Chocolate Merengue Cake

Very easy. Smells heavenly. Nuts, chocolate and merengue make a wonderful airy, crunchy and chewy combination.

Dead simple but gorgeous

The merengue makes for a slightly sticky, chewy inside, and it gives it a lovely brittle top. The smell is mouth-watering. All in all it’s just a simple quicky turned gorgeous… And then it caught the low slanting autumn sunlight so well, I just don’t know which I like better: the picture, or the cake…

recipe: Chocolate Merengue Cake

This amount is for a 20cm springform tin

120 g chopped almonds
120 g chopped dates
120 g chopped dark chocolate
1 tablesp maizena (corn flour)
bit of vinegar to clean the bowl
3 egg whites (large eggs)
40 g yellow caster sugar
some powdered sugar to dust

Throw together

Chop the three main ingredients and mix them in a bowl with the tablespoon maizena. Clean a mixing bowl with the vinegar. Beat the egg whites on low speed until soft peaks form. Gradually add the sugar and increase the speed to high. Beat until the egg white forms stiff peaks. Fold in the nut and chocolate mixture with a metal spoon. Place the merengue mix in a greased and lined springform tin; flatten the top with the spoon.

And bake it

Bake the cake at 160°C for about 50 minutes. The top will turn into a golden light brown color. When done, let the temperature drop to 70°C, open the oven door slightly, and leave to dry in the oven for about 20 minutes more.

The nuts, chocolate and merengue make a wonderful airy, crunchy and chewy combination; but I could hardly find the dates. Next time, I’ll try apricots, I think maybe even dried apple would be good.