Semolina meringue cake with peaches, raspberries and Kefir lime leaves

This is a wonderful cake for birthdays or mother's day. The moist and sweet semolina base, the acid fruits and the sweet and crispy meringue topping - three different textures and flavours that combine perfectly and make it a beautiful cake. I took Ottolenghi's recipe as an inspiration and changed a few things up, so it would work better for this type of cake. You can as well make it with every other fruit like plums, pears, apples - just take what is in season so you will get the best flavour out of the fruit.

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For 1 round cake tin you will need:

For the sponge:

• 130g almond flour

• 80g semolina flour

• 1 tsp baking powder

• pinch of salt

• 170 butter, unsalted and softened

• 140g caster sugar

• 3 eggs

• juice of half a lemon

• 2 kefir lime leaves, finely chopped

For the topping:

• 4 peaches

• 2 handful of raspberries, fresh or frozen

• 3 egg whites

• 150g caster sugar

• 2 handful of flaked almonds

Preheat the oven to 175°C. Prepare the baking tin by greasing it and placing baking paper on the bottom. Combine the almond and semolina flour, baking powder and salt. In another bowl whisk the butter and sugar with the thinly chopped up kefir lime leaves together until it becomes a paler colour and the sugar is fully dissolved. Then add step by step the 3 eggs while keep whisking the sugar-butter mixture. As a last step fold in the dry ingredients and lemon juice until everything is well combined.

Pour it into the cake tin and bake it for 35-40 minutes, make a knife test to make sure it is fully baked. Take it out and let the cake cool down completely.

Once the cake has completely cooled down you can start to prepare the toppings. Preheat the oven again to 175°C. Take the peaches, remove the stone and cut them up into small chunks. Place all the peach pieces and raspberries and spread them over the cake. Whip up the egg whites and when they start to get stiffer, add the caster sugar in small parts while whisking. The meringue is done when it has stiff peaks and shiny white colour. Either pipe or simply spread the meringue on top of the fruits and sprinkle the almond flakes over the meringue. Place the cake tin again in the oven for around 20-25 minutes until the meringue has a nice golden-brown colour. Take it out of the oven and let it slightly cool down before taking the cake out of the cake tin.