Albaricocada, an apricot and coconut charmer

The first time I was in Lima, it was a «small» city with only 4 million inhabitants (today almost 10 million people live there). In the very posh and quiet neigborhood of San Isidro, there was a lovely pastry shop called Capricho, that had the most amazing desserts I had ever tasted. One of them was a cake filled with layers of manjarblanco (dulce de leche), apricot marmalade, and covered with Italian meringue and flaked coconut. Such a delicacy!

When my love for albaricocada -this was the name of the cake– was in full bloom, I bought it often, not only for myself, but also to give as a present, or to bring with me every time I visited a friend (a good excuse to have a little piece without feeling guilty). Then, as time went by, this quiet neigborhood became a comercial emporium, and became crowded with offices and other business, which displaced my beloved pastry shop. The memories of this albaricocada are now somewhat distant, but every now and then I encounter a new version of this dessert.

Peruvian apricot marmalade is more tart than others; that was the trick to balance the sweetness of the manjarblanco, and the meringue. This is my version, just like I remember it. I hope you like it and enjoy it as much as I did.

 

Albaricocada
Author: 
Recipe type: Dessert
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 8
 
Ingredients
  • 3 eggs (at room temperature)
  • 1 cup all purpose flour
  • 1½ teaspoon baking powder
  • ½ cup sugar
  • ¼ cup milk (at room temperature)
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
  • 1 cup manjarblanco
  • 1 cup apricot marmalade
  • Italian meringue
  • 1 cup sugar
  • ¼ cup water
  • 3 egg whites
  • 2 cups sweetened flaked coconut
Instructions
  1. Turn the oven on to 350 F.
  2. Sift the flour together with the baking powder.
  3. Beat eggs at the highest speed for about 5 minutes. They have to grow to about 3 times the volume (or more) from when you started beating them. Make sure your mixer is completely dry before you pour the eggs in it, otherwise they won´t grow. Same advice goes when preparing the meringue.
  4. Add the sugar little by little while still beating the grown eggs.
  5. Turn the beater down to slow speed and add a third of the flour, then a third of the milk, then a third of the flour, and so on, till all the ingredients blend completely.
  6. Transfer to a greased round baking pan, and bake for 30 minutes. Cool in cooling racks.
  7. To make the Italian meringue: In another saucepan mix the sugar, and water. Bring to a boil over high heat for 6 minutes without stirring. The syrup is ready when it forms a caramel thread when dropped from a spoon.
  8. At the same time beat the egg whites with an electric beater at high speed until soft peaks form (when you lift one of the beaters and it has a soft cloud of meringue foam around it).
  9. Add the hot syrup in a thin and steady stream, beating vigorously until the resulting meringue is cold.
  10. To assemble the cake: Cut the cake in three layers. Cover one of them with manjarblanco. Put the second layer over this. Spread this one with marmalade, and place the third layer over this.
  11. Cover the cake with the meringue and garnish with the flaked coconut.

 


Comentarios

  1. This dessert is so beautiful it’s almost a shame to eat it except… ñam, ñam, ñam… it would not last two seconds in my house!!! Love it.

  2. It looks like a slice of heaven.

  3. mmmm yummy! yo quieroooooooooooooo una porción!

  4. I hear you live really near me! Should I let you know in advance of my plans to stop by!?! I’m just saying! A girl can share some coco with her friends, no?! 😉

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