Amigurumi Bake Off 2021, Week 1 — Prinsesstårta (Lex In Stitches)

Thank ye gods that the Chinese New Year is over, and the festive period here is winding down. Hopefully, we will see a return of peaceful days....

It's been a few weeks since I last posted here, and I've attempted other amigurumi since the Ohana Balloon Dog (posted here), but I'll post about those later... Meanwhile, I decided to try the Amigurumi Bake Off crochet-along on Instagram (see #amigurumibakeoff). Partly on a whim, but also because the bake off kickstarted with a super cute and sweet cake, the prinsesstårta! I have sweet memories of this confection, having had an unforgettable slice in 2007 while in Stockholm for a wedding. More on that later... Now about this pretty, sweet little princess....

The first Amigurumi Bake Off challenge is the prinsesstårta crochet pattern, created by Alexa Templeton of @lex_in_stitches. The pattern can be downloaded here or on Love Crafts. I didn't quite have the right colours in my yarn stash, so I had to make do with what I had. So my princess is a pale lime green with a baby pink rose, and a bridal white base.

For her rose, I ended up using DMC 6-stranded embroidery thread (specifically, DMC Mouliné Spécial 25 No.818) because the only 2 skeins of pink yarn in my stash are shocking pink: Scheepjes Catona #114 Shocking Pink, and the hot pink Puppy Yarn I used for the Ohana Balloon Dog (posted here). I did initially use the Scheepjes Catona 114, but... somehow the colour combination made her look more like a dessert, oops, desert cactus rose, rather than the sweet princess cake I envisioned. So unravel, unravel, and redo.

// My little princess in her classic colours of pale lime green, and baby pink rose. But she has a chocolate brown swirl, instead of the traditional dusting of powdered sugar. Amigurumi Bake Off 2021 — Prinsesstårta. Pattern by Alexa Templeton (@lex_in_stitches). Also posted on IG. //

A traditional Swedish cake, the prinsesstårta (princess cake) is a Swedish icon, well-loved by Swedes, and a must-have for fika, birthdays and weddings. The classic prinsesstårta is made up of layers of sponge and pastry cream, covered with a thin layer of light green marzipan, dusted with powdered sugar, and decorated with a light pink marzipan rose. With her pastel, spring-like colours, it's no wonder she is also seen as a perfect spring treat! 

She was originally known as grön tårta (green cake), and she first appeared in the 1948 edition of Swedish cookbook, Prinsessornas Kokbok: Husmanskost och Helgdagsmat (Princesses Cookbook: Home Cooking and Holiday Food). Others have written extensively about the origins of the prinsesstårta, so I shan't belabour her story — read more about the prinsesstårta on Semiswede, Culture Trip, for example.

The prinsesstårta is so popular in Sweden that it is also made in other colours, and there's even a prinstårta (prince cake). Apparently, the prinstårta is usually the yellow marzipan version, but it seems there is no hard and fast rule....

So the dashing counterpart to our pretty yarn princess is a light blue prinstårta! Instead of yellow, I was inspired by the blue prinstårta that was made to celebrate the birth of Prince Oscar of Sweden in 2016. That blue marzipan version was created by Swedish pastry chef Mattias Ljungberg (IG) of Tössebageriet.

// My little prince is in light blue, with his chocolate brown swirl and golden crown. Amigurumi Bake Off 2021 — Prinsesstårta. Pattern by Alexa Templeton (@lex_in_stitches). Also posted on IG. //

The crown on my prinstårta is based on the crochet crown pattern by Tales of Butterflies (Mindy Waters). To make a miniature version, I modified the pattern a little bit (reduced to 60 ch, and the 5sc to 2sc), and used a 1.75mm hook with DMC Petra Size 5 No.5742. 

And for some reason, my prinstårta is slightly larger than my prinsesstårta! Even though I used the same hook size, and same weight yarn (different fiber composition, but same weight)... Seems my tension control still needs work.

// Prinstårta and Prinsesstårta for the Amigurumi Bake Off 2021. Also posted on IG. //

Making the prinsesstårta for this Amigurumi Bake Off challenge brought back some lovely and nostalgic memories. In August 2007, the height of summer in Scandinavia, I was in Stockholm for a family wedding. (It was a beautiful wedding at Rosendals Trädgård in Djurgården, with the dinner party at the greenhouse cafe.) On our first day in Stockholm, thanks to an acquaintance became a local, I had the opportunity to spend a day like a Stockholm local, and one of the first things we did was fika at Annika's Hembageri Odengatan, a local favourite cafe-bakery.

