Strawberry Meringue Layer Cake
Things that have become a must do for me in Summer over the past few years are to pick berries or cherries. So with two of my favourite girls in tow, Katie and Alana, we went down to Red Hill to the best strawberry farm ever. Sunny Ridge Strawberry Farm has THE sweetest strawberries, and are hands down my favourite. Katie and I went down about a month ago whilst on a trip down to The Vintage Shed. There wasn’t a huge crowd there, we could get a seat easily and move about. But when the three of us went… BAM! The place was packed with school holiday crowds. We ended up having to park on the side of the road like the majority of people.
The queue to pick strawberries moved fast though, and after an initial shitty patch of berries, we moved to the prime spot for big fat red juicy suckers.
Since I was going to see Grandma a couple of days later, I sourced out a recipe that used strawberries. This recipe come from Nigella’s Forever Summer book and I would happily make it again. It’s kinda like a pavlova with added cake. It was pretty easy to make, even though I didn’t have two tins of the same size. The bigger one is on the bottom 😉
Strawberry Meringue Layer Cake
Nigella Lawson
125g plain flour
25g cornflour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
100g very soft unsalted butter
300g caster sugar
4 eggs
2 tsps pure vanilla extract
2 tblspns milk
50g flaked almonds
375ml double cream
250g strawberries
1. Preheat oven to 200C. Line, butter and flour two 22cm springform tins.|
2. Weigh out the flour, cornflour and baking powder into a bowl.
3. Cream the butter and 100g of the caster sugar in another bowl until light and fluffy. Separate the eggs and beat the yolks into the butter and sugar, saving the whites to whisk later. Gently fold in the weighed-out dry ingredients, add the vanilla, then sir in the milk to thin the batter. Divide the mixture between the two prepared springform tins.
4. Whisk the egg whites until soft peaks form, then gradually add the remaining 200g caster sugar. Spread a layer of meringue on top of the sponge batter in each tin and sprinkle the almonds evenly over.
5. Bake for 30-35 mins, by which time the top of the almond-scattered meringues will be a dark gold.
6. Let the cakes cool in their tins, then spring them open at the last minute when you are ready to assemble the cake.
7. Whip the double cream, and hull and slice the strawberries; that’s to say, the bigger ones can be sliced lengthways and the smaller ones halved.
8. Invert one of the cakes on to a plate or cake stand so that the sponge is uppermost. Pile on the cream and stud with the strawberries, letting some of the berries subside into the whipped whiteness. Place the second cake on top, meringue upwards, and press down gently, just to secure it.
9. If you’ve got any more strawberries in the house, hull and halve them and serve them in a dish to eat alongside; it gives the cake a more after-lunch, less afternoon-tea kind of a feel, but it’s hardly obligatory.
Serves 8.
Lorraine @ Not Quite Nigella
Hehe I love that bit about the cream and expanding butts! Ice got strawberries on the mind too 🙂
Iron Chef Shellie
hahaha why does it have to be true? 😛
April
Pretty cake! And those strawberries looks amazing. I haven’t been strawberry picking since I was a kid. I do my strawberry picking at Victoria Market nowadays! I like how you added the arrow for the cream after my feedback 😀
Iron Chef Shellie
hahaha very sophisticated picking you do there 😛
bahaha <3
Danielle
To. Die. For.
Look at that beauty……a friend and I have a new linky hook up for foodies to show off their awesome food feats.
It’s a monthly space for gastronomes to share what they’ve been up to, to meet new foodies and let more people see what they’re up to.
I’d love you to throw this cake on there because it’s divine.
You wanna?
Check it out – Our Growing Edge. Google it, because if I link here it may spam me! Hate spam…….
Iron Chef Shellie
I’ll def check it out! Thanks Danielle 🙂
Ira
hahhaha check out our twin Sunny Ridge posts. 😛
although my Sunny Ridge adventure involved much less picking, and much more lounging about eating cholocate covered berries. HAHAHHA! such yummy strawberries right?!
Cake looks rot-my-teeth sweet, ie excellent!
Iron Chef Shellie
ha! what are the odds of that happening? 😛
Daisy@Nevertoosweet
Love the look and sound of this cake 🙂 did you post it on Instagram I think I’ve seen it before hehe I love picking for berries too but I haven’t gone to Sunny Ridge but my friend bought me their jam and I loved it! Will have to go again soon ~ but I’m afraid summer has already ended 🙁 Hope the strawberries are still big and sweet!
Iron Chef Shellie
yeah I posted on instagram about 2 months ago… a bit back logged!
john | heneedsfood
Sponge and meringue in one cake, I like the sound of that! Talk about decadence!
Iron Chef Shellie
it’s great if you can’t choose what you want, you just have both!
Kristy @ Southern In-Law
Yum! This looks amazing!!
Iron Chef Shellie
thanks lovely 🙂 x
msihua
Holy moly, cootie patootie amazeballs cake you made here babe! Almost as good looking as the ones I had for my wedding (not our) but my wedding cakes were awesome sauce 🙂
Iron Chef Shellie
haha YOUR wedding cakes were the best, I think you should get married again so i can make black forrest and actually eat it!
Winnie @ Eat.Play.Shop.
Yum!!! I agree Sunny Ridge has the best strawberries, we make our annual pilgrimage there every summer but the strawberries are always all eaten within 24 hours of a visit. Can never have too much meringue in a cake I say!
Iron Chef Shellie
It’s hard not to eat them all straight away. I just can’t go back to supermarket strawberries, not the same!
Heidi - Apples Under My Bed
So so pretty/ Yay for Red Hill strawberries 🙂
Heidi xo
Iron Chef Shellie
The BEST strawberries! <3
Maureen
Give me some of that butt widening stuff along with the fattening stuff and the really healthy strawberries please. This looks wonderful!
Iron Chef Shellie
haha strawberries make it healthy!
Agnes
Oooh I like that plate. And text on photos – so hot right now. 😉
Iron Chef Shellie
so hot! 😛
pia
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milkteaxx
this sounds amazing, i remember going down to sunny ridge a few years back and it was amazing! id love to go down there for more strawberry picking!
Sara @bellyrumbles
Hahahahaha, “the stuff that makes your butt expand”. Priceless 🙂