Swedish Princess Torte recipe

The Princess Torte is a traditional Swedish cake consisting of alternating layers of sponge, whipped cream and vanilla custard topped with a layer of marzipan
Princess Torte
Princess Torte. Photograph: Alamy

Princess Torte


22cm/ 9'' springform pan



150g plain flour

5g baking powder

50g butter

300g eggs

150g caster sugar

Vanilla Custard

500g whole milk

2 vanilla beans, split

120g egg yolks

125g caster sugar

40g corn starch

50 grams butter, cubed

Filling / Decoration

700g heavy whipping cream

300g frozen raspberries, thawed/ raspberry jam (frozen raspberries are the best, they moisten the layer cake and it gives a nice acidity to the finished result) or just use a good firm raspberry jam.

500g green marzipan (not already rolled out), rolling it out to 2-3 mm thickness

100g light pink marzipan, for the rose


1. Preheat your oven to 180ºC. Butter and flour a 22cm springform pan.

2. Sift your dry ingredients for the layer cake. Put butter in a seperate bowl.

3. Over a water bath/bain marie, whisk eggs and sugar until it reaches 40ºC. Take bowl from heat and whisk until room temperature. Put the bowl with butter over the bain marie so the butter melts.

4. Sift your dry ingredients into the egg /sugar mixture, getting as much air as you possibly can into the batter. Pour in butter and fold the batter together.

5. Pour batter/butter mix in prepared springform pan and bake for 20-25 minutes. Test with a wooden skewer, if it comes out clean, the cake is ready. Let cool completely.

6. Vanilla Custard: Put milk, vanilla beans, - seeds, and 50g of sugar in a sauce pan. Let it come to a simmer, take of the heat and let stand 5-10 mins.

7. Whisk egg yolks, the remaining 75g of sugar, and corn starch until light and fluffy. Carefully add your hot milk to the egg yolk mixture, a little at a time. Be careful not to scramble the eggs.

8. Pour mixture back into sauce pan, let custard come to a simmer, whisk constantly until thickened.

9. Take off the heat and add butter. Pour custard through a fine mesh sieve. Cover custard with plastic wrap, let cool in the refrigerator.

10. Invert cake onto a rack, letting it cool faster.

11. Whip heavy cream until medium/firm peaks. Put in the refrigerator until ready to use.

12. Roll out your green marzipan, 2-3 mm thick. Make sure to have enough to cover the cake. Cover with plastic wrap while assembling the rest of the cake. Roll out the pink marzipan and make a rose. Make leaves with some of the leftover green marzipan.

13. Assemble cake: using a serrated knive – cut cake horizontally into three even layers.

14. Using a piping bag, spread a small amount of vanilla custard on layer one. Pipe a border with custard, making a ring, fill with thawed raspberries.

15. Fold together 300 g vanilla custard with 300 g whipped cream, topping the raspberries with the custard/cream.

16. Put on layer two. Mound the rest of the custard/creme filling on top. (starting to see the sphere shape)

17. Put on layer three, bottom side up, top with the rest of the whipped cream. Making a dome. Cover the sides with whipped cream as well.

18. Take the green marzipan, roll it up on a rolling pin, making it easier to unroll on top of the cake. Use your hands, try to get a nice even result, trying not to get any creases. Trim the overhang.

19. Decorate with the pink rose and leaves. Finish it off with some powdered sugar.

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