Kronprinsesse Sonjas Mandelkake (Crown Princess Sonjas Almond Cake)

This cake is one of the most delicious and festive cakes my mom taught me to bake. It is named after the Norwegian Queen Sonja. The name though of the cake and the recipe is from when she became the Crown Princess of Norway, so the recipe is from about around 1968. And I read it is her own recipe which is the origin for the cake. My mother though has put her own touch to it. And I have always made it the way my mom did, with the marzipan decorations and also the whipped piped cream.

Ingredients

• 6 eggs
• 600 gr grinded almonds
• 600 gr sugar
• 4 tbs wheatflour
• 2 tsp bakingpowder

Instructions:

Beat egg and sugar fluffy and stiff

Grind almonds with a hand grinder

Add flour and bakingpowder and almonds to the eggs and sugar. Stir it in gently and carefully.

Pour batter into a big baking tray. Cover the pan with baking paper before adding the batter into the pan so it is easier to remove after baking.

Bake in oven at 175 Degrees Celsius 45 minutes

Egg cream

Ingredients:

• 10 eggyolks
• 2 dl cream
• 250 gr sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla sugar
• 200 gr butter

Instructions:

Mix the ingredients for the cream into a pan. Stir while heating on low heat on the oven. Stir until the batter turn into a shiny cream. Cool off.

Spread the cream on top of the almond cake. Decorate with cream and marzipan flowers and leaves.

How to make marzipan and marzipan flowers and leaves

Homemade marzipan:

• 500 g almonds grinded in an almond grinder
• 500 g icing sugar
• 1 eggwhite

Heat the almonds and egg whites in i thick bottomed pan on low heat and mix all the time until it becomes a sticky, shiny dough, than take it off and cool and mix the icing sugar in while kneading with your hands until all sugar is in and it is a white soft dough.

When you have made the dough, roll out the marzipan to a cover with a rolling pin and put on the cake. Leave some small parts to color for flowers and leaves.

To make flowers and leaves you roll the marzipan to a thin film and cut out the leaves. Flowers can be shaped by cutting half circles with an egg cup for instance and making the roses, adding the halves outside of each other.

“False marzipan”

• 60 g flour
• 1 dl cream
• 3-400 g icing sugar

1 teaspoon tragacanth (can be bought in drugstores/pharmacies and this makes the marzipan hold together so it is possible to roll it to a thin cover)

50 g almonds (you can eliminate this and use almond drops instead) or just leave it completely)

Heat the cream and the flour in a thick bottomed pan on low heat while all the time stirring. Stir until you have a shiny dough that forms like a ball. Take it off the heat and cool down. Add the icing sugar and tragacanth by kneading the dough by hands. Add icing sugar until the marzipan feels like it can be rolled to a cover and tastes like marzipan. Too little icing sugar it will taste too much flour and not sweet enough.

When you have the wished consistency take some small parts and color with food color for the decorations.

Cream for piping

Whip cream and pipe around the cake to make it even more festive!