Recipe: Princesstårta Cupcakes

Everyone who knows me knows about my undying love for princess cake, known as princesstårta in Sweden. It's a layered cake consisting of alternating layers of sponge cake, raspberry jam, pastry cream, whipped cream, and the outside is covered in delicious marzipan which gives the cake a smooth shape. It's usually decorated with a few pink roses and a sprinkling of powdered sugar to top everything off. Since Valentine's Day is almost here, I thought it would be fun to share my own version of princesstårta but in cupcake form! And you know what? It wasn't difficult like I thought it would be! I found the original recipe HERE and made my own modifications to it so feel free to use the one I linked as the base for when you try it.

If I wanted to follow the recipe exactly, I would have bought a roll of marzipan and cut out round circles to cover the top of the cupcakes, but since I love frosting so much, I decided to add some almond flavoring to the frosting instead and it tasted nearly the same. The roses were store bought but you can make them yourself if you wish! Unlike the recipe, I did not add the cream on top of the cupcake (underneath the marzipan) as the original recipe described. Instead I whipped a little bit of it into the frosting.

Most of the cupcakes were gone before I could attempt a photo to show the middle, but here's my best effort (taken at night in different lighting)! Nothing like a sweet fruity surprise!

I definitely recommend trying these if you want to get a taste of princesstårta without having to make a whole cake. Have you ever tried princesstårta? What's your favorite kind of cake? Comment below!

Introducing the Rainbow Semla!

Just as I was getting to know Max early last year, I saw that one of my favourite bloggers, Bri Emery of Designlovefest, had recently gone to Stockholm and documented her journey on her blog and on her Instagram account. I fell in love with the architecture and colourful captures of her hotel stay and stops at all of the iconic artsy subway stations on her feed, but what caught my eye the most was a photo she took of a pastry shop window. In the photo was a table filled with Semlor (plural for Semla), a traditional Swedish pastry made up of a cardamom flavoured wheat bun filled with almond paste and cream. As soon as I saw that photo, I thought to myself, "I NEED TO TRY THESE!!" not even quite knowing what they were, and of course, did my best to find them when I finally got to visit Sweden in May of last year. But sadly I quickly learned that these delicious treats were only sold between February and March for a holiday known as "Fat Tuesday" (which just so happens to fall on February 13th, a day before Valentine's Day this year). I'm a pretty hopeful person, so every time I visited throughout the rest of the year, I continued to search for them. And then finally, when I came over for Christmas, I got to see them in person! They were being sold even earlier than I had thought they would be at the local most traditional bakery in town, and I got to taste one when I came back to move here in January. And yes, they were as delicious as I had hoped they would be.

I've always been one for testing the limits on traditional recipes, and I knew I would HAVE to put a spin on these guys considering they basically have little to no colouring on them. So, I decided to make rainbow coloured Semla, because, why not? I'm not going to lie, I know NOTHING about the metric system, and I'm also kind of afraid of baking bread (I once tried to make cinnamon rolls and had to re-make the recipe four times because I kept screwing up the dry yeast portion of the recipe), so I asked Max's sister to help make these happen, and they turned out great (albeit a little small as I'm not sure I had the dry yeast portions totally correct; I eyeballed it).

I first found THIS recipe which seemed fool-proof, but quickly realised that we would need to go with a Swedish recipe since we didn't have any US measuring cups to use, so we found THIS and used elements from both recipes. For the whipped cream, we just took a container of heavy cream and mixed it with a little sugar, whipping until it formed a nice semi soft peak, and added in different food colourings to create all the fun colours. I piped them into a piping bag and voila! The first step once they were ready to be filled was cutting the top off to create a little "hat", then added in the almond paste (we just took a couple pats of it and mixed it with a little milk so that it would be softer and less strong), and then piped on the cream. The finishing touch after putting the "hat" back on was a generous dusting of powdered sugar and they were good to go.

This would be a super fun project to do for Valentine's Day as well! You can make them the more traditional way by omitting food colouring and just throwing in some pink & red sprinkles into the cream.

If you decide to try your hand at these (which, duh, you totally should!), I would definitely stick with the US recipe if you are unfamiliar with the Metric system. It's so confusing to me that it makes me want to cry. But I know at some point I will understand it and that will be a great feeling!

