Bedstefars Skæg (Raspberry Meringue Cake)
You seriously cannot go wrong making this cake for a birthday or any kind of celebration! The balance with the sweet and crispy meringue is perfect, especially if you go for quite a tart jam.
Ingredients
CAKE BATTER
- 3 large eggs (room temperature)
- 300 grams (1 1/2 cups) sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 240 ml (1 cup) milk
- 57 grams (4 tbsp) unsalted butter
- 250 grams (1 3/4 cups) all-purpose flour
- 3 tsp baking powder
- Pinch of salt
TOPPING
- 1 portion raspberry jam (or store bought - about half of a jar or enough to spread across the top of the cake!)
MERINGUE
- 4 large egg whites (144g)
- 288 grams (1 3/4 cups + 1 tbsp) granulated sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- A splash of lemon juice
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Butter a cake pan (you can also line it with parchment paper if you want) – we used a rectangular one, but round is fine too!
- Melt butter and milk together on the stove. Let the mixture cool a bit, until it’s not burning hot but just a bit warm.
- Beat eggs and sugar together until light and fluffy and tripled in volume, either in a stand mixer, with a hand mixer, or by hand with a whisk. Add the vanilla extract in right before the eggs and sugar have tripled in volume, just so it’s evenly combined.
- Combine flour, baking powder, and salt in a separate bowl.
- Now you are going to add your cooled butter/milk mixture and flour mixture into the fluffy egg/sugar mixture. Alternate between adding the two mixtures in two separate stages, making sure to sift the dry mixture in and fold gently with a rubber spatula, so as not to deflate the eggs. You can also use the paddle attachment on the stand mixer on a very low speed. So: sift in 1/2 of the dry mixture, fold together, add 1/2 of the butter/milk, fold, sift in 1/2 of the dry, fold, then add 1/2 of the butter/milk. Finally, fold everything together a few times at the end, until combined. You should have a smooth cake batter.
- Pour into the pan and bake for 20-25 minutes. Make sure you MOVE ON TO THE NEXT STEPS IN THE RECIPE while the cake bakes so you can get your meringue topping ready!
- While the cake bakes, make your meringue. In the bowl of a stand mixer with the whisk attachment, add your egg whites and splash of lemon juice. Start whipping until your egg whites look frothy.
- Add in your vanilla extract. Slowly add your sugar one tablespoon at a time while the mixer is running. If you add it too quickly, the sugar will not dissolve and it will end up grainy!
- Once all the sugar has been added, keep whisking until you have reached stiff peaks – this can take a little while!
- Check the cake and take it out of the oven when the top is golden brown and a cake tester comes out almost completely clean. You’re going to add your topping and bake for a bit longer, so you don’t want the cake to be completely done at this stage. Of course, you also don’t want it to be liquid, so just check it with a cake tester, skewer, or knife – a little bit of batter should still stick onto the tester, but not much.
- Once your cake is ready, spread jam to cover the top of the cake (note - we are doing this right after removing the cake from the oven and NOT letting it cool down!).
- Carefully spoon the meringue over the jam and spread it out to cover the whole cake. Do not dump the meringue in one spot or you risk collapsing the cake!
- Put it back into the oven and bake for another 10-15 minutes until the meringue is crispy and a little brown on top (the goal is just to have a meringue that doesn't deflate!)
- Let your cake cool, slice, and enjoy!