🔗 Share this article

For the holidays, the traditional festive pav is making way for a similarly delightful dessert featuring meringue. Baked layers of nutty meringue are assembled with a lush pistachio cream and juicy cherry mixture. While it sits, the discs become slightly beneath the filling, resulting in a delightfully cake-like consistency. It's a fantastic choice for a holiday sweet that omits chocolate, alcohol, or dried fruit.

Festive Nut & Fruit Meringue Cake

Thanks to the trend of a certain viral chocolate bar, pistachio creme is now readily available in local shops. This product is sugar-added and provides a beautiful pale green color. One might use pure pistachio paste as a substitute, but the color may be duller and some added sweetness is needed to sweeten it to taste.

Prep: 5 min
Cook: 2 hr 20 min
Serves: 12-16

For the Meringue Discs
150g pistachio kernels, plus an extra 50g, chopped, for garnish
50g icing sugar
1 tsp cornflour
A pinch of salt
165g egg whites
155g caster sugar

For the Cherry Compote
350g frozen cherries
Juice of ½ lemon
60g caster sugar

For the Pistachio Cream
600ml whipping cream
60g pistachio creme

Method

First, preheating the oven to 170C (150C fan)/340F/gas 3½. Cover three trays with baking paper. Trace around an 18cm plate, draw a circle on every sheet. Invert the paper so the pen marks won't transfer the meringue.

Pulse together the 150g pistachios, icing sugar, cornflour, and salt until finely processed – some texture of pistachio are just fine.

Place the egg whites and mix initially until light and bubbly. Increase the speed and beat until the whites hold a soft peak. Keeping the mixer on, incorporate little by little the caster sugar until the meringue is thick, stiff, and glossy.

Using a spatula, fold the pistachio mixture into the meringue, being careful not to deflate it. Spoon the meringue into a bag fitted with a large tip and trim about a generous opening from the tip.

Pipe from the outside of each outline, pipe a meringue disc onto each tray. Smooth the surface using a palette knife. Bake for 30-40 minutes until the meringues are lightly browned and feel firm. They should come off the paper when cool. Take out and let cool.

Meanwhile, make the compote. Place all compote ingredients in a pot and heat gently until the cherries begin to release juice. Bring to a boil and cook for 5-6 minutes until the cherries are softened. Spoon the cherries to a bowl, leaving the juices in the pan. Reduce the liquid until it has halved in volume, then mix it back with the cherries. Allow to reach room temperature.

Prepare the cream layer, combine the whipping cream and pistachio creme in a bowl until just thickened.

For construction, even out the discs of each meringue disc with a small serrated knife, for a clean edge. Set the first layer on a cake stand and top with a generous amount of the whipped cream. Form a depression (about 10cm-12cm wide) in the middle and add some of the cherries (this contains the juices from spilling). Add another disc and repeat the process, reserving a small handful for the final garnish.

Add the last meringue and mask the cake with the rest of the pistachio cream, using a palette knife with a offset spatula. Adhere the extra nuts onto the vertical surface.

Transfer any leftover cream into a piping bag fitted with a star nozzle and add decorative dollops on top. Garnish with the saved cherries and chill until ready to serve.