Creme Brulee Meringue Cake

For those of you who also wish that you could take a relaxing bath in a tub full of creme brûlée, this recipe is for you.

I have extolled the virtues of creme brûlée before. So you know I’m a bit head over heels for it (see the maple version, the pistachio version, and the Irish Cream version… just to get a hint of how serious I am about the cream-yolk-sugar concoction. Oh, and don’t forget the espresso version.).

So why not layer it between the tried and true best-ever buttermilk vanilla cake and a massive puff of meringue? The only thing missing from this recipe is the crunchy caramelized sugar layer that takes creme brûlée from a solid A to an A+. What to do about that? I need to chew on that. In the meantime, there’s cake to be had.

(Oh- be sure to watch your pan of creme brûlée carefully after it has cooled, if you happen to have animals or children or hungry partners in the house. I’m just saying.)

Adapted from my Vanilla Bean Creme Brûlée & Buttermilk Vanilla Cake recipes…

BUTTERMILK VANILLA CAKE LAYER:

1 ⅔ cups all-purpose flour

1 ½ teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

¼ teaspoon salt

¾ cups + 2 tablespoons buttermilk

1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract

½ cups unsalted butter, at room temperature

¾ cup sugar

3 eggs

CREME BRULEE:

8 egg yolks

1/3 cup sugar

1 vanilla bean, scraped and seeded (or 1 teaspoon real vanilla extract)

2 cups heavy cream

MERINGUE TOPPING:

3 egg whites

1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

1/2 cup sugar
1. BUTTERMILK VANILLA CAKE:
  1. Preheat oven to 350˚, and grease two 8″ cake pans*.
  2. In a medium bowl, sift flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt together and set aside.
  3. Pour buttermilk into a measuring cup and stir in vanilla.
  4. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together with an electric mixer at medium speed until light and fluffy (about 4 minutes). Reduce the speed and add the eggs one at a time, beating for 30 seconds between additions.
  5. Add alternating increments of the flour mixture and the vanilla-buttermilk, blending well after each addition (starting and ending with the flour mixture); this should take up to 5 minutes.
  6. Pour batter into greased pans and bake for 30 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean. (Check cakes after 25 minutes to make sure you don’t overbake them.) Remove from oven and let cool for 20 minutes on rack before unmolding from pans to finish cooling. Set aside.
2. CREME BRULEE:
  1. Preheat oven to 300°.
  2. In a large bowl, whisk yolks with sugar until smooth and pale (2 minutes). Add beans from a scraped vanilla bean and heavy cream, and whisk until incorporated.
  3. Strain mixture with a fine-mesh sieve into a bowl (one with a spout if you happen to have).
  4. Pour into a large casserole dish and bake for about 40 minutes, until creme brûlée is still jiggly in the center of the pan. Remove from oven and place on a cooling rack. Cool completely before spreading between two layers of the cake and over the top*. Chill in the fridge while you make the meringue.
3. MERINGUE:
  1. Preheat oven to 350º.
  2. In a large bowl, beat egg whites with cream of tartar until mixture looks foamy.
  3. Gradually beat in sugar until stiff peaks form, making sure to scrape down sides of the bowl.
  4. Dump onto top of cake and use a spatula to make decorative swirls in meringue surface. Bake for 10 minutes, or until meringue looks golden.
Tips:
- *I made a little baby 6″ single layer cake in the photo, but you could/should make a bigger cake with LAYERS! The recipe above is written as though you’d do that, because more layers in life are always a great thing, but by all means- make a baby single-layer version if you’d like.
- No buttermilk for the cake? Just stir a tablespoon of vinegar or lemon juice into milk in lieu of one of the tablespoons of buttermilk. Wait 5 minutes and it’ll clump up like buttermilk. TOTALLY essential for the recipe- don’t think you can make this cake without it!
- Why spend so much time creaming butter & sugar, and then after adding in each egg when making the cake? Just because. Science.
- No cream of tartar? Go ahead and skip it. It helps the meringue stay stiff but it’s not totally necessary.
- Why make decorative swirls in the meringue surface? They will brown as the meringue cooks and look kind of neat. You might need to turn your pan a few times to ensure even browning…
- Don’t even think about freezing this cake. It’s a stupid idea.
- Enjoy!
Click Here to PRINT This Recipe Now!
Related Recipes & Posts:
March 11th, 2015 | More Sweets Please | No Comments | Tags: Cakes, Goopy