Hi guys,

I was trying to recreate a cake my mom used to make for me. Yellow cake with a layer of meringue baked on. I made a test layer with this recipe: http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/berry-blitz-torte-recipe but didn’t like it. Very thin, first of all, and slightly dry / tough / coarse. I want something moister and more tender.

I was thinking either the She Loves Me cake or the Vanilla Bean Pound Cake from Rose’s Heavenly cakes. So I have 2 questions:

1) Would one of those work with a layer of meringue on top?

2) How do I scale those recipes to 2 9 inch pans?

My plan was to make a messy 2 layer cake with strawberries and creme chiboust (from the St. Honore trifle) in between. It’s for my mom’s birthday and she doesn’t care for frosting but loves cream.

I do not have the Cake Bible.

Thanks! Katie

Edit: I forgot to say that the meringue also weeped on my test layer. Brown syrup dots on the surface overnight. I’d like to avoid that too.

There is a lemon meringue cake in RHC…it’s quite good and I enjoyed it—but it does emphasize lemon….you may want to check it out.

If you want to make a cake filled with strawberries and your mother loves cream, perhaps whipped cream on top?  If you prefer meringue, then you could make the she loves me cake and top with Italian meringue.  I think weeping is from underbaking the meringue, but if you start with Italian meringue then the baking step won’t be so crucial, you can just brown it to your liking and not worry about whether it’s baked enough.

To get the amount of batter that Rose recommends for two 9x2 round cake pans, double the recipe for the she loves me cake in RHC.  I wouldn’t try the pound cake in a layer pan, it may not have the structure necessary for that shape.