Who would have thought.. me cooking. Quarantine has truly changed me. Since I am home and cooking every single meal, I have developed a passion and likeliness for the kitchen. I tried some easy and some challenging recipes, but NONE have tested my patience like the Cipriani Meringue Cake.
I followed the Cipriani video below but had to make SEVERAL alterations. I knew it was too good to be true that they’d reveal the secret recipe to their signature meringue cake. So here I am revealing these discrepancies.
SO THIS IS THE VIDEO THEY PUBLISHED
DO NOT FORGET TO READ ALTERATIONS BELOW!
So there are a few alterations that need to be made to the Cirpiani Merenge Cake recipe: first is in the filling and the second is in the meringue exterior. However, I am going to redo the entire recipe to make it easier to follow.
Ingredients
Sponge Cake
- 1 Cup of Flour
- 2/3 Cup of Sugar
- 4 Eggs (Room Temperature)
Filling **
- 1 Cup of Pastry Cream
- Since you cannot buy pastry cream so I followed THIS recipe!
- 1/2 Cup of Sugar
- 1/4 Cup of Corn Starch (powder)
- Pinch of Salt
- 2 Cups of Whole Milk
- 4 Egg Yolks
- 2 TBSP of Unsalted Butter
- 1 TSP of Vanilla Extract
- 3 Cups of Heavy Cream
Exterior Merengue
I doubled the original because you can never have too much meringue icing!
- 8 Egg Whites
- 2 Cups of Sugar
- 1 TBSP of Lemon Juice
Now let’s begin!
Baking
Sponge Cake
- Preheat oven to 350
- Mix in 2/3 cups of sugar and 4 room temperature eggs until it is a smooth, off white texture (see video for reference)
- Add in flour slowly folding it in (make sure not to over mix it)
- Line a 9″ pan (size is important to later cut the cake into layers. Try to not use one bigger, smaller is okay) with butter and flour to avoid cake sticking to pan (see video)
- Add mixture into pan (love THIS ONE) a cook for 20-25 minutes
- Let cake chill for 30 mins and remove from pan
- Slice into 4 thin layers
Filling
- Start by making pastry cream by following THIS video. (This will make about 2 cups, but you will only need one)
- Whisk together sugar, cornstarch, and salt in a medium saucepan.
- Whisk together milk and egg yolks in a separate bowl until it is fully blended and then add to saucepan along with butter
- Turn on stove to medium heat and whisk until it comes to a steady boil.
- Let boil 1 minute, still whisking; then remove from heat and stir in vanilla.
- Strain pastry cream through a fine-mesh sieve into a bowl.
- Cover with plastic wrap, pressing it directly onto surface of cream to prevent skin from forming.
- Refrigerate until chilled
- Meanwhile pastry cream chills, whip 3 cups of heavy cream until it is fluffy like whipped cream
- Slowly fold in 1 cup of (room temperature) pastry cream little by little to avoid curdling and keep thick, whipped consistency like below
- Add filling between the layers of cake. Don’t be scared to make a thick layer
ALMOST DONE!!!
Meringue Icing
- Whip the egg whites with the sugar and lemon juice until you have a thick, glossy, white meringue consistency like this
- Decorate & Torch (watch Cipriani video to see how to get the signature Cipriani Meringue Cake peaks)
NOW TA- DAHHH ENJOY!!!
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Delicious!! Came out amazing!!
Author
So happy you loved it!!
Thank you for this! I want to try making a birthday. Would you recommend making the day of? And once it’s completed do you leave room temperature or refrigerated?
Author
I would recommend making it the day before at least if it is your first time and refrigerating it! It is possible to make it one day but does require extensive time and patience. Just take extra note of the filling steps to avoid any curdling. Can’t wait for you to try! Send me pictures!
Hi! The cake seems so small to cut into those 4 nice layers. How do you recommend cutting the layers?
Author
It requires patience and I also used this cake leveler! https://amzn.to/38MhTxp this one seems good too! https://amzn.to/38THPY5 It honestly has come very handy!
hey! by heavy cream, do you mean heavy whipping cream? thank you so much!!
Author
Hello! You can use either! I personally prefer heavy whipping cream because it holds its shape longer. Let me know how it turns out!
xx
Hey! Love this idea! For the heavy cream, is it regular heavy cooking cream or heavy whipping cream? As the first time I did this recipe I felt as if the filling of the cake was too liquid-y. Thank You!!
Author
Hello! You can use either! I personally prefer heavy whipping cream because it holds its shape longer. Very important to mix it in little by little to try and avoid that as there must be an extra step they don’t disclose. I also try to make sure both the pastry cream and whipping cream are the same temperature! Would love to see how they’ve come out!
Hi. What to use cake flour or all purpose flour?
Author
I used all purpose flour and it was delicious!
Hi! You cook the sponge cake at 350 degrees fahrenheit or celsius? Thank you
Author
350 degrees fahrenheit! Let me know how it comes out!
Hi
What options do I have for the meringue if I don’t have a torch? Could I leave the cake just as it is before the torch step or maybe pop it in the oven on high temp just for 3-4 minutes?
Author
Yes! You can pop it in the oven for a few minutes. You could even try with broil!
Hi! I am making it right now but am confused when to add the butter for the cream layer. Thanks!
Author
You add it in between steps 2 and three! Add it in before bringing to a boil 🙂
Hello
I’m not sure if you are aware, but when you google cipriani cake recipe and click on your link you end up on a weird pharma website selling medicine.
I had to manually enter your website and then search “cipriani cake recipe”.
Hope it helps.
Hello,
While the cake itself came out beautifully, I seem to always have a problem with the pastry cream as it seems to be thick when I make it but then once cooled in the fridge and I add the thickly whipped double cream it becomes too loose (when they are folded in together) to be stable within the cake layers and oozes out slowly. I have to quickly use meringue (I substitute Italian cooked meringue) structurally to keep everything in place.
The only substitution I make in the vanilla cream is potato starch for the corn starch (my mom has an agenda against processed non edible, at least in it’s original form, corn products, like starch and corn syrup, that she has passed on to me). Otherwise I have made this cake 3 times and even cooling the vanilla cream mixture again in the fridge doesn’t thicken it enough.
Author
I ran into those problems too so it took a bit of trial and error but am definitely going to try with your suggestion! Thank you so much!