Lemon Meringue Cake
I wanted to make a light, lemony cake for Easter today, so I came up with this idea. Last night I had made a basic lemon sponge (using the classic tried and tested sponge cake recipe of equal parts of eggs, fat, sugar and S.R. Flour - more later). This morning I added the finishing touches of whipped cream, lemon curd & torched, crispy meringue. Here is the after.
Here is the before.
Ingredients
Lemon Sponge
This is a very simple All in one recipe
5 eggs - separate 3 of these eggs and keep the whites for the meringue. An egg usually weighs 50g, but because these were separated, I used 1 more than usual.
200g Organic Rapeseed Oil (or any good quality fat of your choice - my personal choice would be butter or a light Olive Oil)
200g sugar
200g self raising flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
50ml lemon juice
Meringue
4 egg whites
1 cup white sugar
1 tbsp cornflour
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1/4 tsp salt
Extras
100g Lemon Curd
100ml double cream
Method
Cake -
Grease an 8" tin
Mix all cake ingredients together - it doesn't need too much beating, as long as everything is mixed together
Bake in a pre-heated oven at 180 degrees C, 350 degrees F or Gas Mark 4 for 40 minutes
Check it is cooked in the middle before removing from the oven. Leave to cool in tin, then place on a baking rack until completely cold (or overnight)
Split cake into 2, spreading the exposed base with the lemon curd and adding the whipped cream to the top of that. Add the top of the cake and spread the lemon curd on the top of the cake
Whip the eggs until almost peaked, then add the sugar & cornflour, whisk until soft peaks form, then add salt & vinegar, whisk again until all ingredients are incorporated.
Put meringue into a piping bag (if desired), then swirl it around the top of the cake. Use a palette knife to draw the meringue up the sides.
Freeze for 30 minutes and, using a cooks blow-torch, crisp up all the edges, peaks and edges until brown and crispy.