundle to make this Swedish princess layer cake.

close up photo of swedish princess layer cake slice

How To Make Swedish Princess Layer Cake

Listed below are the fundamental steps to make this Swedish princess layer cake from scratch:

  1. Make the pastry cream. (Work Time: 10 minutes)
  2. Make the sponge muffins. (Whole Time, together with Prep, Work, and Bake Time: 45 minutes)
  3. Make the whipped cream. (Work Time: 5 minutes)
  4. Prep the marzipan. (Work Time: 10 minutes)
  5. Assemble the cake. (Work Time: 20 minutes)
  6. Chill the cake. (Chill Time: 2 to 4 hours)

How To Make The Recipe Match Your Schedule

You may make a number of of the parts forward of assembling the cake itself. Right here’s what I might advocate doing:

  • Day 1: Make the pastry cream and prep the marzipan.
    The pastry cream may be saved within the fridge for as much as 5 days earlier than utilizing within the cake. See the recipe for directions on methods to retailer for long run. The marzipan may be coloured and formed prematurely. As soon as it’s both dyed or formed, I like to recommend wrapping tightly in plastic wrap and storing at room temperature.
  • Day 2: Make the muffins.
    The muffins may be made and frozen for as much as 3 months. If storing for long run, wrap tightly in two layers of plastic wrap and a layer of aluminum foil. If storing to be used inside 1 week, I nonetheless advocate freezing the muffins. It should make it simpler to degree them!
  • Day 3: Make the whipped cream and assemble the cake.
    As soon as the cake is assembled, it may be saved within the pastry ring and acetate paper for as much as 3 days within the fridge earlier than serving.
photo of swedish princess layer cake on pink plates

Recipe Troubleshooting and FAQ

FAQ: Baking Instruments and Tools To Make Swedish Princess Layer Cake

What baking instruments do I must make this recipe?

To make this recipe, you want a handful of normal baking gear and specialty baking gear (which I’ve marked with an asterisk under):

What’s a cake ring? And do I really want one to make the Swedish princess layer cake?

A cake ring is usually utilized in skilled pastry kitchens to create mousse muffins and different fancy desserts. It seems like a cake pan, however with taller sides and no backside. I used this cake ring to make my Swedish princess layer cake, together with others like this Milk Bar Birthday Cake and this Milk Bar Chocolate Chip Cake. I prefer it as a result of it has particularly tall sides, and this recipe makes an particularly tall cake! However there are plenty that you can choose from that are cheaper.

Sadly, you NEED a cake ring to make the recipe. The closest substitution I might consider is to make use of the edges of a 6-inch springform pan (simply make sure that it has 2- to 3-inch tall sides, like this Fat Daddio’s or Wilton pan). Nevertheless, as a result of I’ve by no means tried it myself, I can’t assure the outcomes!

What’s acetate paper?

Acetate paper is obvious paper made out of plastic. In baking, it capabilities like parchment paper. Skilled pastry cooks line the within of cake pans and molds with the acetate paper to type the cake, then peel it off earlier than serving. It’s stiffer and fewer adhesive than parchment paper, making it an incredible instrument for making muffins with melty and liquidy fillings like lotions, curds, ice lotions, and mousse.

The Finest Acetate Paper For Making Desserts

Once I first began making muffins that required acetate paper in 2011, acetate paper wasn’t broadly obtainable exterior of pastry kitchens. As a substitute, you needed to order it on-line from Amazon, the place the acetate was sold in sheets similar to printer paper (since acetate can also be used for projector slides). Nowadays, Amazon has a much wider selection of acetate sheets for baking. You may get acetate cake collars simply, that are already reduce and formed into the correct dimensions for baking.

You sometimes want two rectangular sheets of acetate paper to make the cake, every 20 inches lengthy and three inches tall. Both you may reduce a sheet of acetate paper to that dimension, or purchase a roll of a 3-inch or a 4-inch inch tall acetate cake collar paper and reduce a 20-inch size of it. The peak of the cake collar doesn’t matter an excessive amount of—you may even purchase a 6-inch or an 8-inch tall roll, which can work effectively with the recipe for the reason that ensuing cake is round 6 inches tall.

Nevertheless, there are execs and cons. Utilizing a taller roll of acetate paper will remove the necessity to use the 2 cake collars as instructed within the recipe under. Nevertheless, it is going to additionally make it a lot tougher to construct the layers. The taller sides of the acetate paper will get in the way in which as you try to unfold the pastry cream and jam!

