Crème Pâtissière/ Pastry Cream

This is one of the great essentials of dessert-making: you use it in all manner of cakes, éclairs, cream puffs, tarts and other pastries. You can easily vary the recipe to suit a particular need, but this is the recipe in its most basic form. Some possible modifications include:

• Steeping crushed cardamom pods, a cinnamon stick or grated nutmeg in the milk
• Go wild and use cream instead of some of the milk... but exercise caution, as too much richness does not necessarily translate to better flavour.
• Adding a tablespoon of liquor at the end
• Add some chopped chocolate towards the end to make a richer chocolate pastry cream
• Use coconut milk or another nut milk: as long as it isn't low-fat!
• Use brown sugar or maple sugar as the sweetener for a unique taste
• Mix with whipped cream for crème chiboust, used in many choux pastries
• Use a stovetop-pudding powder instead of cornstarch
• I've even seen versions made with wine or orange juice instead of the milk... If you try that, tell me how it goes.

No matter which you use, make sure to stir the cooking cream well so that the bottom doesn't burn, strain the tempered yolk mixture to catch any curdles, and don't overcook to avoid an unpleasant eggy taste.

Crème Pâtissière

2 C. Whole milk
4 Egg yolks
1/3- 1/2 C. Sugar, depending on desired sweetness
1 Vanilla bean, split, or 1 Tsp. Vanilla extract
1/4 C. Cornstarch
1 TBSP Butter, optional (to increase firmness)

Heat the milk in a large saucepan until steaming. If using the vanilla bean, add and cover to let steep for 30 minutes.

Mix the yolks, sugar and starch. Bring the milk back to an almost-boil on medium-high heat and quickly whisk in a ladle full of the hot milk to the yolk mixture. 

When the yolk and egg mixture is completely blended, pour back into the saucepan through a sieve to catch any clumps. Cook on medium-low heat while whisking constantly until thickened. Remove from heat and keep whisking for another 2-3 minutes. Add the butter, if using.

Once at room temperature, pour into a bowl or container and cover with plastic wrap to prevent a skin from forming.

Prinsesstårta

Today was my mum's birthday, and for the third (or fourth? I lose track) year in a row I made one of her new favourites, the Swedish prinsesstårta. I came across the recipe by chance and was instantly taken by the combination of several of my family's favourite ingredients- marzipan, custard, whipped cream and raspberry jam. While it is a bit tricky to assemble, nobody ever complains that my cake is too messy- they're too busy eating it. 

Still, each year's attempt is a bit nicer than the last one. This year I decided to change it up and modify the original recipe a bit. I added some orange extract to the sponge cake, some rum to the jam (to make it more spreadable and aromatic), some fresh raspberries since they're very good this time of year, and some vanilla bean to the custard. I also reduced the amount of marzipan to make it neater and easier to put away into the fridge- yeah, the dome looks cool, but it doesn't fit with any of my cake covers and is very difficult to arrange nicely. I'm sure I'll get the hang of it one day.

I decorated it with a hint of personalization, adding a Moominmamma figure (from the tales of Tove Jansson) to the top of the cake in honour of my mum. I also made a few vines and flowers, and added some toasted almonds around the sides. I think the modifications turned out really well- especially the fresh berries. You can also use strawberry slices very well in here. The only change I'll try next time is adding more custard, since you could always use more of that. 

A previous year's attempt, featuring the full length marzipan coat. Note how I tried to clean up the edges with slivered almonds.

What I find interesting about this cake is its history. It was originally named "green cake" in its late '40s debut, but received a name change in honour of the Swedish crown princesses' fondness for it. They were educated in household management, including cooking, and so would have been making these cakes themselves. There was even a series of cookbooks written by the home economics instructor for the princesses, featuring the royals on its cover, that published this cake for the whole world to make. Neat!

I one day hope to go to Sweden and try out this cake in its nation of origin- until then, I'm happy to make them year after year. 

Prinsesstårta
Adapted from Semiswede
For the Sponge Cake:
60 g. All purpose flour
82 g. Potato starch
1 Tsp. Baking powder
Pinch of salt
225 g. Sugar, including 1 sachet vanilla sugar (or 2 tsp. vanilla extract)
dash of orange extract or a tablespoon of orange zest (optional)
4 Eggs, at room temperature
Butter and breadcrumbs, to line the pan

using butter, breadcrumbs and parchment cut into a 9" circle, line and grease a 9" cake pan.

Sift together the flour, starch, salt and baking powder.

Beat the sugar and eggs together until fluffy and thick, so that lifting the beater leaves a ribbon of batter in the bowl that lasts a few seconds. It should be pale yellow and very light.

Fold in the dry ingredients one third at a time until completely incorporated. Pour into the cake pan and bake for 35-40 minutes at 180℃, or until golden, in the lower half of the oven.

Let cool and use a knife to pry out. Using a sharp serrated knife or a cake cutting wire, cut the cake lengthwise into three thin rounds and set aside.

For the Custard:
4 Egg yolks
2 TBSP Cornstarch
2 TBSP Sugar
1 C. Milk, preferably whole or 2% with a splash of cream
1 Packet vanilla sugar, or 2 Tsp. sugar and 1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 a vanilla bean, cut in half lengthwise, otherwise another teaspoon of vanilla extract

Whisk together the yolks, cornstarch and sugar and a small bowl. Set aside.

In a small, heavy-bottomed saucepan, heat the milk to a rolling boil with the scraped-out vanilla bean inside. Let steep for half an hour covered off heat.

Heat the milk back up until almost but not quite boiling. quickly whisk 1/4 of a cup of the milk into the yolk mixture, then another 1/4 cup. Pour the milk and yolk mixture back into the rest of the milk through a sieve and cook, stirring constantly, until beginning to thicken. Remove from the heat and continue whisking until completely thickened.

Add the vanilla sugar and/or vanilla extract. Let cool and cover with clingfilm until ready to use.

For the Whipped Cream:
2 1/2 C. Cold whipping cream
3 TBSP Powder sugar, or more to taste
2 Tsp. Vanilla extract
2 Packets whipped cream stabilizer, optional but recommended (e.g. Whip It from Dr. Oetker)

Beat all on high until very firm peaks form. Refrigerate until ready to use.

To Assemble:
3/4 C. Raspberry jam, about 2/3 of a jar (get a whole jar just to be sure)
1/4 C. Dark rum, to thin the jam (optional)
1/2 Pint of fresh raspberries, optional
200 g. Decorating marzipan (300-400 g. will be needed if covering the whole cake)
1 C. Toasted sliced almonds (optional, if using the lesser amount of marzipan)
Food colouring in green and any other desired marzipan decoration colours (pink roses are nice)
Powdered sugar

Mix the jam with the rum, if using.

Layer a slice of the sponge cake by covering it in one third of the jam (and raspberries, if using), then one third of the custard, then about a quarter of the whipped cream. Repeat for the second layer. For the third layer, finish up all the jam and custard, but spread one quarter of the whipped cream around the sides of the cake and the other quarter on top.

Colour about 150 g. of the marzipan green with a few drops of food colouring and knead in. Roll out between sheets of parchment until you have a 9" circle and cut it out. Place on top of the cake. (If you want to cover the whole cake, use 300 g. of the marzipan and roll it out into the largest, thinnest circle possible. Drape over the cake carefully and trim to fit.)

Decorate the cake with the toasted around the sides if only the top is covered with marzipan.

Use the remaining marzipan and food colouring to make decorations, such as flowers, leaves, hearts, stars, et cetera. Stick these onto the cake. Sprinkle with powdered sugar, if desired.