In the bag: June's Watermelon Meringue Cake with Mint Caramel Drizzle

I love these In the Bag events hosted by A Slice of Cherry Pie.  Two to three ingredients are chosen and all interested bakers participate in creating something using those ingredients.  Too much fun! 

This month’s ingredients were Watermelon and Mint.  At first I thought some refreshing drink. Then I thought fruit skewers. But THEN I took it a step further and thought…create something that you’re actually good at. Cake!  It needed to be picnic “fun”, summer light, and refreshing.  

First, you will wonder why it’s called a cake when you don’t see a top layer. Then, you’ll wonder why you don’t see the mint-caramel drizzle on top. All I can say is …. today was just ONE OF THOSE DAYS!  First:  my caramel sauce never colored.  Let me tell you why…I stirred it. Yes. Ultimate error. If you are making caramel, agitating the pan is okay…shake it a little, but DON’T STIR with a spoon. It will turn grainy and that’s EXACTLY what happened.

The never browning caramel sauce

Second:  And worst of all… the 2-layer 6″ assembled cake fell out of the fridge and onto the floor.  

SPLAT!

Hey Mom! Not Bad!

Oh well… good thing I had the 1 layer 8″ back up.  Stuff happens!

The cake base:

• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 4 egg yolks
• 1/3 cup whole milk

The Meringue top:

• 4 egg whites
• 1 tsp almond extract
• 1 cup sugar

The Watermelon Filling:

• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 TBS confectioners sugar
• 1 TBS stabilizer such as “Dreamwhip”
• 1/2 seedless watermelon, diced (about 1 1/2 to 2 cups):  Dice and put in colander to drain excess juices.

Mint Caramel Drizzle:

• 1 cup sugar
• 3 TBS water
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• 4 mint leaves

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 F.  I used 2 6″ cake pans and 1 8″ pan  but if you want 1 layer cake, use 2 8″ pans and cut parchment circles to fit bottoms of pans.  Spray non-stick BAKING spray all around pan.

Combine the flour, baking powder, salt and set aside.  Beat together the softened butter and sugar until fluffy. Add the vanilla and egg yolks and mix well. Add the flour then the milk and just mix to combine. Don’t over mix. Spread the batter equally among pans if using 2 8″ or equally between the 6″ and a little more for the 8″.  Set these aside.

Megingue:  Beat the egg whites in a clean, glass bowl (no greasy residues) for about 3 minutes until thick.  Add 1 tsp almond extract and gradually add 1 cup of sugar. Beat on high until stiff peaks form. Spread over the cake batter and bake for about 35 minutes. Cool completely in the pans before removing. 

Filling:  Beat the well chilled heavy cream, dream whip, confectioners sugar and vanilla until stiff peaks form. Fold in the diced watermelon. Chill until ready.

Mint Caramel Sauce:  In a 1/4 cup measuring cup, pour cream over mint leaves and set aside. In a heavy saucepan, combine sugar and water over medium heat. Cook for about 8 minutes.  DO NOT STIR. Just give the pan a shake, slight agitation once it bubbles.  You should get a nice caramel color.  CAREFULLY -add the cream (it will bubble up) and mint leaves, cook 1 minute and remove from heat.  Let cool about 5 minutes. Remove leaves and let sauce cool completely.

Assembly:  Put a cake layer – meringue side down on cake plate. Top with filling. Top with other cake layer, meringue side up.  Drizzle with cooled sauce. Chill and enjoy.

NOTE:  Since I made 2 6″ cakes – I used those for the two layer assembly.  The other 8″ single cake-meringue layer, I used as a simple cake-meringue-watermelon cream filling and drizzled the sauce right over the filling. Still just as good – and in the event your 2 layer topples right out of the fridge, you have a back up :).

Here is the 2 layer prior to chilling and falling out of the fridge to become the dogs dinner.

The never to be 2 layer Watermelon Meringue Cake that was suppose to be covered in Mint Caramel Drizzle.

Aside from the mishaps, this is an impressive cake and a great summer dessert using refreshing watermelon and crisp, fresh mint.

Shane liked it! “Woof!”