The first time I saw a princess cake (aka princess torte), it was in the display case of a Minneapolis bakery. I was intrigued by the domed, green shape topped with one simple decoration at the top. After that initial sighting, princess cakes seemed to appear everywhere: on the Great British Bake Off, in other bakeries, and online. The popularity of the Swedish cake has risen meteorically in the last couple of years, as Eater's Belinda Makalintal explains.

Known in Sweden as prinsesstårta, the cake was created by Jenny Åkerström, a Swedish cookbook author and home economics teacher who cooked for - you guessed it - Swedish princesses. They allegedly loved the cake so much that its name changed from the original gröntårta, or green cake, to the one it's known by today. The typical princess cake contains sponge cake layered with vanilla custard and fresh fruit or jam, usually raspberry, topped with a dome of whipped cream and blanketed by a thin sheet of green-tinted marzipan. (No one seems to know why the cake is green.)

Because the cake has several components and isn't easy to whip up at home, most people buy their princess cake from a bakery. That may be why the EYB Library is thin on online recipes for the cake - there are only 11 at the moment, including Nea's Swedish princess cake (Prinsesstårta) from Food52 pictured above. There are about 40 recipes in total in the Library. Even though I appreciate a good baking challenge and have The Nordic Cookbook by Magnus Nilsson which has a recipe for princess cake, I have not attempted one. I saw what happened during the GBBO challenge (I think Season 5, Episode 6), and am a bit wary of trying it.