Lemon Cake Squares with Cherry Meringue Icing

Ahhh I love long weekends. All that extra sleep, lazing around catching up on TV shows and doing all those extra chores you usually don't have the time for. And of course, more baking time. I was inspired to make this bright and light cake slice because of the beautifully sunny weather we had this weekend, and the big bunch of white daisies that I picked up on a whim. I really love daisies and I wanted to bake something that was equally sunny and happy. So here are some delicate Lemon Cake Squares with a Cherry Meringue Icing. They are a lot lighter than a big slice of cake, which makes them perfect for afternoon tea or brunch.

I adapted the lemon cake squares from a lemon pound cake recipe and it turned out just like I hoped it would. There's not much rising agent in the cake so it doesn't have much height, but it's not too dense or heavy. It has a lovely fine crumb, crisp golden edges and it's bursting with lemon-y goodness thanks to all the lemon juice and zest in the batter, leaving a really gorgeous lemon flavour lingering in your mouth. It's almost like a lemon brownie but it's more cakey than fudgy. So derrricioussss!

Rather than making a regular buttercream or glaze, I decided that a very fluffy Italian meringue icing would be a great match for the not-as-fluffy cake. I had heaps of frozen cherries leftover so I defrosted and pureed them, folding them through the Italian meringue to give it a beautiful pink tinge. The cherry flavour works well against the lemon in the cake too. I'm not usually a huge meringue fan, but I do love the velvety texture of the cooked Italian meringue, it looks so pretty spread over the top of this cake. It's sorta like a marshmallow cream spread, so fluffy! (But not too sweet) If you're not too keen on that idea, you can alway substitute it with a butter icing, or a glaze of some sort.

Anyway I hope everyone had a good long weekend, I have to spend the next few days weaning myself off the chocolate egg diet. Back to work we go, but at least I can comfort myself with these pretty cake squares. And by the way, thanks to anyone who has commented, tweeted or emailed me photos/feedback of their own versions of the Cheesecake Filled Chocolate Easter Eggs, it makes me super happy to see all the people who were inspired to try it out after seeing my post :) Also, I honestly didn't realise it wasn't that easy to find hollow eggs in the US, they're so commonplace in Australia! That was a bit of a bummer, I love hollow chocolate easter eggs!

Lemon Cake Squares with Cherry Meringue Icing
(makes about 16 squares, cake recipe loosely adapted from Martha Stewart's Lemon Pound Cake)
70g (5 tbsp) unsalted butter, softened, plus more for greasing tin
170g (about 3/4 cup) sugar
125g (1 cup) plain (all-purpose) flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking (bicarb) soda
4 tbsp fresh lemon juice, plus finely grated zest of 1 lemon
1/4 cup milk
2 large eggs

For the icing:(meringue icing can be substituted with a regular butter icing or a glaze)
2 large egg whites
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
170g (about 3/4 cup) sugar
3 tbsp water
1/4 tsp salt
1/3 cup (about 70g) fresh or frozen pitted cherries, pureed (if frozen, drain excess liquid before pureeing) (can be replaced with strawberry or other berries)

Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F), grease and line the base of a 17x27cm rectangular slice/brownie tins (or a 20cm square cake tin) with baking paper. Whisk together flour, salt and baking soda in a bowl and set aside. Stir milk and lemon juice together in a cup. Place softened butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl and beat on high speed with an electric mixer until pale and fluffy, about two minutes. Add zest, and add eggs one and a time, beating until well combined. Reduce speed to medium-low and add half the flour mixture, followed by half the milk mixture mixing until just combined, then add the rest of the flour followed by the rest of the milk and beat until smooth. Pour batter into prepared tin and bake for about 25 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean and the cake is golden brown on the outside. Cool in tin on a wire rack for 10 minutes then carefully remove from tin and cool completely on wire rack.

Prepare the icing; in a large mixing bowl beat egg whites and cream of tartar to soft peaks. Place sugar, salt and water in a small saucepan with a sugar thermometer attached. Stir over medium heat until the mixture dissolves, increase heat and let it come to the boil. Cook without stirring until it reaches 115°C (238°F) (about two minutes), then remove from the heat and very carefully pour a thin stream of the hot sugar syrup over the egg whites as you beat them at high speed until stiff peaks form. Gently fold in the cherry puree. Spread an even layer of icing over the top of the cooled cake with a spatula. Chill in an airtight container in the fridge for about 30 minutes, then cut into equal sized squares before serving. Can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for several days, you can also make the cake a day or so in advance and prepare the meringue right before serving.

P.S. I nearly forgot to mention, I finally got around to putting a Pinterest button on my posts for all the people who have been asking! It's hiding next to the Facebook 'like' button at the end of each post. You can't see it from the home page of my blog, so you'll have to click on the title of each blog to open the post page to find it. I freakin' love Pinterest. I also included a link to my own Pinterest, and created a board with pins from my blog for anyone who wants to repin my stuff easily. I was reluctant to do it at first (in the same way that I am still resisting the urge to make a Facebook page for my blog due to sheer laziness) but went ahead and made it after getting a few requests. So feel free to follow me on Pinterest!