Great British Bake Off: Prinsesstarta

Episode 6: European Cakes

Recipe (Technical Challenge): Prinsesstarta

So it looks like I posted the projects out of order – so although the Dobos Torte was the showstopper, let’s circle back and talk about the Technical – the Prinsesstarta. I was definitely intimidated by this cake when I saw it being made by the competitors. It’s a layer cake with a mound of whipped cream, and then topped with a layer of green marzipan. I’ve never worked with marzipan before or any kind of cake coating “layer” like fondant so I was a bit nervous about that. The cake itself is really simple – three layers of cake with fillings of jam, whipped cream and pastry cream. Then a huge mound of cream is put on top, shaped like a dome and then you put the marzipan on top.

The recipe: http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/prinsesstrta_17336

First layer: pasty cream piped around the edge to keep in the jam.

Final layering: a proud dome of whipped cream (container in background as proof) awaiting its green marzipan adornment.

Green marzipan pre-rolling. It came out a little grainier than I’d like. The color is really bright!

Ta da! Not bad, eh? It actually came out a lot better than I hoped. The marzipan draped around the cake really easily and was easy to shape & trim.

And here is the cake with the final chocolate icing and flower. It’s supposed to be pink, but I went with purple instead.

Overall: 7/10

I really felt that with this cake, I could really get a sense of how far my skills have developed, even from this year. But maybe it’s actually my confidence or a great ability to break down the technical components of a cake like this, to make it less intimidating. In any case – it was actually quite fun to make. And tasty!

Up next…Episode 7!