If Daddy wants a Princess Cake, Daddy can have a Princess Cake.

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Every so often, after we put the girls to bed, HandsomeJoe and I watch an episode or two of something cheerful. We slowly made our way through The Great British Baking Show. When we got to the episode with the Sweedish Princessa Torte, HandsomeJoe proclaimed "I want a Princessatorte for my birthday!" 

If Daddy wants a Princess Cake, Daddy can have a Princess Cake.

He may originally have been kidding.

For his birthday, we made him one.


In order for all of us to not feel deathly for days, we went dairy and grain free! It would be refined-sugar free if I'd made my own marzipan (I learned later you can make your own marzipan with honey!) and would have been full "paleo" (I detest the term, but there it is.) We baked the cake with eggs, but if you'd like to make this cake vegan, simply make a vegan vanilla cake.

We made a dairy/gluten/grain-free almond-milk creme patissiere (pastry cream) using almond milk, maple sugar, and arrowroot powder. If you're interested in the recipe, let me know.

 We baked an almond flour vanilla cake using a mix from SimpleMills, to save our efforts for the rest of the cake. The mix had coconut sugar which makes the cake quite dark. Next time we make this cake, I think I'll bake a lighter/fluffier almond cake from scratch.

Slice the cake horizontally into three layers.

Pipe the creme pat into a circle around the edge of the bottom layer, spread raspberry jam in the center, then cover the jam with a thin layer of creme pat (last step not pictured).

Add the second cake layer and then pipe a full layer of creme pat. 

Add the top layer of the cake - our cake was a bit squat so we used the domed top of the cake rather than discarding it in favor of a flat top. Chill completely.

We made whipped coconut cream by chilling cans of coconut cream, scooping out the solids (drinking the liquid at the bottom) and whipping the chilled cream with maple sugar.

Coat the sides of the cake with with the coconut cream and an extra thick dome on top to create the signature domed cake. Chill completely.

With a fraction of a drop of food coloring, I molded a rose out of the pre-made marzipan.
(...tale as old as time...) 

Color the remaining marzipan green and roll out larger than the cake. (Photo bomb by A with a dragon cookie cutter.) 

After smoothing chilled coconut cream on the cake, cover with green marzipan. Trim the excess and smooth.

Pipe coconut cream at the base of the cake.

Do an optional simple chocolate decoration and add the rose.

Chill again to set. 

Enjoy!

It was delicious that evening, and even better the next day. The denseness of the almond cake was softened by the extra time for all the flavors to really snuggle in.

What I'd do differently next time: bake a cake from scratch (lighter, fluffier) and make homemade marzipan. I always find that combining natural sweeteners with foods that are sweetened with refined white sugar (the marzipan) can throw it off a little. Honey or even maple marzipan would have really rounded out the whole cake. As it is, we're having NO trouble at all enjoying this delightfully decadent and guilt-free treat. 

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The other years of Daddy Princess Cakes:

2017 - It started out as a joke. Raspberry jam.

2018  - We did it again! Blackberry Conserve (seedless jam) 

2019 - Just a photo in the middle,  almost full paleo (almond flour cake, non-dairy, with fruit-sweetened strawberry jam, naturally sweetened except for boughten marzipan.) 

2020 Boston Cream Pie Princess Cake

Four Daddy Princess Cakes deserve their own label. Find them all here.