Weekend Cooking – Forever Summer

Published on by Margaret

Although it’s not yet summer here, it’s been feeling like it this last two weeks. We’ve had some gloriously sunny days, which made me think of cooking something from Nigella Lawson’s Forever Summer. This is a book full of recipes to give you that summery feeling all year round. There are recipes from around the world and I decided to make Strawberry Meringue Layer Cake.

Nigella writes that this is an Oz-emanating recipe that she scribbled down from a friend after a gardenside Sunday’s summer lunch.

It’s a combination of Pavlova and Victoria Sponge: make the sponge mixture by creaming 100g very soft butter with 100g caster sugar, beat in 2 egg yolks, fold in 12g plain flour, 25g cornflour and 1½ teaspoons of baking powder, add 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract and stir in 2 tablespoons of milk to thin the batter. Divide this mixture between 2 x 22cm Springform tins.

Then add the pavlova mixture – whisk the 2 egg whites until soft peaks form, gradually add 200g caster sugar and spread a layer of the meringue on top of the sponge batter in each tin and sprinkle over 50g flaked almonds.

Bake for 30 – 35 minutes in a preheated oven – 200°C/gas mark 6 until the almond scattered meringues are a dark gold. Let the cakes cool in the tins until you’re ready to assemble the cake.

Whip 375ml double cream and hull and slice 250g strawberries and sandwich the cream and berries between the two cakes – meringue on the base layer and on the top.

I made this last weekend when we had the family round,  As Nigella suggested I placed more strawberries in a separate dish to eat alongside the cake and it was half gone by the time I remembered to take a photo of it. It’s definitely a recipe I’ll be making again – it’s scrumptious.

Strawberry meringue layer cake

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15 thoughts on “Weekend Cooking – Forever Summer”

  1. wow, that looks fantastic.
    I have to stop reading these recipes and looking at these pics in the morning….it is driving me mad! lol

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  2. That does look really yummy, Margaret. I think it would be delicious for breakfast, as that’s the time I’m looking at it! LOL

    It might be time for me to make strawberry shortcake, which is what this reminds me of somewhat.

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  3. If that tastes half as good as it looks, it must be wonderful 🙂
    We seem to be vacillating between winter weather and summer weather…the temp extremes are a bit annoying!

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  6. I do tend to eat differently in the summer. I’ll have to check out this book. And that cake looks awesome. I could use a piece right now… I’m thinking of breakfast!

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  8. Margaret, your cake looks delicious. (The plate is pretty, too) I just bought strawberries yesterday and this is just the thing. Thanks for sharing.

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  13. Hi Margaret,

    That looks and sounds fantastic!
    I have to admit to having a very sweet tooth, so we only tend to have dessert or cakes very ocassionally!
    Very naughty, but very very nice, if a little difficult to eat?

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  15. Your cake looks really pretty and delish! Also, a little bit daunting to make… Nigella the kitchen goddess, her recipes sometimes a little too calorie-rich for me though 😛

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