Swedish Prinsesstårta is a layered cake filled with cream and custard and covered in marzipan. As 2/5 of our household don’t like marzipan, I had to find another covering for the cake and the obvious choice was fondant. And as we’re vegetarian, marshmallow fondant, which I believe is quite easy to work with, is another no-no. I really need to explore other alternatives… I tried grinding cashews for an almond marzipan alternative but couldn’t get them fine enough without them turning into an oily mess, and I did have plans for another go, but life got in the way.
These don’t look very pretty because I rolled the fondant too thin and it tore like nobody’s business, not to mention sticking to my hands as I tried to drape the pieces over the cakes. Rolled cakes are obviously easier because you handle the fondant far less.
As you can see, I made mini versions, inspired by these little beauties.
Still, wonky exterior aside, these cupcakes were amazingly good eating! Light sponge, creamy custard, fluffy cream. Delicious. This recipe makes 5. I adapted the cupcakes themselves from my rainbow cupcake recipe.
Cupcakes
Ingredients
3/4 cup cake flour (see note below)
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
6 tbsp sugar
40g butter, room temperature
1/4 cup milk
1 egg white
Note: To make your own cake flour, measure 2 tablespoons cornflour (cornstarch) into the cup before filling with all purpose (plain) flour. For this recipe you would use 1 1/2 tablespoons cornflour (cornstarch) in total.
Directions
Preheat oven to 190°C. Line a muffin tin with 5 paper cupcake liners.
Sift flour, baking powder and salt together into a bowl.
In another bowl, cream sugar and butter until fluffy. Add milk and egg white and beat well, until smooth.
Fold in dry ingredients into wet just until combined and there are no traces of flour.
Divide batter evenly between liners.
Bake for 18 – 21 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.
Cool completely on a wire rack.
Pastry Cream
Ingredients
1 cup milk
2 egg yolks
4 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp cornstarch
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
15g (1 tbsp) butter
Directions
In a small saucepan over medium heat, heat milk and vanilla just until it simmers.
In a small bowl, whisk together egg yolks and sugar until light and fluffy. Add cornstarch and continue whisking until smooth.
Slowly pour the hot milk into the egg mixture. Whisk until completely smooth and free of lumps.
Wipe out the saucepan and return the mixture to it, and place over medium heat. Bring the mixture to a boil, whisking constantly, and cook for another 2 minutes, or until it thickens.
Remove from heat and add the butter, whisking well to incorporate.
Transfer the pastry cream to a bowl. Press a piece of plastic wrap directly onto top of the pastry cream and refrigerate until ready to use.
Fondant
Ingredients
80g butter, room temperature
80ml sugar syrup
375g powdered sugar + plus extra as needed
Food colouring (how much you will need depends on the brand you use, so start slowly and work your way up – traditionally, Prinsesstårta is in pastel shades)
Directions
Mix butter and sugar syrup together in a large bowl with a wooden spoon. Add the powdered sugar and stir until combined and smooth. Turn out onto a work surface and knead, adding more powdered sugar as necessary to make a smooth, pliable fondant.
Divide the fondant into 5 portions of 100g each. Set the remainder aside for decorations in white or in another colour, if desired. Into each of the 5 portions, knead a drop or two of food colouring. Unless, of course, you are making all your cakes the same colour, in which case you would add the colouring and divide it afterwards. In this case, you will need to separate some for the decorations before adding colouring to the rest.
Wrap the pieces of fondant snugly in plastic and refrigerate until ready to use.
Additional filling elements
200g double cream
1 tbsp powdered sugar
2 tbsp raspberry jam
Whip the cream together with the powdered sugar to firm peaks.
Heat the jam slightly to make it easier to spread.
Assembly
The order of elements, top to bottom:
Fondant
Whipped cream
Cake
Pastry cream
Cake
Whipped cream
Jam
Cake
Allow the fondant portions to come to room temperature, then roll each of them out between two sheets of parchment to circles about 15cm in diameter – I rolled mine to 20cm but it was too thin and didn’t need to be that big.
Roll and cut your decorations as desired.
Trim the rounded top off the cupcakes, turn them upside down and cut them across into 3 equal sections.
Spread the bottom (widest) section of cake with jam then with a teaspoon or so of whipped cream.
Top with the next section, then spread with 2 teaspoons of pastry cream.
Top with the third section of cake then spread with a teaspoon of whipped cream.
Cover the whole cupcake in whipped cream, making it as rounded as possible.
Carefully drape a circle of fondant over the cake, smoothing it gently. Trim the bottom edge with a sharp knife.
You can put a piece of ribbon around the bottom edge to make it pretty, if desired.
Top with decorations.
Repeat with remaining cupcakes.
pizzarossa 
G’day How adorable, TRUE!
Congrats on yet another great challenge at the Daring Kitchen too!
Cheers! Joanne
What’s On The List
http://www.whatsonthelist.net
Thanks, Joanne 🙂
I love the colours – so pretty! Your photo of the cross-section is gorgeous. You can really *see* how fluffy and light it was. Yum. 🙂
Thanks, Suz! Yours are gorgeous!
Oh I love this! I think they look perfectly pretty. It isn’t an easy cake in general and finding a vegan way around things is not always easy. So I think you did a great job and thank you so much for sharing.
Thanks 🙂
These are adorable! I love that you transformed these into personalize sizes! And those colors are just so pretty and springy 🙂
Thanks 🙂 We’re a family of 5 and they are everyone’s favourite colours – it was fun!
Beautiful little bites!
Thanks, Aisha! 🙂
I just love the colors you used! the hues are beyond beautiful
I am planning on making mini ones for a party soon, I think I will go with your colors
Promise you’ll take pictures! Can’t wait to see them 🙂
Your cute cupcakes are now on my to-do-list. I made a big princess cake and really enjoyed it.
I want to try a big one next! LOL!
They’re so lovely ! At least, with their little size you can be sure the cream won’t fall appart !
you did a great job !
That is a definite plus for the small size! 🙂
Oh my gosh, adorable!! I love the little cupcakes! They are great! A lovely little bite!
Thanks, Jenni! They were fun to make and better to eat!
Cute little cakes!
Thanks, Rebecca! 🙂
The little cakes look like little Princesses. I just love the different colors.
Thanks, Evelyn! 🙂
Rachael, these are so sweet! I love the pastels colours, and the layers inside look so yummy. Thanks so much for baking with me this month! 😀
Thanks, Korena! And thanks again for being such an outstanding host! 🙂
Love the pastel coloured mini cakes
Thanks, Amrita! 🙂
such cute little gems!
Thanks so much! 🙂
The mini versions are so adorable! Sure cuties; my guess is these would make perfect party cakes for a little girls party, shoot even a big girls party, maybe a shower!!! Hmm.
You’re right, they’d be perfect for a baby or wedding shower! I will have to keep that in mind! 🙂
Cute and colorfull!! They look pretty and I’m sure they tasted great!
Thanks, Marilyne! 🙂
Wow!! Your cupcakes looks so cute!! I just love the shades you made them in 🙂
Thank you! 🙂
Pretty pretty! Loving the spring colours!
Thank you for the excellent recipes.
The first time I found this recipe was on a box of cornstarch.
Have lost the original recipe, but yours is also fantastic.
Thanks Iris, glad I could help! 🙂