The Happy Home Cook: Vegan Meringue and Cashew Cream Deconstructed Sans Rival Cake

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The Happy Home Cook features cherished recipes of Filipino dishes from well-known foodies and contributors. If you have a recipe that you are proud of and would like to share, please send it along with a photo of the dish, your two-sentence bio and your picture to submissions@positivelyfilipino.com.

Many studies have shown that immigrant parents in the U.S.A. are usually healthier than their children and food has a lot to do with it. As children assimilate into the American culture, their intake of highly processed and fast foods increase as their consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables decrease. In their shift to the "SAD" Standard American Diet, they are increasing their chances of high blood pressure, high cholesterol, heart disease, diabetes, cancer, inflammation, and obesity. In recent years, we have been learning about the powerful effects of whole, plant-based foods on our health. Fresh fruits, fresh vegetables, whole grain, less sugars, oils, and salts can dramatically decrease such effects of the SAD diet.

I have been a vegetarian and then vegan for many years. Although my American son and husband are not strict in their dietary choices, I cook at home and we choose to eat foods made from scratch primarily from whole- and plant-based foods. Recently, we have been traveling the world in our kitchen and one of our main stops is the Philippines. I thought I would share some of our recent Vegan Filipino Food Adventures with you.

Vegan Aquafaba Meringue

This is the exact recipe from my Aquafaba Whipped Cream.

Place the following in a mixing bowl:

  • 1 c cooking liquid of chickpeas

  • 2/3 c granulated sugar

  • 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

  • 1/2 tsp cream of tartar

Whisk in a mixer for 10 to 15 minutes until stiff peaks form. Like the photo below.

To make cakes: Draw 4 circles around 6 inches or 16 cm in diameter using a bowl or plate on parchment paper. Turn the paper around so that the pencil/ink drawings face the baking sheet. Spoon or pipe the Aquafaba Cream into round cakes on the parchment paper using the outline of circles as your guide. You want them to be around half an inch thick.

Leftover Whipped Cream? No Problem.

You will have some cream left over. You can either save the cream to serve with the cake later on or make small meringue cookies.

To make cookies: spoon or pipe the cream into small macaroon shaped cookies on a Silpat mat or parchment paper on a baking sheet.

Baking the Meringues

Place the the baking sheets in a preheated oven at 200° F. The small cookies bake for 2 hours. Take the cookies out at this time. The bigger cakes bake for 2 1/2 hours, turning the baking sheet around halftime. Turn the oven off and leave the meringue cakes in the oven until it thoroughly dries out (if needed). Carefully peel off the meringues from the parchment paper gently.

Cashew Buttercream

Soak for a couple of hours:

  • 1 c raw cashews

Drain and rinse cashews. Place in high speed blender with:

  • 1/4 t sea salt, optional

  • 2 T your choice of liquid sweetener, like coconut nectar, maple or agave syrups

  • 1/4 c your choice of liquid, like water, orange juice or even coffee

Blend well to create a vegan buttercream.

Cashews

Place in a food processor and process so that there are both bigger and smaller (almost ground) chunks of nuts:

  • 1/2 c cashews, toasted or raw

A Super Easy Vegan Meringue and Cashew Cream Deconstructed Sans Rival Cake (Serves 8)

Place the first meringue layer on a plate, top with a thin layer of cashew buttercream and sprinkle generously with chopped cashews. Place another meringue layer on top and repeat layers of thin cashew buttercream and sprinkles of cashews. Repeat with the other two layers of meringues. Freeze immediately. Serve this cold and straight out of the freezer, otherwise the meringue will become soggy. If you have leftover whipped cream, you can serve the cakes with some too.

My son took one look at the cake and exclaimed: “Couldn’t you have made it with something else other than cashews? I would have loved to eat it.”

Oops, sorry. (He’s allergic to cashews.) I could have made it with hazelnuts or almonds I guess, but it is traditionally made with cashews.

My husband and I already ate half the cake. It is a luscious mix of cooked and raw deliciousness.

I love my kitchen and I have missed cooking in it. My blog had been quiet for almost 3 years, but changing from RAW to COOKED Vegan has reignited my passion for food. Thank YOU for keeping in touch with me through the silence and stopping by again to enjoy the food on my table.

First posted in https://mamainthekitchen.com/2016/08/15/a-super-easy-vegan-meringue-and-cashew-cream-deconstructed-sans-rival-cake/

Carissa Leventis-Cox

Carissa Leventis-Cox

Carissa Leventis-Cox is first and foremost a wife and home school mama. She is the founder of the Science, Technology, Engineering and Math-based home school co-op called School of the Minds. She blogs on the side about her family’s attachment parenting and home school choices at thecardinalhouse.blogspot.com and her family’s vegan food choices at mamainthekitchen.com.

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Carissa Leventis-Cox