// Prinsesstårta at Annikas Hembageri Odengatan, Stockholm (August 2007) //

I got to sample a small selection of traditional Swedish pastries—the darling of Swedish cafes, mazarin, and the fika classic, the kanelbulle. And of course, the star—a slice of the prinsesstårta. I learnt that these 3 are so classic that they're (almost) synonymous with Swedish culture. Apparently, around 500,000 prinsesstårta are sold each year, and Swedes consume more than 300 kanelbullar for fika per year..... (O_O!) Holy—!!

It was a mouthful of sweet, creamy richness, and it went perfectly with the black coffee. (And tea too!) I can understand why it's such a well-loved and popular cake. For me, it was still an unforgettable experience, and my memories of it are still quite vivid.

Making the prinsesstårta for the Amigurumi Bake Off has set off a serious craving now... And no, not those neon green ones at our local IKEA...they don't—cannot even compare. Maybe I can try making one; there're so many recipes of it online now... Like this recipe by Magnus Nilsson, the Swedish chef behind The Nordic Baking Book. And then there're recipes by Semiswede, Try Swedish, Baking Obsession, Korena in the Kitchen, Sprinkle Bakes, Treats....wow, so many recipes out there.... (O_O) Just how popular is it...?

Oh, and because I suffer completionitis, I also looked up recipes for mazariner and kanelbullar.... Shared deliciousness is shared joy, so... check out the mazariner recipes by My name is Yeh, 196 Flavors, Cheryl Marie Cordeiro... And recipes for kanelbullar by Gimme Some Oven, Pretty Simple Sweet, Salt and Wind, Let's Eat Cake, The Gay Globetrotter, to start...

So that's it for my first Amigurumi Bake Off challenge.... Looking forward to the next one! Until then...ha det bra!

Materials Used:

• Amigurumi Bake Off: Prinsesstårta free crochet pattern by Lex In Stitches, pattern here.
• Clover Amour Crochet Hook 2.25mm/2.3mm and 1.75mm
• Yarn for the prinsesstårta:
• Schachenmayr Catania No.392 Gelbgrün
• Scheepjes Catona No.105 Bridal White, No.157 Root Beer, No.515 Emerald 
• Rose - DMC Mouliné Spécial 25 No.818
• Yarn for the prinstårta:
• Puppy Yarn by Tiny Rabbit Hole No.32 (light blue)
• Scheepjes Catona No.105 Bridal White, No.157 Root Beer 
• Crown - DMC Petra 5 No.5742
• 7mm safety eyes
• Embroidery: DMC Mouliné Spécial 25 No.310 (Noir), and Anchor Sticktwist Mouliné No.36
• Polyester fiberfill

AMIGURUMI BAKE OFF 2021

• 22 February — Prinsesstårta by Lex In Stitches (pattern here or on Love Crafts). Due 27 February (GMT+0), posted here.
• 1 March — Fairy Bread by Belle and Grace (pattern on Ravelry). Due 6 March (GMT+10), posted here.
• 8 March — Bunny Roll Cake by Crafty Gibbon (pattern on Ravelry and on Etsy). Due 13 March (GMT-6), posted here.
• 15 March — Brownie Sundae by Yarn Blossom Boutique (pattern on Ravelry and on Etsy). Due 21 March (GMT-6), still working on it.
• 22 March — Choux Ispahan by So Croch' (pattern here). Due 27 March (GMT+1), posted here.
• 29 March — Pineapple Upside Down Cake by A Menagerie of Stitches (pattern here). Due 4 April (GMT-4), posted here.
• 5 April — I Matcha You! Parfait (Matcha / Strawberry) by Amigurumi Food (pattern here pattern on Etsy). Due 12 April (GMT-4), posted here.
• 12 April — Cream and Jam Scone by Flo and Dot (pattern here pattern on Etsy). Due 18 April (GMT+0), posted here.

(This post was edited and updated on 2 November 2021, 10:20pm GMT+8.)