Vegan Gooseberry Meringue Cake

Welcome to a new episode of „Julia bakes things that almost drive her crazy“. Did you miss the last episodes? Then check out the previously published episodes later, aka our recipes for vegan Baumkuchen, Baked Alaska, homemade croissants, and our DIY gingerbread house. But for now, here's an exciting new story about a vegan gooseberry meringue tart.

We're not beginners when it comes to vegan meringue. Isa has already baked a redcurrant meringue cake, and we also used chickpea water aka aquafaba for our vegan chocolate kisses and those above Baked Alaska chickpea water aka aquafaba, was whipped up. So a gooseberry meringue cake can't be that difficult, I thought. After all, it's not a classic in the sense of Bienenstich or a Black Forest gateau, where there are more precise instructions on how they should be prepared. And no, this cake isn't necessarily difficult, but I underestimated the combination of vegan meringue and the oven a little and was back in the kitchen week after week to get one test cake after the next out of the oven that didn't satisfy me. Here are my findings and tips, layer by layer.

The pastry bases: Most cakes of this type are baked with sponge, but of course, this is not specified anywhere. I have tried both a sponge and a sponge base and found the greasier sponge base to be the best in combination with the other ingredients. However, if you prefer a fluffier batter, you can study our recipe for vegan sponge cake here and swap it for the following meringue cake recipe. A vegan shortcrust pastry could also be an option. In this case, however, I would recommend modifying the recipe so that you lay out the pastry once in the entire springform tin, including the sides, then pre-bake it and spread the cream and meringue layer in it after baking and cooling, i.e., without a second shortcrust pastry layer.

An extra tip for our actual recipe: before you place the second base on top of the cream layer, you can divide it into cake pieces and then put them together like a jigsaw puzzle. This will save you from having to cut the cake when serving, which can cause the cream to squish underneath.

The gooseberry layer: There are no fixed instructions here either, so I tried out a few options during the test cooking. I found a cream layer made from pure vegan whipped cream to be too loose and unstable because the rest of the cake already has a bit of mass. That's why I added vegan quark, which stabilizes the cream but doesn't make it too heavy. I also tested several options for the gooseberries and ultimately opted for the simplest version - simply folding the gooseberries into the cream. However, it is also possible to make a jelly layer with them by thickening the juice of the gooseberries with custard powder or cake glaze. I really liked the look and taste of this, but as we're already working with several layers and vegan meringue here, there's no need to make it unnecessarily elaborate, is there? After all, we don't want a nervous breakdown at the end; we just want to eat a delicious piece of cake.

The meringue layer: And that brings us to the „problem child“ among today's cake layers. Of course, you already know that you can whip the liquid from chickpea cans. And that in itself is anything but complicated. With a little lemon juice, vanilla and powdered sugar, it doesn't taste like chickpeas and is fabulously fluffy. It gets some stability from cream of tartar baking powder, but I also used xanthan gum, a thickening and gelling agent that we have always been very happy with in previous recipes. However, I needed larger quantities of it so that it would still be firm after baking - but then the meringue layer thickened so much that the cake was more like a big sticky vegan marshmallow fluff, which I didn't like when eating. So in the end, I decided not to bake the meringue layer, but to spread it on the cake later. At least our flambéing device provided a bit of „fire“, but that's optional. You can also toast sliced almonds in a grease-free pan beforehand to add a little crunch.