Hooray, cherry season is finally here! If you’re buying locally, you’ll find them on farmer’s stands in local markets alike. Besides strawberries, cherries are our other favorite red fruit of those lovely sunny days. Whether enjoyed plain or in a delicious cake, cherries sweeten our day in terms both taste and flavor. And if you crown your cherry cake with meringue, you’ve done everything right. Read below to find out how to do just so.
Cherry Cake with Meringue: A Pretty Pastry Anytime of Day
In the Middle Ages, cherries were considered a luxurious fruit reserved only for the nobility. Anyone who owned a cherry tree gained respect. And these days, envy, at least from me.
If you can’t pick the fruit for our cherry meringue cake yourself, you’ll need to tread those familiar paths to the supermarket or the farmer’s market. Don’t worry! They’ll still be yummy, as long as you make sure to go for the plump and shiny cherries. Their stems should still be firmly attached to the fruit.
The cake gets an elegant touch with meringue. What looks like a cloud is actually a foam pastry made of sweetened egg whites. Your cherry meringue cake will earn its laurels once you flambée it. The meringue is applied to the finished cake at the very end. You’ll need a kitchen torch, but it’s not a must. If you don’t have one on hand, you can also bake the meringue along with the cake. To do this, spread the cherry filling on the cake base and dollop the meringue on top. Bake everything for 10 minutes.
Looking for more beautiful cakes to pepper your long summer days? Look no further with our two-ingredient marzipan cake, chocolate pudding sheet cake, and cappuccino cream cake.
Cherry Cake with Meringue
Ingredients
For the shortcrust pastry:
- ½ cup butter cold, cubed
- ¾ cup powdered sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 pinch of salt
- 1 ¾ cups flour
- ¼ cup ground almonds
For the filling:
- 1 lb cherries
- 1 ¼ cups cherry juice
- ¼ cup sugar
- 1 package instant vanilla pudding mix
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
For the meringue:
- 3 eggs
- ¾ cup sugar
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- In a bowl, cream together the butter, powdered sugar, egg, and salt using a hand mixer. Add the flour and almonds and knead everything together until a dough forms.
- Shape the dough into a ball and wrap it in plastic wrap. Let it chill in the refrigerator for an hour.
- Grease a tart pan with butter and dust it with flour.
- Roll out the dough on a floured work surface and place it in the tart pan. Cut off the excess dough and prick the bottom of the dough several times with a fork. Line with a piece of parchment paper and fill with dried beans or rice for blind baking.
- Bake for 15 minutes, remove the parchment paper with the beans/rice. Bake the crust for another 10 minutes.
- Wash and pit the cherries. Mix the pudding mix with 5 tablespoons of the cherry juice and sugar. Bring the remaining cherry juice to a boil, add the pudding mix, and simmer for 1 minute.
- Add the cherries and simmer for about 3 minutes. Stir in the lemon juice and let the mixture cool.
- Pour the cherry mixture into the pie crust. Bake the cherry cake in the preheated oven for about 10 minutes.
- For the meringue layer, place the egg whites in a bowl and beat until stiff. Gradually add the sugar and beat until stiff peaks form.
- Spread the meringue on the cooled cherry cake and create swirls and peaks with a spatula. Brown the meringue with a kitchen torch until golden.