Also, the recipe says to bake for up to 10 minutes. In retrospect, I wish I had taken them out after 8 minutes, but they were still really good - just a little extra crunchy (they're traditionally softer).

Getting ready to let these guys rise before putting them into the oven

If you make these, please tag me! I'd love to see your creations and I'll be posting some of my favourites on my instagram stories! Tag: #circusofcakestreats

Date Night Outfit

Whenever Valentine's Day comes around, I never know what to wear for our traditional "date night" where we go to our favorite local restaurant and indulge on homemade pasta and glasses of wine. I recently picked up the sweetest red dress from Anthropologie for a friend's 30th birthday and was thinking of wearing that, but I was looking in my closet and re-discovered a dress I wore as a bridesmaid to a dear friend's wedding two years ago. I picked it up at Nordstrom, and the back detail is what made me choose the dress for that occasion. It's so sweet and edgy at the same time with the low cut. There's also a really sweet laser cut detail and pleats in the skirt that I adore. I paired this dress with a bold pair of scalloped heels that I also wore to the wedding (for a pop of color), and curled my hair a little. Sadly this dress is long gone from Nordstrom stores, but there are similar styles - here, here and here.

  

 

Ahh this bow detail in the back just kills me! And the laser cuts are actually tiny hearts!

 

Shoe pictures are always awkward, but I loved that there were flowers all over the ground, so I had to take advantage.

I Heart You

 Now that we're exactly week away from Valentine's Day, I thought it would be appropriate to share the cutest cakes ever. And the best part is - I got everything at Target so the whole shebang was super easy to put together. Target the best one-stop-shop for all things holiday. I love that the cake pans made the cakes so thick and the batter made them so moist! I'm all about baking from scratch, but sometimes it's nice to cut corners, don't you think? Bake up some of these little guys and give them to your guy, lady pals, parents, siblings, or random person on the street. They're sure to be a crowd pleaser!

The supplies, courtesy of Target, except for the tablecloth which I picked up at Party City last year, and the LOVE Sparklers which I bought from Lolli and Pops from yesterday's post):

 

The cake is a regular box cake mix, and the frosting is cream cheese blended up with some powdered sugar and a little almond milk to make it a little less thick. It's the perfect combination!

 

What's better than a champagne cocktail to go with the delicious chocolate cake? I paired my favorite Sofia champagne with a little grenadine to give it a red coloring, and dropped a raspberry into it for a little extra red. And it's delicious!

 

If you're not into the champagne & grenadine route, I also put together my favorite drink of them all: a French 75! If you're never had one, it's an absolute must. It's a mix of champagne, gin, lemon juice and simple syrup. I poured it into my favorite wine goblet that I purchased at the Madonna Inn.

 

And no Valentine's Day cocktail + desserts hour can be complete without a little cat fluff

Candy Shop(ping)

Yesterday, I decided to take myself on a little date to the mall. I had my mind set on buying some Valentine's Day goodies, but wasn't sure where to start.. that is until I stumbled into Lolli and Pops, the best candy shop ever (well, maybe not ever, but the best local shop for sure). They're not just your regular candy shop - they sell candy from all over the world, have a milkshake bar (pictured below), a section for your favorite international treats, a photobooth (!!), cute fake tattoos, party supplies, and more. I was in HEAVEN! I would highly suggest making a trip into Glendale to check this place out. And if you happen to live in L.A., this would be a great activity to do with your Valentine, galentine, or just with yourself!

 

I think the gummy room was my favorite of them all. From the rainbow colored floors, to the rainbow colored walls, and the giant gold gummy bear to greet you when you walk in! They had really interesting gummies as well in all different shapes and flavors. My personal favorites were the ice cream cones and sharks.

The "french" room was my personal favorites. Leone Candy has the most beautiful packaging! I couldn't help but stop and stare for a while.

They also had the cutest Japanese candy including donuts! I still don't know what these things are, but they win for cutest packaging.

 Also: Chocolates that look like little croissants! LOVE <3

I had so much fun exploring this little gem at the Glendale Galleria. I hope you enjoyed my little tour! Tell me: What is your favorite kind of candy?