FAQ: Storing Swedish Princess Layer Cake for Serving Later

How To Retailer Swedish Princess Layer Cake

The assembled cake will preserve, uncovered within the fridge, for as much as 1 day. After that, tightly wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for an extra 3 days. Leftover slices may be saved in an hermetic container within the fridge.

Are you able to freeze Swedish princess layer cake?

Sure! You may freeze the cake. You may freeze the assembled cake (nonetheless in its cake ring on a sheet pan) for as much as 2 weeks. When able to serve, thaw the cake within the fridge in a single day earlier than following the directions to unmold and serve the cake.

Finest Recipe Suggestions

Ingredient Suggestions

  • Make it possible for the water could be very sizzling, as near freshly boiled as attainable, once you add it to the cake batter. That is the key to a brilliant moist and fluffy cake! To make sure that my water stays extremely popular, I pour it into an insulated mug proper after boiling. Then, I place a ceramic plate on prime of the mug to behave as a makeshift lid to lure warmth inside.

Method Suggestions

  • For even cake layers, I like to really weigh out the layers with a digital kitchen scale to verify they’re even. The simplest means to do that is to set a ready cake pan on a digital scale and tare it to “0”. Pour batter into the pan till the dimensions registers the load listed within the recipe (as a result of sure, I’ve included the approximate weight of the batter wanted for every pan!). Repeat with the second pan.
  • The recipe instructs you to whip the cream to a selected texture: “agency peaks.” One of the best ways to find out the cream’s texture is to do a check with a whisk. Dip the tip of a whisk (or the whisk attachment) into the whipped cream, take away it, and shortly flip it the wrong way up. If the cream is simply too tender, it is going to slide off the whisk. You’ll must preserve whisking. As soon as the cream has a cloud-like construction, with peaks that lose their form however maintain on to the whisk, you’re on the “tender peaks” stage. Preserve going for an extra minute to achieve the “agency peaks” stage.
  • It could possibly take a extremely very long time to knead the meals coloring into the marzipan and obtain a constant inexperienced coloration. If you wish to make your life simpler, I recommend kneading it within the stand mixer! Mix the marzipan and meals coloring within the bowl and blend them collectively on low velocity to create a fair, constant coloration.

Extra Fancy Layer Desserts on Hummingbird Excessive

photo of swedish princess layer cake

Swedish Princess Layer Cake Recipe

yield: 1 (6-inch) cake

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Work Time: 55 minutes

Bake Time: 30 minutes

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Particular Tools

  • a fine-mesh sieve

  • air tight containers

  • plastic wrap

  • 2 (6-inch) cake pans

  • parchment paper

  • a stand mixer with a whisk attachment

  • a 6-inch cake ring with 2-inch OR 3-inch tall sides

  • acetate paper, reduce into one 20-inch lengthy x 6-inch tall rectangular strip OR reduce into two 20-inch lengthy x 3-inch tall rectangular strips

Elements

For the Pastry Cream

  • ½ cup (4 ounces or 113 grams) complete milk
  • 2 massive egg yolks
  • 7 ½ teaspoons (1 ounce or 28 grams) granulated sugar
  • 1 Tablespoon cornstarch
  • pinch kosher salt
  • 1 Tablespoon (.5 ounces or 14 grams) unsalted butter
  • 1 teaspoon almond extract
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

For the Cake

  • 1 ⅔ cups (7.5 ounces or 213 grams) all-purpose flour
  • 1 cup (7 ounces or 198 grams) granulated sugar
  • 2 ½ teaspoons baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon kosher salt
  • ½ cup (4 ounces or 113 grams) bitter cream, at room temperature
  • ¼ cup (2 ounces or 57 grams) canola oil
  • 1 massive egg, at room temperature
  • 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
  • 3 Tablespoons (1.5 ounces or 43 grams) boiling sizzling water

For the Whipped Cream

  • ½ cup (4 ounces or 113 grams) chilly heavy cream
  • 2 Tablespoons confectioners’ sugar, sifted

Meeting

  • 6 ounces (170 grams) marzipan
  • 2 drops inexperienced meals coloring
  • cup (4 ounces or 113 grams) strawberry or raspberry jam

Directions

For the Swedish Princess Layer Cake

First, Make The Pastry Cream:

