I was looking for a good cake to bake for a parrrtttyyy!! My samba teacher Gabi was inspired by my baking and decided to hold a Samba Passion Cultural food day at her house. In addition she needed a cake to celebrate one of the teams 30th birthdays, so that was me done for the day…Baking on!!! I liked the look of this Princesstarta as it has several layers, vanilla custard and cream, not to mention the home made marzipan icing!! Wow, flash.
I got started the day before, just to be sure 
I could get it all done, so made the lovely sponge, which with 6 eggs was quite a big one, fluffy and light, 
I will use this recipe again. I kept this in a sealed container overnight after it had cooled. 
I made the marzipan which was surprisingly easy. 
A packet of almond meal with 2 eggs, castor and icing sugar plus almond extract. Mixed up in the food processor, this turned into a nice soft dough that could be kneaded and easily worked. I added the green food colouring and voila. Easy and very delicious, much more tasty than the bought stuff!
The next day I made the vanilla custard which I accidentally turned to scrambled eggs!!! Ahhhhhhhh, but given that I had used up the last vanilla bean and that vanilla beans are so expensive, 
I managed to rescue the custard with excessive whisking and fine sieving. Phew. 
What a relief. 🙂 With the party at 5.30 I didn’t have time to let the custard chill for an hour as the recipe said, so it was still quite runny when I assembled the three layers of cake.
The bottom layer of sponge had jam and vanilla custard, the next layer a combination of vanilla custard and cream, the top layer cream, then the outside was covered in cream. 
It ended up being a runny gooey, escaping out the sides mess, but luckily I shoved it in the fridge and it held together, just. 
This scary looking wobbly number was rescued by the marzipan icing which I rolled out into one solid piece. The icing successfully covered the three tiered cream and custard filled extravaganza, holding everything in place!! Phew. 
A delightful cake, loved by everyone.
The party was full of delicious food from many cultures :- Russian caviar and potato salad, Brazilian Cheese bread, 
Malaysian cuisine, Kifle – Albanian bread and delicious homemade Chinese dumplings. 
It’s wonderful to see so many people and cultures coming together to share a common love of dance, Samba (and food in this case!) As Nigella said on Master chef the other night, “that’s at the heart of cooking, the sharing and eating together, being together” and I couldn’t agree more, it’s all about family, and food is a fantastic way to bring everyone together. 🙂
