Recipe of the Week: Chocolate Cake with White Chocolate Meringue

I needed to whip up a delicious cake for my friend's birthday the other day and I only had about an hour to devote to this baking endeavour. I thought to myself why not bake a rich chocolate cake and put meringue on top of it? Meringue is very easy to make and requires the least amount of ingredients. It turns out this cake-frosting combination was not only easy to make but took less than an hour to cook and assemble!

If you are interested in baking a wonderfully rich chocolate cake, this is the recipe for you. The cake has a deep chocolate flavor combined with the sweet white chocolate meringue frosting that will keep you coming back for more.

Ingredients (for the chocolate cake):

• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 large eggs
• 3/4 cup water
• 3/4 cup vanilla greek yogurt
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil

(for the white chocolate meringue frosting)

• 3/4 cup white chocolate (chopped)
• 1.5 tablespoon cornstarch
• 6 (150g) large egg whites
• 1/2 cup sugar

Directions (for the chocolate cake):

Preheat oven to 350F. Spray a cake pan or preferably a springform pan with PAM. In a large bowl, beat together cocoa, flour, white sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt until thoroughly mixed. In the same large bowl, add in eggs, water, vanilla yogurt, and vegetable oil. Beat well till no streaks of flour remain. Fill the springform pan with the prepared batter. Bake at 350F for 25 minutes. Cool the cake completely before frosting.

(for the white chocolate meringue frosting)

Combine the chopped white chocolate and cornstarch in a small bowl and set aside. Place the egg whites in a clean mixer bowl and beat on high speed until frothy. With the mixer running, slowly add the sugar and continue beating until stiff peaks form. This will take about 8 minutes. Fold in the chocolate and cornstarch.

(to finish)

Using a large offset spatula, spread meringue mixture on top of cake using as little strokes as possible not to deflate the meringue. Bake until meringue is lightly browned and crisp, 15 minutes. The chocolate cake will finish cooking within this time as well. Transfer pan to a wire rack immediately. When the cake is cooled, unlatch the band and remove the pan and bottom. Springform pans are better to use for this recipe because the meringue frosting has less chance of getting cracked or smushed.