Far too frequent bakery stops, instagram procrastination, and a happy collection of recipe books provide all the baking inspiration I could possibly need. But sometimes I’ll sit there amongst my recipes and think, hey remember that rogue domed neon-green cake from the local supermarket shelf I spent my pocket money on once 10 years ago and never saw since? Let’s bake that.

Fortunately, it only took one uncertain “green dome cake” google to find I was looking for a Swedish Princess Cake recipe, a traditional Swedish cake made of high number of low difficulty basic components: vanilla sponge, strawberry jam, cream diplomat, whipped cream and a green marzipan coat.

I may have never tasted a true Swedish princess cake, but this recipe is light and tasty and summery and has received the seal of approval from a Swede (well, my best friend blessed with half-Swedish half-Argentinian genes).

(For one 17cm diameter cake)

Sponge

• 240g flour
• 75g cornstarch
• 280g sugar
• 8 eggs
• 1 Tbs water
• 1/2 vanilla pod or 1 tsp vanilla extract

1. Line a cake pan (slightly larger than the ring you want your finished cake to fit) with baking paper and preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius
2. Sift the flour and cornstarch and set aside
3. Beat the eggs and sugar until fluffy
4. Beat in the seeds scraped from the vanilla pod or vanilla extract and the water
5. Fold in the sifted dry ingredients
6. Pour the mixture into the cake pan and bake at 180 degrees Celsius for 15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean
7. Allow to cool then slice the cake horizontally to get three circles of 1cm thickness
8. Trim one of the slices to the diameter of your final cake ring, and two of the slices to a diameter 1.5 cm less than your final cake ring (lining the cake with strawberries will mean that two of the rings need to be of a smaller diameter)

Creme Diplomat

• Ingredients for 1 quantity of Creme Patisserie by this recipe
• 150ml double cream
• 0.5 sheets gelatin (silver strength) + 1 Tbs water

1. Make creme pat by this recipe
2. As the creme pat cools, heat gelatin and water until the gelatin dissolves
3. Separately whip double cream to medium peaks, pouring in the dissolved gelatin as you do so
4. Fold the whipped cream into the creme pat to make a creme diplomat (this uses a 2:1 ratio of creme pat to whipped cream to make a slightly heavier creme diplomat, which I find preferable for this recipe)
5. Refrigerate until use

Additional layers and decorations

• 250ml double cream
• 4 Tbs good quality strawberry jam
• 6 large strawberries, sliced vertically into 8mm slices
• Ingredients for 0.5 quantity of Marzipan recipe from here colored with 0.5 tsp Matcha
• Edible flowers or any other decoration of your choice

1. Make the marzipan with this recipe, and color it with 0.5 tsp matcha. Wrap it in cling film and set aside
2. Whip the double cream to stiff peaks and set aside
3. Slice the strawberries vertically into 8mm slices and set aside
4. Prepare the assembly equipment by lining your cake ring with acetate
5. Start assembling your cake by placing the bottom largest ring of sponge into the cake ring
6. Vertically arrange strawberry slices of equal height along the outer edge of the bottom layer of sponge (such that when the ring is later taken off the strawberries will be displayed on the outside of the cake)
7. Spoon the strawberry jam onto your bottom sponge layer and spread evenly into a thin layer
8. Place on the next layer of sponge. This one if smaller than your first so should accommodate the strawberries ringed around
9. Spread a layer of creme diplomat roughly equal to the thickness of the sponge onto the second sponge layer
10. Place the final layer of sponge on
11. Spread or pipe the whipped cream on top and flatten the top of the cake
12. Peal off the ring and acetate and even out the layers if necessary
13. Roll your marzipan between two sheets of parchment paper to a 4mm thickness and cut a ring the diameter of your cake
14. Transfer the marzipan to your cake and decorate with the edible flowers, marzipan, or which whatever decoration of your choice (these raspberry macarons look great on it too if you’re up to the challenge!)
15. Refrigerate for 1h