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Papua New GuineaFlavors · Sweden
Dome-shaped cake with layers of sponge cake, raspberry jam, vanilla cream, and lots of whipped cream, covered by a green marzipan sheet and decorated with a pink marzipan rose. The name recalls the three princess daughters of Prince Carl, pupils of Jenny Åkerström, the recipe’s author.
Traditional sweet from Sweden
Also known as: Grön tårta, prinsessbakelse (a versão individual)
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Prinsesstårta — Sweden
The prinsesstårta, or princess cake, is one of Sweden’s best-known celebration cakes. On the outside it stands out for its smooth green marzipan dome, dusted with sugar and topped with a pink marzipan rose. Inside, it alternates discs of sponge cake, raspberry jam, and vanilla cream beneath a large layer of whipped cream that gives it the rounded shape.
The recipe is attributed to Jenny Åkerström (1867–1957), a home economics teacher who ran a girls’ school in Stockholm, opened in 1907. Among her pupils were the princesses Margaretha, Märtha, and Astrid, daughters of Prince Carl, Duke of Västergötland. Jenny Åkerström published a series of books called Prinsessornas kokbok, the princesses’ cookbook, featuring their picture on the cover.
In the book the cake was called grön tårta, meaning “green cake.” According to the most widespread explanation, it became known as prinsesstårta because the three princesses liked it very much. There is disagreement about which edition first published the recipe: many sources cite the first edition from 1929, while a comparison of older editions, confirmed by the Hembakningsrådet, found the grön tårta recipe in the 1948 edition. The name prinsessbakelse, meanwhile, already appears in an 1884 cookbook for a different pastry.
Prinsesstårta is sold whole or in individual slices in bakeries across the country and appears at birthdays and other celebrations. Bakeries also make versions with marzipan in other colors for special occasions.
Sweden
A national celebration cake created by Jenny Åkerström, the teacher of princesses Margaretha, Märtha and Astrid in Stockholm.
Sponge cake, raspberry jam, vanilla cream (pastry cream), whipped cream, green marzipan for the covering, pink marzipan for the rose, and powdered sugar.
In slices, with coffee, at celebrations; bakeries also sell the prinsessbakelse, the individual version.
Birthdays, christenings, graduations and other parties; a pastry shop dessert year-round.
Your questions
According to the most widespread explanation, because the princesses Margaretha, Märtha and Astrid, pupils of Jenny Åkerström, the recipe’s author, liked the cake very much.
Because of the green marzipan covering. In Jenny Åkerström’s book the cake was indeed called grön tårta, “green cake.”
Layers of sponge cake, raspberry jam, vanilla cream and lots of whipped cream.
Flavors of Sweden
Raw salmon fillet cured in a mixture of salt, sugar and dill, sliced very thin and served with hovmästarsås, a sweet mustard-and-dill sauce. The name means “buried salmon” and recalls the old method of preserving the fish under the ground.
Sweet yeast bread flavored with cardamom, rolled with butter, sugar and cinnamon, and topped with pearl sugar. It is the pastry most associated with fika, the coffee break, and even has its own day in the Swedish calendar, Kanelbullens dag, on October 4.
Small meatballs made with ground meat, fried in butter and served with cream sauce, potatoes, lingonberry jam and pickled cucumber. They are Sweden’s best-known home dish, with the first printed recipe appearing in a 1755 cookbook.
Wheat bread with cardamom, cut open at the top, filled with almond paste and whipped cream and topped with the cut-off lid dusted with sugar. It’s the sweet eaten on fettisdagen, the Fat Tuesday, and descends from the hetvägg, bread eaten soaked in warm milk.
Tall, hollow, lace-like cake made from eggs, sugar and potato starch, poured little by little onto a rotating spit in front of heat, layer by layer. Decorated with white or pink icing, it is a celebratory sweet from Skåne, and the name Skånsk spettkaka is protected by the European Union.
Cubes of beef tenderloin, potato and onion browned separately and served side by side, with a raw egg yolk in the center and mustard or mustard cream. Named after the Hotel Rydberg, which operated on Gustav Adolfs torg in Stockholm, where the dish is said to have originated.
Baked saffron rice pudding tart with eggs, cream and almonds, yellow in color, served warm or cold with salmbär jam and whipped cream. Despite the name “pancake,” it’s baked in a pan. It is the sweet most associated with the island of Gotland.
A white stick candy with red spiral stripes and peppermint flavor, pulled and twisted by hand. It originated in Gränna, on the shore of Lake Vättern, where the widow Amalia Eriksson obtained a license to make it in 1859, and the town remains the center of its production.
Baked dessert made from curdled milk using rennet, enriched with eggs, cream, sugar and almonds, with a moist, granular texture. Served warm with jam and whipped cream, it is the festival specialty most associated with the Småland region, with Swedish records dating back to the 16th century.
Large potato dough dumplings filled with bacon or pork and onion, cooked in water and served with melted butter and red bilberry jam. The Öland version, gray and made with raw potato, and the Småland version, lighter and made with cooked potato, are the best known.
Boiled dumpling made from raw grated potato and wheat or barley flour, filled with pork, served with butter and red bilberry jam. It’s an everyday food in northern Sweden, and the name comes from the town of Piteå, considered the Swedish center of palt.
Baltic herring, lightly salted and fermented, canned in summer; strong-smelling with a salty, acidic taste. It’s eaten on the thin flatbread tunnbröd with potato, red onion and sour cream, in a communal meal at the end of summer. The tradition links the dish to the Norrland coast and the island of Ulvön in the High Coast (Höga Kusten).
