Cakes

Lemon Meringue Cake

Name: Lemon Meringue Cake
Yield: 12 - 14
Ingredients: CAKE LAYERS:; 420 g flour; 6 tablespoons of cornstarch; 3 and ½ tsp of baking powder; 1 pinch of salt; 200 g butter (at room temperature); 400 g of sugar; 4 eggs; 120 ml freshly squeezed lemon juice (about 2 lemons); Zest of two organic lemons; 120 ml milk; LEMON CURD:; 6 yolks (keep the whites); 100 ml freshly squeezed lemon juice; Zest of two organic lemons; 110 g of sugar; 110 g cold butter; MERINGUE:; 6 egg whites (the ones you have left over from lemon curd); 270 g of sugar; 1 pinch of salt; 2 drops of vinegar; 1 sachet of vanilla sugar

Sometimes there is nothing better than classics. Always trying to innovate and combine new flavours, but when you try a piece of this cake you realize that something as simple and traditional as the lemon and meringue combined is an absolute delight. Also, it is a super easy cake and you do not need any special tools to prepare it or to decorate it to part of the torch to caramelize the meringue. Even so, it has a spectacular appearance and the most natural, I just love it!

Here Raquel back to basics 🙂 And the thing is that sometimes it is what works better. Lemon and meringue is a combination of the most common and known around the world, such as the famous lemon-meringue pie. I like this flavour and I dare say most people too, except obviously those who do not like lemon.

Well, the truth is that I’ve done it for two reasons: the first because I always like to try recipes and make them myself with my own hands. Even if they are classics, I do not want to do them and analyse the process, the ingredients, in the end everything is experience that helps to create your own recipes or to have ideas.

The second, because a long time ago I bought a small cooking torch and I had a lot of desire to use it. I looked like a little girl playing with itl! Fire Fire…!!! When I was caramelizing it with the flame of the torch I imagined myself carrying one of those flamethrower backpacks and caramelizing several pies at the same time, yes …, that would be super cool.

The original recipe is from Linda Lomelino (again …). It is a perfect cake to encourage you to make a Layer Cake (cake made with several layers of biscuit). Basically, because you do not need anything special to prepare buttercreams of fillings or piping bags. It’s very easy and it’s super nice to give away on a birthday, for example.

And if you do not have a torch as super mega cool as mine, you can cover with the meringue and leave it completely white. I assure you it is beautiful, you will see. But do not try to toast the meringue in the oven because you will probably toast only the upper part, I have not tried it, but it seems too risky to me.

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Lemon Meringue Cake

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Serves: 12 - 14

Cooking Time: 35 min. Total: 1h 10 min

Ingredients

CAKE LAYERS:
420 g flour
6 tablespoons of cornstarch
3 and ½ tsp of baking powder
1 pinch of salt
200 g butter (at room temperature)
400 g of sugar
4 eggs
120 ml freshly squeezed lemon juice (about 2 lemons)
Zest of two organic lemons
120 ml milk
LEMON CURD:
6 yolks (keep the whites)
100 ml freshly squeezed lemon juice
Zest of two organic lemons
110 g of sugar
110 g cold butter
MERINGUE:
6 egg whites (the ones you have left over from lemon curd)
270 g of sugar
1 pinch of salt
2 drops of vinegar
1 sachet of vanilla sugar

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 170ºC and grease 3 baking pans of about 18 or 20 cm in diameter. If you do not have 3 pans, you can use only one and as much as you have, but keep in mind that the baking time will be much longer if you have all the dough together.

In a bowl sift the flour, cornstarch, baking powder and salt. In the bowl of the mixer beat the butter until it is creamy. Add the sugar and beat for another 1-2 minutes, until the sugar is well integrated and the mixture is fluffy. Add the eggs one by one, beating until it is incorporated before adding the next.

Add half of the flour to the mixture and lightly beat until combined. Now pour the lemon juice, the milk and the zest. Mix a bit more tightly until it is integrated. Add the rest of the flour mixture and beat for another 30 seconds until you see no lumps remaining.

Distribute the dough evenly in the 3 pans. Bake for about 35 minutes, in any case, punch the pans in the centre with a toothpick and check that it comes out dry before removing them from the oven. Remove from the oven and allow the cakes to cool completely on a rack.

You can prepare the Lemon Curd days before if you want and keep it in the fridge. To make it, in a saucepan mix the yolks, the lemon juice, the sugar and the grated lemon. Heat over medium heat by stirring constantly with the whisk to prevent the yolks from cooking. Cook for about 5 minutes, you will see that the mixture becomes a little thicker. Remove from heat and then add cold butter in cubes. Stir until you have a smooth cream and store it in a jar in the refrigerator at least 2 hours before use.

Finally, prepare the meringue. Put all the ingredients in a bowl to the water bath and beat constantly with the hand mixer at low speed until the temperature of the mixture reaches 65ºC. Then stir the mixture into the bowl of the stand mixer (or continue with the hand if you do not have one) and beat at medium-high speed for about 10 minutes, until the meringue has cooled.

To assemble the cake, place a layer of sponge cake as a base. Cover with a part of the lemon curd (put the amount you want, this goes to taste). Cover with the second layer of cake and refill with lemon curd. Put the last layer of cake and frost the whole cake with the meringue. To finish, caramelize the meringue with the torch with fast passes and be careful not to burn it too much.