Strawberry meringue crunch cake with whipped cream

This beautiful showstopper of a cake is for those times when you need to impress but simply don't have the skill or inclination to fuss about with a piping bag and frosting. The cake is what our American friends call a 'dump' cake, because everything gets dumped into a bowl and mixed. I love no washing up, don't you? And then comes the genius part, the meringue is baked on top of the cake. At the same time. So essentially the 'frosting' is already done! How cool is that?! Topped with lashings of softly-whipped cream and some beautiful summer berries - it's like a pavlova and vanilla cake had a love child. 

And if you're keen for a chocolate version ( I know right?!) here is an even more decadent Chocolate meringue crunch cake - and it's gluten-free too!

Strawberry meringue crunch cake

Serves 8-10

Cake

2 cups cake flour

3 tsp baking powder

1 ½ cups white sugar

½ cup oil

½ cup milk

1 tsp vanilla

3 eggs

pinch of salt

zest of 1 lemon

Topping

4 egg whites

1 cup castor sugar

Whipped cream and strawberries, to garnish

Preheat the oven to 180C. 

Mix all the cake ingredients together and beat for 1 minute. Pour into a greased and lined 25cm springform cake tin.

Make the topping by whisking the egg whites until soft peak stage with a electric mixer, then gradually add the Selati Castor snow into the whites to form a stiff, glossy white meringue. Spoon the meringue on top of the swirled cake batter then bake in the preheated oven for 45-50 minutes or  until the meringue is crunchy and a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean.

Allow to cool completely before unmoulding. Top the cake with whipped cream and strawberries. 

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