Meringue Cream Cake

Falling somewhere between a pavlova and a sans rival cake: chewy layers of pistachio meringue, coated in mandarin curd whipped cream. # 389: Meringue Cream Cake

This was one of those bakes that tastes amazing but refuses to look cute. It decided to sploodge out when I tried to slice it, which I should’ve seen coming considering the amount of whipped cream involved.

I recently fell back in love with pavlovas, with their crisp meringue base and clouds of airy cream and fruit on top. So when I was looking for a way to modify a sans rival cake, I leaned heavily in that direction.

A sans rival cake is a decadent dessert from the Philippines with a heavy French influence. It’s made up of dacquoise, meringue with chopped or blitzed nuts mixed in (in this case, cashews) and layers of French buttercream. The buttercream is much sturdier than diplomat cream and gives less moisture to the meringue. While this allows for a pretty slice shot with distinct layers, sometimes cravings take you in another direction. C’est la vie!

The idea to use pistachios instead of cashews came both from the fact that I already had pistachios on hand (classic) and a Bon Appetit recipe I unearthed during a recent recipe clear out.

Bonus: vivid green!

Not pictured: me flipping the bowl upside down over my head. Why do bakers do this? It’s just showing off but there’s no one else in the kitchen to witness your moment of meringue triumph. And yet, I still do it almost every time. Keeping it quirky over here.

Feels very spring, to go with all the magnolia blossoms in our neighborhood!

I free-handed the piping, but they’re easy enough to trim after baking.

Definitely tempted to make a 7-layer leaning tower…

Or go really rogue and coat the bottoms in dark chocolate. It would help with blocking some of the whipped cream’s moisture, maintaining some of the meringue crunch in each bite! Love how I always seem to end up with some combo of orange, chocolate and pistachio when I go off-recipe.