The March 2011 Daring Bakers’ Challenge was hosted by Ria of Ria’s Collection and Jamie of Life’s a Feast. Ria and Jamie challenged the Daring Bakers to bake a yeasted meringue coffee cake.
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I very nearly missed this one with all of the craziness leading up to our weekend trip for Dr. O’s birthday, but I didn’t want to skip two months in a row. Thankfully, this was easy enough to make in an afternoon and it turned out on the first try.
Here are my notes:
- I made a half recipe.
- I measured all of my ingredients by weight.
- I chose my filling based on what I had in the pantry: almonds, dried plums, white chocolate, and cinnamon-sugar.
- I completely forgot to make the cuts in my cake before baking (I realized this about an hour later after the cake had cooled, of course), but it turned out just fine anyway.
- I baked my cake for the full 30 minutes at 350°F.
Unbaked Meringue Coffee Cake
Baked Meringue Coffee Cake
Sugared Meringue Coffee Cake
Meringue Coffee Cake Interior
This was a delicious and relatively easy cake. I especially liked the crunchiness of the almonds and the fact that the cake wasn’t overly sweet. However, the king cake I made last month is incredibly similar in concept, and I have to say I preferred the king cake. I liked the crumb of the king cake a bit better and for me, cream cheese filling trumps meringue filling any day. I loved the versatility of the meringue coffee cake recipe, though, and it was definitely fun to make and compare such similar cakes in a short period of time.
Thanks for a great challenge, Ria and Jamie!
Recipe link: Jamie’s version or Ria’s version
Sweet and Saucy 
We missed you Saturday…and you know you could have swung by and dropped off this cake?
I’ve seen so many varieties of this DB challenge. I love meringue layers in cake…but have seen mixed reviews on this treatment, thanks for yours. I was thinking of doing one…now, maybe instead I’ll make Jamie’s cake she did for Huffington Post instead!
Jamie and I have been friends on Twitter for awhile and we Skype when we can…doesn’t she make beautiful desserts?
I *so* wish I had dropped it off before we left on Thursday. Horror of all horrors, it went uneaten after the first sample. My husband’s work crew had an absolute ton of food for him (including an amazing cake from Tony’s) at the office that day. Poor little coffee cake!
Jamie’s desserts sure are beautiful… How neat that you two have connected. I’ll have to check out her Huffington Post recipe.
I too have seen several versions of this recipe in the past few days and yours has been out done by no one. I’m with you, wrap up cream cheese in dough and I’m sold.
Thanks for the kind words, Karen! 🙂 Cream cheese *is* the best, isn’t it?