Meringue cake, an Iceland treat

Meringue cake with chocolate and strawberries from the cafe at the Saga Museum

Ok! I’m back with more posts from my trip to Iceland! This time I’m going to tempt your sweet tooth with a lovely, light, sweet meringue cake.

Every little cafe and bakery we came across in Iceland seemed to have these lovely looking meringue cakes on display, looking rather gooey and messy, and sinfully delicious too!  In Reykjavik, at the Saga Cafe my companion wanted to try a slice. I’m not really much of a fan of meringue, so sharing a slice was a bit of a hard sell, but I finally relented and agreed to share.

This cake features a meringue bottom layer, topped with sliced strawberries, whipped cream, and then topped off with another layer of meringue.  This flavor had a drizzle of caramel and chocolate too, though it looked like other flavours were common too. I loved the whipped cream (oh really, all of the dairy products!) in Iceland, because it was light and fluffy, creamy, but not super sweet like I find the whipped cream served here at home seems to be.

Meringue cake with chocolate and strawberries from the cafe at the Saga Museum

I might just be a convert….
I still thought the meringue was a bit too sweet for myself, though the texture (after absorbing all the moisture from the cream and strawberries) was delightfully chewy, and the mix of berries and cream made this a delicious dessert!

Meringue cake with chocolate and strawberries from the cafe at the Saga Museum

Sagamuseum – The Saga Museum / Café
www.sagamuseum.is/
Grandagarður, 101 Reykjavík, Iceland
+354 511 1517

National museum café

Delicious meringue Skor cake at the café

Well, after the strawberry cake at the Saga Museum, we were both interested in trying the delicious-looking Skor meringue cake in the café at the National Museum too. This one was a lot sweeter (splitting the cake before was probably a better idea than having one to ourselves) though the chocolate coating on top was fudgy and really good.  We were both glad for a sweet-cutting beverage to go along with our cake though! This time there was no fruit, but there was caramel mixed into the cream between each meringue layer.

National Museum of Iceland / Café
www.nationalmuseum.is
Suðurgata 41, 101 Reykjavík, Iceland
+354 530 2200

Recipe links

Just in case I’ve tempted your sweet tooth TOO much, I did a little search for cake recipes that look similar to the ones I’ve pictured here.

Check out the Strawberry Meringue Cake recipe from Iceland Cooking, Recipes, and Food – this isn’t quite like the strawberry cake I tried, but I bet it’s equally delicious! Try drizzling some chocolate sauce on top too!

Katja from Simbaco Food shares a version popular in Finland and Sweden with a cake base and a meringue top in her Rhubarb Strawberry Meringue Brita Cake Dessert.

If making a whole cake sounds a bit too tempting, how about trying these Icelandic “Sarah Bernhardt Cakes” from Mimi Thorisson’s Manger? These are small cookie-sized almond-based meringues covered in a coffee chocolate cream frosting, dipped in dark chocolate, and can be stored in the freezer – perfect when you just want one or two with cup of tea to feed your need for sweet instead of slicing up a full cake.