Talking about meringue cake, in Italy, there are many different versions, even based on ice cream.
Many times the meringue is dried and coupled with the whipped cream.
The recipe that I propose here, is from the great Cipriani, the owner of the famous Harry’s Bar in Venice.
You can prepare this recipe in one of our cooking classes.
Cipriani meringue cake
Yield:
6
Prep Time:
1 hour
Cook Time:
25 minutes
Total Time:
1 hour 25 minutes
Ingredients
Sponge cake
- 125g (1 cup) flour
- 125g (2/3 cup) sugar
- 4 medium eggs (room temperature)
- butter
Pastry cream
- 3 egg yolks
- 60g (1/4 cup) sugar
- 1/2 vanilla stick or equivalent vanilla extract
- 1/2 lemon peel
- 15g (2 tablespoons) cornstarch
- 150g (3/4 cup) whole milk
Filling cream
- 350g (1 and 1/2 cups) heavy cream (cold)
- pastry cream (see above)
Meringue
- 200g (1 cup) sugar
- 4 egg whites (room temperature)
- 1 lemon juice
Instructions
- Preheat the oven at 180°C (350°F) and start preparing the sponge cake. Put the eggs and sugar in the mixer bowl and whip until the color becomes pale yellow.
- In the meantime, sift the flour and grease the cake pan with the butter.
- Pour the flour into the eggs/sugar mixture and gently mix using a spatula.
- Pour the sponge cake mix into the cake pan, level the surface. Bake for 25 minutes.
- In the meantime prepare the pastry cream. Peel the half lemon, pour the milk into a saucepan, add the lemon peel, and heat until it almost boils.
- Put the egg yolks in a bowl, add sugar, cornstarch and vanilla. Mix using a whisk.
- Pour the hot milk into the bowl, mix and pour back into the saucepan.
- Heat the mixture over low heat until it becomes thick. Remove quickly from the heat and pour again into the bowl using the spatula, use the whisk to have a smooth cream, let it cool down. Remove the lemon peel from the pastry cream.
- Pour the heavy cream into the mixer bowl, that you previously cleaned carefully, whip the cream until stiff. Add the pastry cream and mix until the cream is homogeneous.
- Remove the sponge cake from the pan, slice it horizontally into four layers.
- Assemble the cake, put one layer of sponge cake on the serving dish, spread a third of the cream on top of the sponge cake, repeat the process with the other layers, terminating with the sponge cake.
- Prepare the meringue: pour the egg white into the mixer bowl, that you previously cleaned carefully, whip until they begin to incorporate some air, add one-third of the sugar, whip again until it begins to become stiff, add another third of sugar, continue to whip, add the remaining sugar and lemon juice, whip again until completely stiff.
- Spread the cake with the meringue on top and on the sides using a spatula.
- Using the torch, caramelize the surface of the meringue a little.
- Reserve the cake in the fridge until the serving time.
Notes
Needed equipment:
Mixer with wire whip
Round cake pan 22cm (9 inch)
two bowls 9 inches or bigger.
One whisk
Butane torch
The Cipriani meringue cake can be kept in the fridge for one day.
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hi there,
wanted to ask you, i want to make this cake for my moms birthday, and I don’t have a blow torch, so do you think i would able to pop the cake in the oven with the meringue just to brown it a bit?thanks!
yes, you can use the broil, just until the meringue browns a little bit,
before doing that, place the cake in the freezer for 20-30 minutes
Hello
Is there meant to be butter in the sponge mix? Recipe doesn’t specify
no, this sponge cake, named in Italian “Pan di Spagna”, doesn’t contain butter, it’s used in many sweet preparations and it can also be flavored with chocolate for example in this famous cake https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sachertorte
What temp would it need to be , thanks
the oven temp is written in the first instruction step
Thanks for the recipe! I wanted to make that cake for a bday. Can I prep it a week ahead, freeze it and put the meringue on only on the day? (Put in fridge 12 hours before)
yes, you can freeze it, use a blast chiller if possible for better result, then allow 24 hours to de-freeze in the fridge, happy birthday! 🙂
Thanks for the recipe
What type of meringue is used. I assumed it would be italian meringue?
the meringue is not cooked, in this sense it is Italian style, but is not done as the classic Italian meringue, I didn’t use the sugar syrup at 121°C, but I simply used sugar
Can i prepare the pastry cream a day before ?
yes, you can, put cling film directly in contact with the cream surface and store in the fridge
do you think you could make a very large version of this cake?
I’ve made it before and thinking of doubling the sponge, pastry cream and meringue quantities and using a large cake tin. what do you think?
you can certainly realize the cake with a bigger diameter cake tin, be prepared, it will be more complicated to cut the sponge cake…
you must avoid having layers of sponge cake that are too thick because then in the mouth the sensation is that it is too dry, even if you have thicker layers of cream
Thanks marco – and can the sponge cake be made the day before? Or will it taste stale?
yes you can make it the day before, let it cool completely, than wrap it with cling film and keep it in the refrigerator
Hi Marco
The sponge smells quite eggy – is that normal? It is very thin so I am thinking perhaps once it is cut into four it will not taste bad with the cream?
the eggs are 50% by weight of the sponge cake. It is normal for it to smell and taste like eggs.
If the sponge cake is too thin it means that you have not whipped the mixture enough, it is the air that is incorporated which expands during cooking and makes it soft and thick.
How deep should the 9″ cake pan be?
Slicing the cake into four layers will be difficult? Will it be easier to slice if it’s refrigerated?
Looking forward to trying it!!
the cake pan I used is less then 3 inches deep (7cm)
the sponge cake has to cool down completely, yes if you refrigerate it, slicing it will be easier,
it’s better if the sponge cake layers are thin, as the taste of the cream prevails over that of the sponge cake when you eat it
What is the size of the pan?
it’s written in the recipe’s notes: Round cake pan 22cm (9 inch)
Is there a substitute for milk
you could simply use water or soy milk or if you want to change the flavor you could also use almond or coconut milk