Prinsesstårta, as you’ve probably already figured out, means “princess cake”.

They are a classic Swedish cake which almost every bakery in Sweden will have some variant of, and they consist of a thin layer of sponge topped with jam, cream and pastry cream, covered in marzipan (usually green), and topped with icing sugar. They will often have some kind of decoration on top, such as a small pink marzipan rose or crown, depending on the occasion.

Let’s start with tårta, the Swedish word for cake. Tårta comes originally from the French tarte, (English: tart), which usually consists of some sort of sweet filling in a pastry case.

In many languages, there is some overlap between the words pie and tart, but as a general rule, a Swedish tårta can only be sweet. A savoury tart, such as a quiche, would usually be referred to as a paj or matpaj (“pie” or “food pie”). There is no distinction between a British-style savoury pie with pastry on top of a filling and a French-style quiche which only has a pastry base, these would both be referred to in Swedish as a paj.

A paj can also be sweet, such as a smulpaj or blåbärspaj (crumble pie or blueberry pie), similar to an apple crumble.

A tårta in Swedish is sponge-based rather than pastry-based, and is usually used for a more fancy kind of cake with multiple layers, like a gräddtårta (cream cake) or, indeed, a prinsesstårta. 

You might see a smaller portion-sized version of a gräddtårta referred to as a bakelse instead.

The word kaka is usually used for less complex cakes, such as kladdkaka (chocolate mud cake) or mandelkaka (almond cake). A biscuit or cookie is referred to as a småkaka (small cake), and, confusingly, a bar of chocolate and a chocolate cake can both referred to as chokladkaka.

The word tarte can also be seen in Italian crostata (usually a sweet fruit-filled pie), as well as Swedish tartelette (originally a French word meaning “small tart”), which, unlike tårta, can be sweet or savoury.

Tarte, in turn, originally comes from the Latin torta, which means “round”. Simple enough.

The prinsess part of prinsesstårta goes back almost a hundred years.

The story starts when it appeared in a cookbook for the first time in 1930. This cookbook was titled Prinsessornas kokbok or The Princesses’ cookbook, and it was written by Jenny Åkerström.

Åkerström was a teacher to upper-class girls in the exclusive Östermalm neighbourhood of Stockholm, counting princesses Margaretha, Märtha and Astrid – the daughters of Prince Carl of Sweden and Norway and Princess Ingeborg of Denmark – among her students.

However, in the cookbook, the prinsesstårta was referred to as the somewhat less exciting grön tårta or “green cake”. There are a couple of possible theories as to eventual name change.

The first theory is that princesses Margaretha, Märtha and Astrid were particular fans of the cake, which ended up being named after them. The second theory is that it was named after the prinsessmandel or “princess almond”, which was marketed as the best and most delicious type of almond in the mid-1800s to mid-1900s.

Although you’re obviously welcome to eat prinsesstårta at any time of the year, there are two dates you should add into your calendar if you want an extra excuse to eat prinsesstårta.

The first is the last weekend of September, known as prinsesstårtans vecka or “Princess cake week”, and the second is the first Thursday in March or fössta tossdan i mass, Småland’s unofficial national holiday.

Example sentences:

Det är fössta tossdan i mass i dag! Ska vi köpa prinsesstårta?

It’s the first Thursday in March today! Should we buy princess cake?

Jag gillar inte prinsesstårta, det är för mycket grädde för min smak.

I don’t like princess cake, it’s too much cream for my taste.

Villa, Volvo, Vovve: The Local’s Word Guide to Swedish Life, written by The Local’s journalists, is available to order. Head to lysforlag.com/vvv to read more about it.

It is also possible to buy your copy from Amazon US, Amazon UK, Bokus or Adlibris.