  • Make the pastry cream. In a medium, heavy-bottomed saucepan, whisk collectively the milk, egg yolks, sugar, cornstarch, and salt. The combination might be a little bit lumpy, however that is okay, I promise!Carry to a boil over medium-low warmth, and prepare dinner, whisking constantly, till the combination thickens sufficient to coat the again of a spoon, 1 to 2 extra minutes.Take away from the warmth. Instantly add the butter, almond, and vanilla extracts and whisk till easy. Place a fine-mesh sieve over a small bowl and pour the pasty cream by the sieve to take away any lumps. Set the bowl on a wire rack and let cool fully earlier than utilizing within the recipe or storing for later use.To retailer, pour the pastry cream into an hermetic container and press a sheet of plastic wrap immediately towards the floor of the pastry cream to stop a pores and skin from forming. Cowl with a lid and refrigerate for as much as 1 week.

Subsequent, Make The Cake:

  • Prep the oven and pans. Place a rack within the middle of the oven and preheat the oven to 350°F.  Generously spray two 6-inch cake pans with cooking spray and line the underside of every with a parchment paper circle. Spray the parchment, too.

  • Combine the dry substances. In a medium bowl, whisk collectively the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.

  • Whisk the moist substances, then combine within the dry substances and sizzling water. In a big bowl, whisk collectively the bitter cream, oil, egg, and vanilla. Progressively whisk within the dry substances till simply mixed. The combination might be thick, however that is okay, I promise! Slowly pour within the sizzling water. Use the rubber spatula to complete mixing till easy and effectively mixed, 1 to 2 minutes extra.
  • Divide the cake batter between the pans. Divide the batter evenly between the pans; if utilizing a digital scale to measure out layers, word that this recipe makes round 24 ounces (680 grams) of batter—pour 12 ounces (340 grams) of batter into every cake pan.

  • Bake and funky the muffins. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes. When completed, the highest of the cake ought to bounce again when gently pressed and a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake ought to come out with a number of crumbs connected. Cool fully within the pans on a wire rack earlier than frosting.

Put together to Assemble The Swedish Princess Layer Cake:

  • As soon as the pasty cream is chilled, the muffins are cooled, and also you’re able to assemble the cake, make the whipped cream. Within the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, mix the cream and confectioners’ sugar. Whisk on medium-high till agency peaks type, 3 to five minutes.

  • Dye the marzipan. Place a sheet of parchment paper on the counter and mud with confectioners’ sugar. Add 1 to 2 drops of inexperienced meals coloring into the middle of the marzipan and knead till fully mixed and pale inexperienced.

  • Form the marzipan. Place a second sheet of parchment paper on prime of the marzipan and use a rolling pin to roll it out to a 6-inch huge, ⅛-thick circle.

Meeting:

  • Prep the cake ring and acetate cake collar. Clear the cake ring and place it within the middle of a sheet pan lined with clear parchment paper. Line the within of the cake ring with the acetate paper (if utilizing two strips of acetate paper, simply use one strip).

  • Construct the Swedish princess layer cake. Set one of many cake rounds within the lined cake ring. Use the again of a spoon or a small rubber spatula to unfold the pastry cream on prime of the cake. Then, unfold the jam over the pastry cream. If you happen to’re utilizing two acetate cake collars, gently tuck the second strip of acetate between the cake ring and the highest ¼ inch of the primary strip of acetate. Doing so creates a hoop of acetate that’s 5 to six inches tall, mixed—this might be excessive sufficient to help the peak of the completed cake.Set the second cake spherical on prime of the jam. Spoon the whipped cream over this cake spherical, spreading it to create a fair layer on prime of the cake. Fastidiously set the marzipan spherical on prime of the whipped cream.
  • Chill the cake. Switch the sheet pan with the cake to the fridge. Chill, uncovered and absolutely assembled, for at least 2 hours to set the cake and all its fillings.

  • Serve and retailer. If you’re able to serve the cake, pull the sheet pan out of the fridge and use your fingers and thumbs to softly elevate the cake ring out from across the cake. Switch the cake to a serving plate or cake stand. Gently peel off the acetate. Serve instantly. The assembled cake will preserve, uncovered within the fridge, for as much as 1 day. After that, tightly wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for an extra 3 days. Leftover slices may be saved in an hermetic container within the fridge.

NO TIME TO BAKE?!

Over the previous a number of years of operating Hummingbird Excessive, I saved a vital side of my life hidden from my readers: I had a full-time, extraordinarily demanding job within the tech world. In my debut cookbook, Weeknight Baking, I lastly reveal the secrets and techniques to baking scrumptious desserts on a good schedule.

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