Prinsesstårta for my birthday

Today is my birthday so I made myself a Prinsesstårta (Princess cake in Swedish) :-D

The Princess Cake contains multiple layers of sponge cake, raspberry jam, vanilla cream, whipped cream, and marzipan. It is usually green (the marzipan) and decorated with powder sugar. This cake is the traditional birthday cake in Sweden and is also eaten at other celebrations, such as weddings, in which case the marzipan is white.

I thought it would be difficult to make but it was ok. The only tricky part is cutting the sponge cake in 3 layers. I prepared it last night so it would have time to cool down in the fridge until the next morning. It takes a bit of time because both the cake and the vanilla cream have to cool down before use so plan 3 hours. I bought already-made green marzipan but you can do it yourself, I'm sure it's better and less sweet.

Try it and impress someone you love for their birthday!

Recipe of the Princess Cake (Prinsesstårta)

Spongecake:

3 eggs
3 dl sugar
1 dl warm water
3 dl flour
1.5 tsp baking powder

Mix eggs and sugar until white. Add the warm water at the end while beating. Add flour and baking powder (mixed together). Transfer the dough into a buttered and floured springform. Bake in the middle of the oven 30 min at 175C. Allow the cake to cool down.

Vanilla cream:

2 dl milk
1 dl cream
2 eggyolks
1 tbsp sugar
1.5 tbsp maizena
1 vanilla pod (seeds)

Heat up milk, cream, sugar, and vanilla seeds in a saucepan until it boils, then turn the heat off. Add eggyolks and maizena, whisk until the cream thickens (on the warm plate). Filter the cream through a sieve and let the cream cool down. Then incorporate half of the whipped cream (below) into the vanilla cream and carefully mix.

Filling and decoration:

5 dl cream, whipped up
raspberry jam
round sheet of green marzipan
powder sugar
marzipan rose and petals

Layering:

Cut the sponge cake in 3 layers. As bottom, use an end with the baked side up. Spread raspberry jam on it and then one half of the vanilla cream on top. Repeat the 3 layers (again with a baked end of the cake upwards so the jam and cream don't soak into the cake too much). Finish with the 3rd layer (middle part of the sponge cake).  Spread the whipped cream on top, trying to make it rounded, and cover the sides of the cake with cream as well. Carefully cover the cake with the sheet of marzipan and make small incisions on the sides of the marzipan to adjust it to the cake. Decorate the cake with some powder sugar and marzipan flowers. Et voilà, the Princess Cake is done!

References: http://www.odense-marcipan.se/inspiration/recept/festligt/373-princesstarta
http://recept.se/artiklar/hur-man-gor-prinsesstarta
http://www.recept.nu/Pages/RecipePrintPage.aspx?printPageId=66538#

Blueberry muffins

Someone very special to me asked me to bake blueberry muffins. So here was my next project! How hard can it be? Some dough and some blueberries? Well it turned out to be more challenging than initially thought. I tried many different recipes, which I found either too dry, too light, too eggy, or without enough blueberries. In the end I came up with my own recipe which is a compilation and adaptation of a few recipes (referenced below).

These blueberry muffins take 10 min to prepare and 20 more min in the oven to bake. They're soft and moist, and have lots and lots of blueberries. The crumble on top adds some crispiness to the muffins and I think they're very good! You could easily replace the blueberries with other berries, such as raspberries, currants, or cherries.
Try the recipe, taste them and let me know what you think :-D

Recipe for blueberry muffins (12-14 p)

500 g blueberries (of which 80-100 g crushed)

Dough:

320 g flour
3 tsp baking powder
150 g sugar
2 tsp vanillin sugar
2.6 dl cream (35%)
70 ml canola oil
2 eggs

Crumble:

20 g butter
2.5 tbsp flour
4 tbsp brown sugar
some cinnamon

Mix all ingredients for the crumble by hand and reserve in the fridge. For the dough, mix all dry ingredients in a bowl and mix all wet ingredients in another bowl. Mix both wet and dry ingredients with a fork just enough to be roughly mixed and add the crushed blueberries. Fill muffin forms halfway. Add half of the blueberries. Add the remaining dough to the form and then the remaining blueberries (press them in). Sprinkle the crumble on top and bake 20 min at 200 C.

References: http://lescafesdudelice.canalblog.com/archives/2009/11/29/15973899.html
http://www.paperblog.fr/930964/seduite-par-bob-le-meilleur-muffin-a-la-myrtille/
http://www.nytimes.com/recipes/2868/Jordan-Marshs-Blueberry-Muffins.html