Recipe for dacquoise cake
Dacquoise cake on chocolate sponge cake with cream and meringue
Discover the recipe for a unique dacquoise cake – inspired by the famous dacquoise meringue, which will delight your palate! This delicate and delicious cake is prepared on a fluffy chocolate sponge cake with a lightly sweet toffee cream with chopped dates and walnuts, topped with a sweet nut meringue. Every bite is a perfect combination of chocolate, cream, and crispy meringue. Try my recipe for dakłas cake for a large baking sheet and enjoy its incredible taste today!
Table of content
Dacquoise cake recipe step by step
If you like light, creamy cakes with crunchy nuts, you must try this recipe.
Dacquoise cake recipe with video
Wyposażenie
- Baking pan approximately 24/24 cm or 20/30 cm.
Składniki
chocolate sponge cake with butter
- 3 egg whites (from size L eggs)
- 3 egg yolks
- 75 g sugar (1/3 cup)
- 100 g wheat flour – all-purpose (2/3 cup)
- 20 g bitter cocoa (2 slightly heaped tablespoons)
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 50 g butter (melted and cooled)
ingredients for meringue with nuts
- 3 egg whites (from size L eggs)
- 100 g sugar (0.5 cup)
- 0.5 teaspoon potato starch
- 0.5 teaspoon lemon juice (or vinegar)
- approx 30 g walnuts (chopped)
ingredients for dulce de leche cream for the cake
- 500 g mascarpone cheese (well chilled)
- 150 g dulce de leche mass (chilled)
- 250 ml heavy cream (well chilled)
- approx 100 g dates (pitted, chopped)
- approx 70 g walnuts (chopped)
cake soak
- approx 100 ml water (with a teaspoon of sugar – can also be coffee or tea)
Instrukcja
How to make chocolate sponge cake with butter
- Line the bottom of the baking pan with parchment paper – leave the sides empty.
- Sift the flour, cocoa, and baking powder through a sieve into a bowl.100 g wheat flour – all-purpose, 20 g bitter cocoa, 1 teaspoon baking powder
- Lightly whisk the egg whites, then gradually add sugar and whisk together on high speed until you get thick and white egg whites.3 egg whites, 75 g sugar
- Add the flour with cocoa to the whites.
- Add the egg yolks and gently mix everything together.3 egg yolks
- Add butter and gently mix.50 g butter
- Transfer the batter to the prepared pan and spread it in an even layer.
- Bake the chocolate sponge cake in an oven preheated to 180 degrees Celsius (top/bottom heat mode) for about 12 minutes – until a skewer comes out clean.
- After baking, remove the sponge cake from the pan and let it cool.
How to make meringue with nuts
- Line the bottom of the baking pan with parchment paper – leave the sides empty.
- Start lightly whisking the egg whites.3 egg whites
- Gradually add sugar to the egg whites and whisk on high speed for several minutes – until the whites become very thick, white, and glossy.100 g sugar
- Add potato starch and lemon juice – mix briefly.0.5 teaspoon potato starch, 0.5 teaspoon lemon juice
- Transfer the meringue to the prepared pan.
- Sprinkle the top of the meringue with chopped nuts.approx 30 g walnuts
- Bake the meringue in an oven preheated to 110 degrees Celsius (convection mode) for about 60-75 minutes.
- After baking, remove the meringue from the oven and let it cool.
- Once cooled, cut the meringue away from the sides of the pan with a knife and remove it along with the parchment paper.
How to make dulce de leche cream for dacquoise cake
- Transfer the mascarpone cheese, dulce de leche, and heavy cream to a large bowl – mix together on high speed until you get a thick cream – it took me about 4 minutes.500 g mascarpone cheese, 150 g dulce de leche mass, 250 ml heavy cream
- Add chopped dates and nuts to the cream – mix with a spoon.approx 100 g dates, approx 70 g walnuts
Dacquoise cake assembly
- Line the baking pan in which the sponge cake was baked with parchment paper and place the sponge cake at the bottom.
- Gently moisten it with water, coffee, or tea.approx 100 ml water
- Spread the dulce de leche cream with dried fruits and nuts over the sponge cake.
- Carefully place the meringue with nuts on top, using parchment paper to help.
- Refrigerate the cake for about 2 hours.
