Raspberry and toasted meringue cakes
Makes: 12
Prep time: 40 minsTotal time: 
Recipe photograph by Ant Duncan
Raspberry and toasted meringue cakes
Recipe by Sarah Cook
Cupcake meets queen of puddings... these little raspberry-filled sponges are as light as a feather
Makes: 12
Prep time: 40 minsTotal time: 
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Nutritional information (per serving)
Calories
284Kcal
Fat
16gr
Saturates
7gr
Carbs
29gr
Sugars
19gr
Fibre
2gr
Protein
5gr
Salt
0.4gr
Sarah Cook
Sarah, a former food editor, has now been writing and styling recipes for over 10 years. Born in NZ, to Irish-English immigrants, and married to a Polish-Scot, her food is as diverse as her family, with a particular passion for baking mash-ups.
Sarah Cook
Sarah, a former food editor, has now been writing and styling recipes for over 10 years. Born in NZ, to Irish-English immigrants, and married to a Polish-Scot, her food is as diverse as her family, with a particular passion for baking mash-ups.
Ingredients
For the sponges
- 150g very soft butter, plus extra to grease
- 75g wholemeal spelt flour (or plain flour), plus extra to dust
- 125g golden caster sugar
- 2 medium eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 85g ground hazelnuts
- 75g plain flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 3 tbsp milk
- 36 small raspberries (about 1 x 150g pack)
For the topping
- 2 medium egg whites
- 85g caster sugar
- 2 tsp freeze-dried raspberries, crushed to a powdery mix using a pestle and mortar
Step by step
Get Ahead
The cakes, with or without meringue, will keep for 3 days in an airtight container. Alternatively, freeze the undecorated sponges for up to 2 months.
- Lightly grease the holes of a 12-hole muffin tin with butter, then dust with a little flour, banging the tin hard to remove the excess. Preheat the oven to 180°C, fan 160°C, gas 4. Put all of the sponge ingredients, apart from the raspberries, in a big bowl with a pinch of salt and beat with an electric whisk until smooth.
- Divide the batter between the holes, they should be no more than two-thirds full. Push 3 raspberries into the top of each so they’re poking out about halfway. Bake for 20-25 minutes until a skewer poked into the centre of one of the cakes comes out clean. Cool in the tin for 15 minutes, then carefully release the cakes and finish cooling on wire racks.
- When the cakes are cool, make the meringue. Put the egg whites into a large heatproof bowl with the sugar, 2 teaspoons of water and a pinch of salt. Set the bowl over a pan of simmering water (making sure the base of the bowl doesn’t touch the water) and whisk with an electric whisk until you have a thick meringue – about 5 minutes. Lift the bowl from the heat and continue whisking for 3 minutes more until the meringue has cooled slightly but is stiff.
- Use a couple of dessert spoons to top each cake with a generous dollop of meringue (or you can pipe it on instead, for a different effect). Toast the meringue tops with a cook’s blowtorch, or briefly flash the cakes under a hot grill until the meringue just starts to brown. Quickly sprinkle a little of the freeze-dried raspberries over each cake to decorate.
