The Bakinglady 

I am fascinated by other cultures, their traditions, celebrations and what they choose as festive food, Sweden is no exception.

This recipe first appeared in the 1930’s and was invented by Jenny Akerstrom who was a teacher to the daughters of Prince Carl, Duke of Vastergotland. His three daughters Margaretha, Martha and Astrid were said to be particularly fond of this frivolous confection and traditional Swedish recreations often include a little golden marzipan crown perched on the top.

I have bought the cake back into the twenty first century with the sharp tang of fresh raspberries and a hint of lemon curd in the whipped cream, perfect for summer parties or when you really need to impress the in-laws!

Although there are lots of elements to this recipe it really isn’t difficult and if you follow my pictures when assembling It, you will find is as easy as saying Abba backwards…..

What you will need

For the sponge

200g cake margarine

200g caster sugar

4 medium eggs

200g self raising flour, sieved

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

For the crème patisserie

2 medium eggs

100g caster sugar

50g plain flour

10g cornflour

500mls milk

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

For the lemon infused cream

900mls double cream

3 heaped tablespoons good quality lemon curd

Everything else…

2-3 tablespoons of raspberry jam

1 kilo natural marzipan, divide into 850g and 150g

A little icing (powdered) sugar

250g fresh raspberries

A little green colour

A little red colour

A piece of ribbon if you would like to finish around the base of the cake

What to do

First make the sponge…

Preheat the oven to 180c or 160 for a fan oven and line a 21cm round baking tin with baking parchment.

Place the margarine and caster sugar in a bowl with the vanilla essence and beat/whisk until creamy, fluffy and pale in colour then add the eggs a little at a time, beating well after each addition. When all the egg is added, fold in the sieved flour and spoon into the tin, level the top then bake in the oven for 35-40 minutes or until well risen and golden brown. Leave to cool before slicing through horizontally into three equal layers

Now make the crème patisserie

Whisk the eggs, vanilla essence and sugar together and add in the plain and corn flour’s, mix to a smooth paste.

Heat the milk to boiling point then pour half of it onto the flour paste, whisking well, return the mixture back into the saucepan, whisking to combine, bring back to the boil stirring all the time until its nice and thick. Pour into a bowl; cover the surface with Clingfilm then leave to cool completely.

Once everything is cold you can whip the double cream and lemon curd together until thick and it forms stiff peaks

Ok are you ready to assemble?

1) Place the bottom sponge layer onto a large serving plate and top with 1-1 ½ tablespoons of raspberry jam

2) Cut the middle out of the centre layer of cake leaving 2 ½ cm cake border around the outside, discard the centre piece of cake and place the cake ring on the top of the jam layer

3) Place the crème patisserie into a piping bag and pipe a line around the inside of the sponge, then a circle of raspberries followed by another ring of cream patisserie. Finally finish by filling the middle with raspberries.

4) Pipe the remaining crème patisserie on top

5) Split the remaining raspberries in half and lay in an even layer on top of the crème patisserie

6) Use the remaining jam to spread on the remaining layer of cake and place on top.

OK, almost there….

7) Top your sponge creation with the whipped, lemon infused cream and use a small pallet knife to spread a small amount around the sides then shape the cream on the top into a smooth dome shape.

You can cover the surface with a piece of Clingfilm to help you shape the surface into a dome shape with your hands if it helps….

Colour 850g of the marzipan a very pale green colour then colour the remaining 150g a pale pink colour

9) Roll the pale green marzipan out on a lightly icing sugar dusted work surface until it is the thickness of a pencil and big enough to cover the top of the cake (you can check this with a length of thin string or ribbon)

Carefully lift the marzipan up using the rolling pin and place over the top of the cake ensuring that it covers everywhere equally. Smooth the marzipan down to the base and trim off any excess.

Using a 10cm cutter indent a light circle into the top of your cake to use as a guide when attaching the marzipan roses.

To make the roses…

These are dead easy to make and look so sweet.

Make 2cm balls using the pale pink marzipan

Roll them into 7cm long sausages

Using your finger and thumb, squash the top half of the sausage along the length to thin them out (they will go longer but that’s ok) you should finish up with a sort of tear drop shape if you looked at the sausage from the end.

Now roll up the sausage, thin bit at the top, fat bit at the bottom into a simple rose shape.

Attach the roses to the cake using a little boiled water and finally sprinkle with a very light dusting of icing (powdered sugar)

You can finish the base of the cake with a thin ribbon if you like and complete your beautiful creation with a bow, now stand back and wait for the oohs and ahhs of admiration….

As the Swedish would say ‘fabelaktig’…. Fabulous!