Film
Uwagi
Wartości Odżywcze
What is dacquoise cake?
dacquoise cake is a layered cake that has been quite popular on the internet for some time now. It is inspired by the famous French dacquoise cake – also known in the Polonized version as dakłas, or in the shortened version as daquas. Dacquoise is a meringue cake where meringue layers are filled with cream with chopped dates and nuts. This cake is often served with caramel or toffee. Hence, in this cake, one of the layers is a lightly sweet toffee cream mixed with chopped dates and nuts. Of course, a sweet meringue, placed on top of the cake, could not be missing here. The daquas cake itself is not difficult to make, so I highly recommend it for special occasions – even for the upcoming Easter holidays – especially since the cake is prepared in a large baking pan and can be cut into many portions.
Ingredients needed to prepare dacquoise cake
To prepare daquas cake, you will need a few basic ingredients that are generally available in stores – especially in larger supermarkets or discount stores like Lidl, Biedronka, or Netto. Below is a list of products I used and possible substitutes.
- cocoa – for the sponge cake, you will need cocoa – bitter, not the sweetened kind used for drinks. You can use regular bitter cocoa or defatted cocoa.
- butter – I prepared the sponge cake with added melted and cooled butter – it adds a slight moisture to the cake and provides a richer taste and longer freshness. 50g of butter is enough here – so roughly 1/4 of a 200g block of butter.
- mascarpone cheese – for the toffee cream, I used mascarpone cheese, which gives the cream greater stability. Thanks to it, there’s no need to add gelatin to the cream. You can easily find this cheese in discount stores – make sure it’s plain creamy. Caramel mascarpone is available at Biedronka and can also be used. You will need 500g of mascarpone cheese – you can buy two smaller packages or one large one.
- toffee mass (kajmak) – I used ready-made toffee mass from a can (from Gostyń). I used 150g of toffee mass for the cream. If you can’t weigh the toffee, for me, 150g was two enormous spoonfuls – put a spoon into the can and pull it out – the mass will hang slightly over the sides. Two such “spoons” will be enough, but you can, of course, use a little more or a little less mass – depending on how sweet you like your cakes.
- whipping cream – I used liquid cream in a carton with 30% fat content and a capacity of 250 ml. You can also use 36% cream. Remember to thoroughly chill the whipping cream!
- dates – for the toffee cream, you will need about 100g of dates, but you can use more. Chop them with a knife or cut them into smaller pieces and add to the cream.
- walnuts – I added walnuts both to the caramel cream and on top of the meringue. In total, I used 100g of nuts (about 1 cup). You can use more. If you don’t have walnuts or don’t like them, you can substitute them with other nuts – e.g., pecans, hazelnuts, or almonds.
How to make dacquoise cake – tips
Preparing this cake with cream and meringue is not particularly difficult, but it requires several stages. The first is baking the chocolate sponge cake. The second – baking the meringue. The third stage – preparing the cream, and the last – assembling the cake. If you divide the whole process into stages, preparing the cake should not cause any difficulties. You can also prepare the sponge cake and meringue even a day or two in advance and store them wrapped in cling film. Then, assembling the cake itself will only take a moment.
Preparing chocolate sponge cake with butter – video
Above in the recipe, I showed how to make my sponge cake with added butter. You can, of course, use your own sponge cake recipe – prepare it in such proportions to get a low sponge cake for a baking pan approximately 24 by 24 cm. You can also use a 20/30 pan or a round springform pan with a diameter of 26 cm. Remember that when baking a sponge cake, you only line the bottom of the pan with baking paper – the sides remain dry (without greasing and without paper). The sponge cake sticks to the sides, which prevents it from collapsing after baking.
In the recipe, I included step-by-step photos of preparing the chocolate sponge cake, and below you can also watch a short video of the preparations. In the video, I added the egg yolks after adding the flour because they “disappeared” from my sight ;) Normally, I first beat the egg whites with sugar, then add the yolks, and finally the flour. Adding the yolks together with the flour does not affect the sponge cake, so you can do it like me. The most important thing is light and gentle mixing so as not to break the egg white foam. The mixture should be thick and fluffy.
How to bake meringue with nuts?
You prepare the meringue for the dakłas cake exactly the same way as any other meringue. You need to whisk the egg whites with sugar until the whites turn white, become thick and shiny. I always perform an additional test – I take a little meringue on my fingertip and rub it with another finger. If I feel sugar crystals, it means the meringue needs more whisking; if I don’t, the meringue is ready. You must transfer the prepared meringue to the baking pan – the same one the sponge cake was baked in. Prepare the pan here the same way as for the sponge cake. Line the bottom with baking paper, and leave the sides empty. The meringue will stick to the sides of the pan, which will prevent it from “shrinking” after baking. If the sides were also lined with paper, the meringue might shrink slightly when peeled off the paper and then would not be the same size as the sponge cake.
