This is not one of those fancy cakes that you frost and decorate with sprinkles and icing. But if someone bakes this for me on my birthday, I will happily put candles on it. It’s not very sweet, you taste nuts and meringue with a slightly buttery taste, and then there is coconut to make it even better.
I have two sisters and a brother, but unfortunately, along with my parents, they live far away in different countries and on a different continent. I have always had this regret that if at least one of them lived closer my kids would have a place to go and stay and they would have someone other than their mom who would offer to cook and bake stuff that they love, for them.
Alhumdulillah, recently not one but two families, we are related to, moved closer to us. One of them is my cousin who moved here with his wife and kids and then our niece came all the way from Pakistan with her husband to pursue her Ph.D. My kids love them both and they already know what to ask them to cook when they come over to stay or my kids have sleepovers at their aunts’ place.
“Some people are just talented at everything they do!”
My mom says that “some people are just talented at everything they do”. I don’t completely agree with this, because I do believe in hard work and persistence. The reason why I mention this is my niece, who while doing her studies has also somehow mastered the art of baking bread by 
baking and figuring out perfect ratios for the ingredients. From sourdough to brioche buns to what not. How can anyone resist freshly baked brioche buns? This cake is from her recipe, she actually mixed up a few recipes and came up with this one here.
If you want to bake a cake that does not require frosting or filling that goes well with chai then this is the recipe you might like. There are a few steps involved, while I for one am not a big fan of elaborate recipes but this one is worth it. Just make sure you read the recipe.
Eggs: This recipe calls for seven eggs, 3 full and 4 separated, carefully separate the whites and yolks.
Making Meringue: There are few basics of making a perfect meringue. Use fresh eggs at room temperature. don’t get any yolk in the egg whites. Use a very clean and dry mixing bowl with no moisture or fat. Stop when you see soft peaks form and don’t overbeat the meringue. Start at low speed and then go fast. A small amount of cream of tartar or vinegar helps in stabilizing the egg whites so they form the perfect peaks we are looking for. A humid day results in sticky and chewy meringue, so try not to bake on a day when humidity is high.
Not every dessert you bake and every sweet dish you serve needs to look like a work of art, I am not sure if I am writing this for you, the reader, or for myself, I do tend to go into details now and then and then some. you might have noticed the longer baking time this recipe has as compared to other cakes, the eggs, butter, and yogurt keeps it moist. and while the cake is baking I get all the time to clean up the countertops and wash all the measuring cups, spoons, and bowls. I don’t have to do anything once this cake is baked and ready since it doesn’t require any frosting. It looks pretty okay but it tastes much better than it looks.
It’s not very sweet, you taste nuts and meringue with a slightly buttery taste, and then there is coconut to make it even better.
Meringue Cake
Ingredients
- FOR THE CAKE
- Almond 1 cup
- Walnut ½ cup
- Coconut shredded 1 cup
- Oil 2 tbsp
- Butter 3/4 cup
- Flour 1 ½ cup
- Salt ¼ teaspoon
- Baking powder 1 ½ teaspoon
- Sugar ⅓ cup
- Eggs 4 yolks + 3 full eggs
- Vanilla 1 ½ teaspoon
- Yoghurt 2 tbsp
- FOR THE MERINGUE
- Egg whites 4
- Vinegar 1/5 teaspoon
- Sugar ½ cup
Directions
- Line the pan with parchment paper, then coat with butter and sprinkle some flour.
- Combine the almonds, walnuts, and shredded coconut in a food processor, process it until its coarse powder with some small chunks.
- Separate the eggs
- Combine flour, baking powder, salt, and 1/3 of nuts powder, mix thoroughly.
- Preheat the oven at 325F
- Using whisk attachment, cream sugar,oil and butter together, beat for 6 minutes.
- Add eggs one at a time, beat, then add vanilla and yougurt and beat for 3 minutes on medium speed.
- Start adding dry ingredients(from step 0.4), in three batches, add a tbsp of milk if it looks too dry
- Pour the batter into the pan
- Add eggs with the whisk attachment, and whisk it for 2-3 minutes
- Add vinegar, start whisking again, until white, about 2 more minutes
- Start adding sugar a little bit a time
- Now watch the eggs white things will move quickly onwards, beat and check every now and then like 30 second
- Stop whisk when makes the peaks, and the line between under whisked and over whisked meringue is pretty thin, so make sure whisk only until it looks shiny and stop.
- Take the pan with cake batter
- Take 1/3 of nuts powder, spread across the cake batter, a thin layer
- Take the last 1/3 of nuts powder and add in meringue, mix very gently.
- Take the meringue spread it on top of the nuts blend on the pan
- Bake the cake at 325 for 40 minutes
- At 40 minutes mark crank up the oven to 375 and bake it for the next 15-20 minutes. the cake is ready when the meringue on the top turns light brown.
It tastes much better than it looks, and it looks pretty good to me!
♥ Take out all the ingredients a day ahead eggs, butter flour.
♥ The cake batter should be thick yellowish.
♥ While preparing the pan make sure the butter and flour all over the pan, the cake will bake for a long time so that will make a beautiful outer layer.
♥ Meringue is the most tricky part, it will ruin the cake if it’s not correct. Don’t move away from the mixer.
♥ While the cake is baking you will have the nutty smell in the kitchen, that a good sign.
♥ The meringue when comes out will look a bit soft, but as it will come out it will dry out.
♥ Don’t worry about the long baking time, the meringue and yolks in the cake will keep it softer.
♥ The layer of nuts will create a barrier between the cake batter and meringue and keep both layers separate.
