Mom's Meringue Cake

This is a wonderful summer time cake. You can make this ahead of time and store in the refrigerator for days. In fact it is better refrigerated over night. Mom used to make this for our extended Sunday family dinners. Note: Every Sunday my mom, her three sisters, and my grandmother would take turns fixing dinner for their husbands and their children. This was our noon meal right after church. In the country, dinner was always the noon meal. I will posts more about these dinners at a later time. Today, I want to tell you about mom's cake. It is "her" cake because she is the only one I ever remember serving it.

Last Saturday night, I had two of my sisters and their husbands for dinner - our evening meal. I opened the refrigerator door to show my sisters my dessert, but before they actually took a peak, I said, "Guess what I made." Immediately they both said, "Mom's meringue cake?" None of us have had this cake in 20 years or so. How uncanny!

I hope you have a chance to make Mom's Meringue Cake. You won't be disappointed.

Mix 1 yellow cake mix according to directions. Pour batter into three 8 or 9 inch cake pans, pans prepared as directed on mix. Beat 4 egg whites stiff with 1 cup of granulated sugar. Spread the egg whites on two of the pans of batter. Sprinkle chopped pecans on top of the meringue. Do not put meringue on the third pan of batter. Bake all three pans according to instructions on the cake mix. Remove the cakes and let cool for 10 minutes before removing from the pans. Turn one of the meringue topped cake, meringue down on your cake plate and turn out the other layers on wire rack to cool.

FILLING:Blend 1 cup sugar, 1 T. flour. Add sugar mixture to 3/4 cup crushed pineapple, 4 egg yolks, 1 1/2 T lemon juice, 1 1/2 T. butter. Cook over low heat until smooth. Chill. Beat 1 cup whipping cream till stiff. Fold into chilled filling. Note: I used two small cans of crushed pineapple, drained. I also used Cool Whip instead of whipping cream and just guessed at the amount needed. Next time I will use whipping cream because I thought it was just a tad too sweet. Not a crumb left so I guess the Cool Whip worked OK.

ASSEMBLY:Spread some of the pineapple filling on the layer which is on the cake plate. Top this layer with the layer without the meringue. Add more filling. Top with the final layer, but place the meringue side up. Spread the filling around the outside of the cake, but not on the meringue. This makes a stunning cake and gets better with age. Keep refrigerated after assembly.

NOTE: I saw a pineapple cake mix and it might be really good in this recipe instead of the yellow cake mix.