Prinsesstårta tennis balls

I’ve wanted to make a prinsesstårta since it was on Great British Bake Off last year but haven’t really had a convenient excuse. The proper version of this Swedish cake has a sponge base with jam next and is topped with whipped cream. The whole thing is then covered in a dome shape of marzipan , traditionally green, and finished with a marzipan rose.

A couple of years ago I made tennis ball chocolate teacakes as a Wimbledon themed bake.

These looked fabulous and shared extensively by Great British Bake Off – but were so sweet with all the marshmallow inside and the white chocolate outside that I wanted to try something different.

My version of the prinsesstårta however is a little different to the traditional version – more sponge which I feel is nicer and easier to cover! I also added fresh strawberries to give it that Wimbledon twist. I used a silicon teacake dome to cook the sponge and let the marzipan dry slightly over the domes before I finally covered the cakes.

The strawberry decoration are also marzipan – coloured red shaped into a cone and edible pen seeds added.  

Recipe

Tennis Ball Prinsesstårta

Sponge

50g caster sugar

50g softened butter

1 egg

50g self raising flour

½ tsp vanilla extract

Cream filling

125g mascarpone

100g double cream

75g icing sugar

6 good sized strawberries

300 – 350g marzipan

50-100g icing sugar

You will need a large teacake mould. I used a 6 cup silicon mould that is 7cm diameter each indentation.

Preheat the oven to 175C. Place a deep dish with water in the bottom of the oven – the steam will help the cakes rise more evenly and stop little peaks appearing which could ultimately make the base of the tennis balls wobbly.

First make the sponge. Beat the sugar and butter together until light and fluffy. Add the egg and beat in well, add the vanilla extract and combine. Fold in the flour and mix in thoroughly.

Share the mixture evenly between each of the 6 half spheres, place on a baking tray and cook for 20mins or until golden brown, springy to the touch. Its worth doing a cocktail stick test as they are quite deep.

Leave to cool for a few minutes then turn out dome upward on a baking tray and leave to cool completely.

Colour approximately 2/3rds of the marzipan with yellow food paste. Knead in thoroughly. Roll out to approx. 3mm depth using a large round cutter (10.5cm) cut 6 circles. Using the teacake mould upside down ease the circles over each half sphere gently forming the shape to fit the mould underneath. Leave to dry out for an hour or so.

To make the strawberries colour a golf ball size of marzipan green for the leaves and the rest red. Roll the red colour into small balls first then roll one end to make a cone shape. The seeds were made using a black edible pen, but you can use the zesting grater on a cheese grater and roll the strawberry over it to make indentations. Roll small pieces of the green marzipan into little sausages with thin ends. Bend in half and stick to the top of the strawberry.

To construct the tennis ball, slice the sponge approx. 1 cm from the flat bottom.

Whip the cream until it reaches soft peak stage ( don’t over whip it), stir the mascarpone in a separate bowl to soften it. Add spoonfuls of the whipped cream to loosen the mascarpone, stirring between each spoonful, do this 3 or 4 times then add this mixture to the remaining cream. Whisk in lightly. Add the icing sugar and whisk again.

Spread tablespoonful of the cream mixture over the base of each cake, slice the strawberries and arrange over the cream. Top with the dome of sponge.

Cover each cake with a marzipan dome easing the marzipan in to fit the cake snugly forming the half tennis ball shape.

Mix the remaining icing sugar with some water to make a thick water icing and pipe on the tennis ball lines.