Raspberry meringue cake

NZ Woman's Weekly 28/2/2012

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Ready in 50 minutes, serves 14. Kylie Adams, our expert baker in the test kitchen, makes this raspberry meringue cake for birthdays and special celebrations

Cake base

(You can click on ingredients to see more related recipes)

90 g	Butter
⅓ cup	Caster sugar
5	Eggs, yolks
1 tsp	Vanilla essence/extract
¼ cup	Cream
⅓ cup	Plain flour
2 tbsp	Cornflour
2 tsp	Baking powder

Meringue topping

5	Eggs, whites
1 cup	Caster sugar
1 tsp	Vanilla essence/extract

Raspberry Filling & Topping

1½ cups	Cream
½ cup	Sour cream
1 tbsp	Icing sugar
½ tsp	Vanilla essence/extract
2 cups	Frozen raspberries, (do not defrost)
1 tsp	Cinnamon
2 tbsp	Icing sugar

Directions

Cake: Preheat oven to 160 degC fan bake. Line base of two 23cm cake tins with non-stick baking paper. Lightly grease both baking paper and tin.
Cream butter with sugar until light and fluffy. Beat yolks, add to creamed butter a little at a time, beating well.
Add vanilla and cream, then mix. Sift flour, cornflour and baking powder over top, then mix through the cake batter.
Divide mixture equally and spread into both tins. These layers will be very thin.
Topping: Beat egg whites until they are stiff, then gradually add sugar, beating until whites form soft peaks.
Fold through vanilla. Spread meringue evenly over layers of cake and smooth top.
Bake for about 35 minutes. Meringue will be quite a deep colour. Check it's cooked by inserting a fine skewer.
If it comes out clean, cake is ready. Leave cakes in tins for 1 hour before inverting them onto a sheet of foil or baking paper.
Leave overnight in the switched off oven to cool. This also helps the meringue dry out.
Don't use a cake rack as this could damage the delicate meringue.
Filling: Whip cream and sour cream until stiff, then add sugar and vanilla and mix in frozen berries.
Assembly: Put one of the cakes onto a platter, meringue side down.
Cover with raspberry cream on top. onto this, add a second layer of cake, this time with meringue side upwards.
Sprinkle cake top with cinnamon and sifted icing sugar. Leave for a couple of hours for flavour to mellow.
Once assembled, the cake is best eaten within 24 hours.
Take cake out of fridge an hour before serving.