Wedding anniversary and princess torta

August 16, 2015

Wedding anniversary and princess torta

Yesterday we celebrated the 6th anniversary of our marriage. It is amazing how fast time past. I still remember all the details of preparation, me being super nervous and excited at the same time and me being late to my own wedding, putting my husband to the next level of stress and him being sick and worry I would not make it in time....

We are having a lot of fun remembering all the stories today, back then however it was not really funny. I do remember my "nearly" nervous breakdown when we finally reached the church, falling into the arms of the priest saying hundred times how sorry I was and him being all peaceful and balanced trying to calm me down. The reason for me being late was the missing petticoat....without which the whole wedding outfit would not work out. You probably can see, why we all were freaky back then and why it is so funny remembering the story today. Besides of this "little" accident everything else worked out just perfectly. We had delicious food, super party with tons of fun and dancing and an outstanding wedding cake.

Of course, for me the wedding cake was a very important part of the wedding....it should be nothing fancy or extraordinary, but something what tastes great. Simple ingredients, light, fluffy with a taste of summer. Couple of weeks before the wedding, we happened to visit a wedding exhibition and there it was where we found our cake. It was a summer modified version of princess torta with a taste of strawberries, made by a girl whose father owns a cake shop here in the area (we got married in Sweden). She was home staying mom who had a passion for baking and wanted to try something different. She was not really counting on any orders or so and was just as delighted to hear that her cake was a success, as we that she would accept our request to make our wedding cake.

Long story short, yesterday I decided to make a pricess torta for our special day....not the exact replica of our wedding cake, but my version of this delicious Swedish classical cake. I know you shall never praise your own work that obviously, but I have to say the result was just phenomenal, beyond all words. This cake was such a divine, each piece like a small fluffy cloud of vanilla, cream and raspberry melting in your mouth. Vanilla was the twisting part of my version, mainly because I am nuts about vanilla and because in my opinion vanilla and cream are always meant to be together...

It was the first time I made this cake, the preparation itself is easy, however you would need some time to prepare all parts of this cake, as well as to have it assembled. The marzipan covering part might be quite challenging, even so I am used to work with fondant on my cakes...this is slightly different as marzipan is bit more sticky and you do cover a big cloud of whisked cream, which means you have to be very gentle with no pressure at all. You can see my covering part was not as neat as it should be and I definitely need more practise here...

Swedish Princess torta

Vanilla cream

500 ml milk
80 g sugar
2 tablespoons cornstarch
2 egg yolks
1 vanilla pod
30 g butter cold cut in cubes

Pour the milk into a saucepan, leave 5 tablespoons out which will be use in a later stage. Open the vanilla pod, with a back of the knife scrape out the vanilla seeds, save half of the seeds for later. Add sugar, vanilla seeds and vanilla pod to the milk and heat it up. In a small bowl whisk together egg yolks, remaining milk and cornstarch. Once the milk starts to cook, lower the heat and add the cornstarch-egg yolks mixture. Whisk the milk while adding it and continue whisking to avoid clumps and burning. Cook for couple of minutes till the cream starts to thicken. Take out the vanilla pod, pour the vanilla cream in a bowl and add the butter....one cube at the time, whisk till all butter dissolves then add another cube, till all butter is used. Take a plastic wrap and cover the surface of vanilla cream to avoid a skin. Let it cool....

The vanilla cream can be done in advanced, as you will need some time to get it cooled to be able to work with it. You can also use pre-made vanilla cream from your store or use a vanilla pudding powder to make the vanilla cream.

Cake sponge

2 egg whites
3 whole eggs
120 g sugar
vanilla sugar
120 g flour
1 teaspoon backing powder

Preheat the oven to 180 C. Line the baking form with baking paper (no fat!). Whisk egg whites, eggs, vanilla sugar and sugar with an electrical mixer till doubled in size and pale in the colour. Sift in flour and baking powder. With a spatula fold it the flour till all incorporated. Pour the batter into the baking form and bake for 20 minutes (till golden brown). Let it cool on a cooling rack.

Assembling

raspberry jam (get thread of seeds)
500 ml double cream (cold)
vanilla seeds (you saved from before)
80 g powdered sugar (sifted)
marzipan (store bought)
vanilla cream
marzipan decoration

Cut your sponge in 2 or 3 cake layers (depending on how big your baking form was). My was a bit bigger and I could only get 2 layers. Whisk the double cream, with powdered sugar and vanilla seeds, till firm peaks starts to form. Take the first cake layer and put 2-3 tablespoons of raspberry jam, then put a thick layer of vanilla cream closing up with a thin layer of whisked double cream. Repeat with all remaining layers. Cover the cake with remaining whisked double cream and shape a sort of a dome out of the cream....building the typical form of this cake, see pictures below. At last cover the cake with the marzipan and decorate it with a marzipan rose.

I have to admit here in Sweden you can buy the marzipan already pre-rolled and in an exact size and colour you would need it for a princess cake, so this step was quite easy for me...Same is valid for the decoration, a typical rose in the middle of the cake.