Trader Joe's $7.99 Swedish Princess Cake drew 1,545 upvotes and $100 comparisons

Trader Joe's Swedish Princess Raspberry Cake is the most upvoted new dessert on r/traderjoes this week. A shopper posted the box on the evening of September 21, and that thread has drawn 1,545 upvotes at a 98.9% positive rate, with 238 comments. 1 A second post the next afternoon, this one written as a review, added another 662 upvotes at 98.7%, which puts the two threads at 2,207 between them. 2

The cake costs $7.99 for an 18-ounce box (510 g) that serves six, or about $1.33 a serving. Trader Joe's lists it as a limited-time item, in stores from September through the end of the year, and says it is made for the chain by a bakery in Sweden. 3

Swedish princess cake, or prinsesstårta, is a domed Scandinavian layer cake: sponge cake, raspberry jam, pastry cream, a thick cap of whipped cream, and a shell of marzipan colored pale green and striped in white. Trader Joe's version follows that outline. 3

Two layers of sponge cake sandwich a thin layer of raspberry jam and pastry cream, and a thick dome of whipped cream sits on top. The whole cake is then wrapped in pastel-green marzipan with thin white stripes. Heavy cream is the first ingredient, ahead of almond paste, raspberry filling and sugared egg. 3

The cake is frozen, and "Keep Frozen" is printed on the front of the box, so plan on giving it a full refrigerator thaw before you serve it. Shoppers who cut into it early found the marzipan barely came through; one wrote that they would give it the full thaw time the next day. 2

Each sixth of the cake (85 g) carries 240 calories, 11 g of fat, 24 g of sugars — 20 g of that added — and 4 g of protein. The cake contains milk, egg, wheat, almond and hazelnut. 3

The cake's history explains the reaction it is getting. Sporked traces prinsesstårta to Jenny Åkerström, a Swedish home-economics teacher whose students included the daughters of Prince Carl, Duke of Västergötland; the cake took the princesses' name. 4 Swedish princess cake reached a much wider audience as a technical challenge on The Great British Bake Off, where Mary Berry's version of the recipe runs to 24 steps. 5

The enthusiasm is easy to find. "Oh my god. This is literally my favorite dessert in the entire world," one commenter wrote on the launch thread. 1 The Takeout rounded up two more: "Yes! I've ALWAYS wanted to try one of these!" and "Almost paid a bakery in my area over $100 for this cake for my birthday and now I can get it for less than $10?!" 5 The same comparison shows up in the review thread, where one shopper said they had paid $100 to have a princess cake shipped from Goldbelly for an August birthday. 2

A shopper in New Jersey who bought one compared it with the princess cake IKEA sells and wrote that "the almond paste really is delicious in this, you can barely taste it in the other one," closing with "We will definitely buy again!" 2 The same shopper passed on one warning: the marzipan tears if it presses against the plastic lid in the bag, so it is worth carrying the box level on the way home. 2

The first thing people ask is whether it looks as dry as it photographs. "It is good? Looks dry," one commenter asked on the launch thread, and the shopper who posted it answered, "Yes it's good and it wasn't dry." 1 Sporked came to the same conclusion after reading the thread. 4

The one complaint worth weighing is about the marzipan. "Absolutely love princess cake and anything marzipan but this was pretty disappointing, barely tasted the marzipan," one commenter wrote — adding that they had not let it thaw long and would try again with the full thaw time. 2 The Takeout found the same split: some shoppers are unmoved by the marzipan coating and the pale green outer layer, while most of the thread is waiting for a store that has it. 5

Finding one takes a little luck. A shopper in Las Vegas reported arriving at 1 p.m. to be told the single case opened that morning had sold out quickly, with another shipment due the next day; shoppers in Orange County, California confirmed it was on shelves there, and commenters in Colorado and Pennsylvania were still asking whether their stores had received any. 2

Buy one if you want a dessert that looks bakery-made for about $1.33 a serving, you like almond and marzipan, or you have a birthday, a tea or a holiday table to fill and a day of fridge time to spare.

Skip it if you are avoiding milk, egg, wheat, almond or hazelnut, if marzipan is the part of a princess cake you would eat around, or if you want something to eat tonight. This one has to thaw first.

Look for the pink-and-white striped box with a small gold crown above "Swedish Princess," in the frozen dessert case alongside the other frozen cakes. Trader Joe's lists it on its product page under product code 084441, and sells it as a limited-time item from September through the end of the year. 3 Shipments are still moving from store to store, so a box that is missing this week can turn up next week. 2