Dear Friends
have any of you made a traditional Swedish princess cake? Rose has supplied recipes for all of the ingredients for it: genoise, pastry cream, soaking syrup. I’m a little intimidated by the Marzipan layer over a whipped cream dome. On the blogs out there, some bakers have noted that the marzipan just collapses into the whipped cream.

What have been your experiences with this type of cake?

Thanks

I’ve used white chocolate mousse in place of the whipped cream dome, I freeze the cake until it is firm and roll the marzipan fairly thin (but this is something I am used to doing; if this is your first time rolling marzipan, you might want it to be a little thicker for ease of handling it).  I haven’t had any problems with the dome collapsing; in fact when I made this for a gourmet store (which is out of business now), I would use fondant in place of marzipan due to allergies; unless the cake was for a specific order and we knew that marzipan was ok.  The mousse was stable over 2 days so it lasted longer in their display case.

It is a lovely and delicious cake! Go for it, and good luck!

Dear Jeanne
How long do you defrost the assembled cake (or put it out at room temperature)?  The idea of white chocolate mousse sounds interesting. Is the white chocolate mousse frozen as well?

I only freeze it for an hour or two, just to make the mousse solid enough to handle being covered with the fondant or marzipan.  I always planned this cake to be eaten within 24-48 hours of being completed - I have/had the components at the ready so if an order comes in, it is easy to make the mousse and finish it.  I think the cake tastes better with the marzipan for what it’s worth….

I agree about the marzipan. The pairing of marzipan with raspberry jam is classic. Let me ask you this: what do you think about using a stabilized whipped cream instead of the mousse? I’ve never tried it but Rose talks about introducing some kind of gelling substance into her whipped cream to make it sturdier. I forget the name of it, but I understand it is something equivalent to a cornstarch type of thing to give the whipped cream more body. Although white chocolate mousse sounds divine, I would like to make the cake as it is originally intended to try out all the tastes. The issue, as usual, is the floppiness of the whipped cream. Can one partially freeze whipped cream?

shokat, if you want to freeze the whipped cream, stabilize with gelatin, not cornstarch.

shokat - 28 November 2010 08:11 AM

I’ve never tried it but Rose talks about introducing some kind of gelling substance into her whipped cream to make it sturdier. I forget the name of it, but I understand it is something equivalent to a cornstarch type of thing to give the whipped cream more body.

Cobasan

http://www.auiswisscatalogue.com/018017/1-FRUT.html

has anyone tried to make a princess cake or anything like that with cobasan whipped cream?

Would that make the whipped cream strong enough to lay a layer of marzipan on top of? How long would I need to keep the whipped cream in the fridge or would it be better to put it into the freezer for a bit instead?