Baking a Berry Meringue Cake

Normally I refrain from baking excessively sweet cakes, but every once in a while I will allow myself some indulgence to the children's delight and the chagrin of the adults. Oh well, all sugar highs will eventually wear off ;-). Today's Berry Meringue Cake is certainly sweet, but few things beat it for taste, texture and visual appeal. You have to make this one at least once in your life.

The Meringue
Separate the whites of 8 eggs. You will not be using the yolks at all.

Add 1/2 teaspoon if Cream of tartar to the egg whites and 1/4 teaspoon salt.

Whip the egg until it makes stiff points. Now add 16 tablespoons of sugar one at a time, all the time whipping the eggs.

Add 1/2 teaspoon of red food coloring to the meringue (provided you want to color it).

Whip the coloring in.

Either use wax paper, or a silicone mat to bake the meringue on. Preheat your oven to 100°C.

Measure the width of the cake tin you will bake the cake in and spoon the meringue onto the paper/mat to the same size. You will need to bake two of these meringue circles. They will bake for about two hours, but check on them every 15 minutes after the first hour.

The Cake
Cream 4 eggs and 1 1/4 cup (310 ml) sugar in a bowl.

Add 2 cups (500 ml) cake flour and 3 teaspoons (15 ml) baking powder. Mix well.

Now add 1 cup (250 ml) lukewarm milk with 100 g butter melted into it, and 5 ml vanilla essence to the bowl.

Mix everything very well.

Coat two cake tins of the similar size with non-stick spray and line the bottoms with wax paper.

Divide the cake mix equally between the two cake tins.

Bake in a preheated oven for 25-30 minutes at 180°C. When a test pin comes out clean, remove from the oven. Let the cake sit in the tins for 5 minutes before turning them out onto a wire rack to cool. Remove the wax paper.

The Cream
Beat 250 ml cream to stiffen it. Add 2 heaped tablespoons of icing sugar and 5 ml (1 teaspoon) vanilla essence to the cream. Mix well.

The Caramel
Empty a tin of caramel into a bowl and beat to soften it up. This will make it much easier to spread onto the cake without damaging the cake.

Building the cake
Cut the tops off the cake so that they are flat.

Put the cake that will go at the bottom onto the cake plate it will be served on. The top cake will go on a little later. Divide the caramel equally between the two cakes and spread it onto the cake.

Divide a tub or two of blueberries between the two cakes and sprinkle it liberally onto the caramel. Leave some for the top of the cake.

Place the meringue rings on top of the berries.

Divide the cream equally between the two cakes and spoon half on the bottom cake. Do NOT do the top cake yet.

Now lift the top cake onto the bottom cake and cover with cream.

Decorate with more berries of your choice. Serve as soon as possible after decorating.

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