French Meringue Cake Merveilleux

Enjoy this delicious, crowd-pleasing French meringue cake Merveilleux by sandwiching two crispy meringues with a luscious coffee whipped cream. The dessert covered with rich dark chocolate shavings is absolutely decadent and worth every bite!

My acquaintance with the family of desserts Merveilleux (which means "wonderful" in English) started some time ago when I made individual meringue cakes - French Meringue Dessert Merveilleux.

French cake Merveilleux

Does a shared version of the dessert exist? Yes, it is a meringue layer cake, Merveilleux. The stature of the cake is astonishing, the texture is airy, and the taste is irresistible. It is extraordinary in every bite.

The meringue recipe is straightforward. The only thing you need to take into consideration is to avoid making the meringue on a rainy day. The air moisture is absorbed by sugar, which can affect the quality of the meringue. Moreover, the baked meringue might soften because of the humidity. 

This French meringue cake is sandwiched with the coffee whipped cream, which is also used to make cream balls on top of the dessert. If you are not comfortable with the use of a pastry bag, let me guide you a bit.

How to fill a pastry bag

Push a tip into a pastry bag and cut the bag at the end of the tip (make sure that about half of the tip sticks out). If you do not use a pastry tip, just cut the end of the bag.

Push some part of the bag into the tip to prevent the leaking of the cream. Fold down the top of the bag to make a cuff. Spoon the cream or other frosting into the pastry bag, holding it in your hand or placing the bag into a pastry bag holder.

Fill the bag up to ⅔ full. Unfold the cuff and push the cream or frosting all the way down, unfolding and releasing the pastry bag out of the tip. Twist the pastry bag at the end of the icing.

Cake Merveilleux is covered with dark chocolate shavings, which are easy to make. Do you need a few tips on how to make them? Here we go.

How to make chocolate shavings

Choose a way to make chocolate shavings that is more comfortable for you. The simplest and quickest way is to grate a chocolate bar to get fine chocolate curls.

Use a vegetable peeler, scraping across a chocolate bar, to get medium-sized delicate curls. You will make large chocolate shavings if you scrape the chocolate with a knife. The last technique is perfect for the decoration of the meringue cake Merveilleux, although it is a bit time-consuming.

Why Merveilleux cake recipe works

1. The cake is gluten-free, which means that it will please everyone without restrictions.
2. It is easy to make with a perfect baking shortcut: make the meringue disks one day in advance.
3. Coffee-flavored whipped cream will please coffee lovers.
4. There are no special decorating skills required to make the cake: the meringue spirals do not need to be perfect, the cream balls on top of the cake are sprinkled with powdered (icing) sugar and cocoa powder. Any imperfections are covered!

Ingredients

Egg whites: take chilled eggs out of the fridge, separate egg yolks from egg whites, and let egg whites warm up at room temperature for about 30 minutes.

Granulated sugar: use a food processor to pulse it for a few seconds to get superfine sugar. It will facilitate whisking the meringue.

Icing sugar: make it at home by using a coffee grinder.

Instant coffee: it is preferable to use a powdered instant coffee, which is much more effective in making the coffee-flavored whipped cream.

Dark chocolate: use a top-quality 70% dark cocoa chocolate such as Valrhona dark chocolate *.

Whipping cream, mascarpone, salt, cocoa powder.

How to make cake Merveilleux step by step

Preheat the oven to 210 degrees F/100 C.

To make the meringue, use a stainless steel circle or a plate 7 inches/18 cm in diameter as a template, and draw two discs on two sheets of parchment paper. Turn them over and place them on two baking sheets.

In a bowl, beat egg whites with an electric mixer (or stand mixer), gradually adding granulated sugar and a good pinch of salt until egg whites form stiff glossy peaks (photo 1). Add the sifted powdered (icing) sugar and gently mix with a rubber spatula (photo 2).

Place the meringue in a pastry bag with the cut end or Ateco plain pastry tip 809. Draw two spiral meringue disks on the parchment paper starting from the center of the circles (photo 3). Bake for about 2 hours. Let the meringue disks cool and keep them dry (photo 4).

To make the coffee whipped cream, whisk all the ingredients of the cream to obtain the texture of a firm whipped cream (photo 5). Take a pastry bag and cut it about 1 cm from the end (or use Ateco plain pastry tip 809). Place the cream in the bag.

To assemble the cake, pipe the coffee whipped cream in a spiral on the first meringue disk. Place the second meringue disk top-down, and spread a thin layer of whipped cream.

Smooth the surface evenly with a bent spatula: mask and smooth the sides of the cake. Push the cream, making balls over the entire surface of the cake (photo 6).

Make chocolate shavings by scraping the back of a dark chocolate bar using a vegetable peeler or a knife.

Cover the surface and sides of the cake with chocolate shavings and sprinkle the cake all over with powdered (icing) sugar and cocoa powder (photos 7-8).

Refrigerate the dessert for at least 4 hours before serving.

Expert Tips

1. If you make the meringue in advance, assemble the cake and serve it on the same day: whipped cream combined with mascarpone has some tendency to "dry out."
2. Whisk cold whipping cream in a chilled bowl (put the bowl in the freezer for 15 minutes before whipping).

Frequently Asked Question

Can you make the meringue in advance?

Yes, bake the meringue and store it tightly wrapped in plastic or an airtight container for several days. Avoid humid days to store the meringue.

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Recipe card

The nutritional information has been calculated using an online recipe nutrition calculator such as Verywellfit.com and is intended for informational purposes only. These figures should be used as a general guideline and not be construed as a guarantee.

The recipe was adapted from https://www.femmeactuelle.fr. It was originally published on February 22, 2019. The recipe has been revised to include improved content and photos. All posted pictures are mine.