Place the meringue in the pan in a preheated oven. What temperature should the oven be for baking meringue? The best temperature for baking meringue is 105-110 degrees Celsius. We bake, or rather dry, the meringue with convection fan on. The meringue should be baked for about an hour and 20 minutes. After baking, remove it from the oven, but do not take it out of the pan; let it cool completely. Only then, use a sharp knife to separate the meringue from the sides of the pan. As I wrote earlier – you can bake the meringue in advance. Then protect it from moisture by placing it in an airtight container with a lid, or by wrapping it in cling film. If you don’t have time to bake meringue, or are afraid of baking it, you can instead place ready-made small meringues on top of the cream – in this form, the cake will be just as delicious and will look beautiful.
How to make cream with toffee mass?
Of all these steps, preparing the toffee cream for the dakłas cake might be the simplest and fastest part to do. It took me maybe five minutes to prepare the cream. But you must remember to thoroughly chill the mascarpone cheese, toffee, and whipping cream beforehand. If these ingredients are not chilled, you won’t be able to whisk the cream. If you have chilled whipping cream but the other ingredients are not, the cream may curdle during whisking.
Transfer the chilled ingredients to a large bowl and immediately whisk them together at high speed with a mixer – after four minutes of whisking, I had a very thick and firm cream. Add the chopped dates and chopped nuts to the whipped cream and mix with a spatula. That’s it! The cream is ready. Spread it on top of the sponge cake (I lightly soaked mine additionally because I like more moist sponge cakes) and level it to get a roughly even layer of cream. Now just place the meringue on top of the cream and the dakłas cake is ready!
How to arrange meringue on dakłas cake?
Placing the meringue on top of the cake can be a bit problematic because meringue is quite delicate. I helped myself with baking paper. After baking and cooling, I very carefully peeled the meringue off the paper it was baked on, but I left it lying on it. When I had the sponge cake with cream ready, I transferred the meringue on that paper and slowly slid it off the paper, gently placing it on the cream. If the meringue breaks or cracks during this process, don’t worry. After placing it, gently press it onto the cream. It certainly won’t bother anyone. And you can cut the cake along a crack.
Watch my short video of the dakłas cake preparation – its individual elements and the final assembly of the cake in the pan.
How to store dacquoise cake?
It’s a good idea to additionally chill the finished dacquoise cake in the refrigerator. This will allow the flavors to “mingle,” and the meringue will soften slightly, making it easier to cut the cake into nice, even pieces. You can, of course, serve the cake immediately, but then the meringue might crack a bit when cutting. It’s best to store the cake in the refrigerator – this will ensure its longer freshness. The cream used in the cake is firm and holds its shape well, so if necessary, the cake can even sit on the table for several hours.
How many calories does daquas cake have?
As I stated above in the recipe, 100g of dakłas cake has just under 300 kcal. For a cake with cream, this is quite a good result. This is due to the light sponge cake and meringue, which are not highly caloric on their own. If you divide the dakłas cake into 24 pieces, each will have about 221 kcal (carbohydrates – 18g, proteins – 9g, fats – 13g). I think such a piece of cake won’t harm anyone, and the cake tastes so incredibly good that it’s all the more worth trying.
If you like flavor combinations like those in daquas cake, in addition to the daquas meringue cake, you can bake a delicious dacquoise cheesecake – you will surely surprise everyone with such a cheesecake.
Recommended recipes for cakes with cream and meringue
Also try my other recipes for delicious creamy cakes, perfect for special occasions like holidays or family celebrations, but also for everyday as a coffee dessert. Here I recommend, among others, these three recipes, and many more on the blog. You are cordially invited.
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Dacquoise Cake Recipe
Discover my extraordinary Dacquoise Cake recipe, which is guaranteed to pamper your taste buds! This unique dessert consists of a delicate chocolate sponge cake that pairs perfectly with a rich dulce de leche cream (kajmak), enriched with dates and walnuts. The cake is topped with a sweet, slightly crispy meringue baked with chopped walnuts, making them incredibly aromatic and crunchy.
The entire preparation process is described in detail and illustrated step-by-step, so even a beginner baker will feel confident in the kitchen. What's more, you will find a video tutorial that reveals all the secrets behind this recipe.
Indulge in this wonderful Dacquoise cake today and savor its exceptional flavor and texture! This cake is perfect for:
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Special family celebrations
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The upcoming Easter holidays
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A weekend dessert to impress your family and loved ones
Be sure to try this recipe and share your thoughts in the comments below. Also, don't forget to check out my other cream cake recipes!
