Vanilla and raspberry meringue cake

Since spring arrived, Ninka and I have been going to Konstancin to feed the squirrels. Konstancin has been really lovely lately. I adore the park. I like going to the brine graduation tower. Last year I read several books there, sitting by the “little mushroom”. I can see it getting better and better.

They’ve opened a very nice café in the new cultural centre there. Nina loves their vanilla meringue. So today we tried to recreate it. We failed. Our cream filling is definitely more delicate. It’s not quite as intensely vanilla-flavoured either, because we didn’t use extract, just real vanilla from a pod 🙂 Unfortunately, it has to be admitted: it’s outstanding. And I’m not the only one who thinks so…

Well, what can I say? Meringue cake is always delicious. Especially one made together with Ninka. Highly recommended 🙂

At a glance:

Preparation time: about 30 minutes

Baking time: 1 hour 10 minutes

Serves: about 8

Calories: no calories (because in this case it’s better not to think about them 😉

Ingredients for the meringue cake:

• 6 egg whites (from six medium hen’s eggs)
• 300 grams of icing sugar
• 1 tablespoon of potato starch
• 1 tablespoon of lime juice
• 1 tablespoon of lemon juice
• a pinch of salt
• 2 tubs of whipping cream with 30% fat (200 grams each)
• 10 decagrams of fresh raspberries
• 30 blueberries (optional, but the cake will be better with them)
• 2 vanilla pods
• 250 grams of mascarpone

Recipe for meringue with a delicate raspberry and vanilla cream filling:

First we made the meringues. You need to do this in advance because they have to cool and dry out. So we did it in the morning. Here’s how we made them:

In a tall bowl, we whisked the egg whites with a pinch of salt until stiff (with a mixer, of course). We slowly added 250 grams of icing sugar, mixing all the time. Finally, when the mixture was nicely glossy, we added a tablespoon of potato starch and a tablespoon each of lime and lemon juice.

We prepared two baking trays and preheated the oven to 160 degrees Celsius (fan oven). We lined the trays with baking paper and used a plate about 30 – 35 cm in diameter to trace circles on both sheets. We divided the meringue mixture in half and spooned it onto the baking paper (1 and 2), spreading it evenly with a spoon.

We put the trays in the oven and baked for 30 minutes at 160 degrees Celsius. Then I reduced the temperature (yes, that was just me; Ninka wasn’t involved 😉 to 110 degrees Celsius and we baked for another 40 minutes (or perhaps it was the oven doing the baking ;).

Then they cooled in the oven with its door slightly ajar until the evening (that is, until 18.00).

In the evening, once the meringue layers had cooled, we began making the two cream fillings.

We poured 400 grams of whipping cream into a large bowl and whipped it with a mixer (into whipped cream, what else ;). Once it was whipped, we added 3 tablespoons of icing sugar and kept whipping. Then we added the vanilla from two pods (scraped out of both pods with a teaspoon). We added 250 grams of mascarpone and mixed it in.

We had a perfect vanilla cream (Nina tasted it and said it was delicious). We put 3 heaped tablespoons of it into a small bowl. To that bowl we added about 100 grams of raspberries and blended it. That made a wonderful pink raspberry cream. To the other bowl, with the vanilla cream, we added about 30 blueberries and stirred with a spoon (we didn’t blend it; the blueberries should stay whole in the cream).

Finally, we turned one meringue upside down and spread the vanilla cream over it, leaving a space in the middle for the raspberry cream. Then we filled the middle with all the raspberry cream. We covered it with the second meringue, and the vanilla and raspberry cake was ready. It’s an unbelievable calorie bomb, but it’s delicious. Enjoy!

PS

The photos below with strawberries and blueberries lightly dusted with icing sugar are only a serving suggestion 😉