This week I bought plenty of peaches, intending to make the peach cake that my mom made every summer. That resulted in days of discussions and looking through her cookbooks for the recipe. I thought I might be able to duplicate it, so I asked if she cooked the peaches. She was sure she didn't. I think she must have! Uh oh. This may take several attempts to get it right.
But while we were going through cookbooks, I happened upon an interesting recipe in one of them. In an Oetker cookbook by the name of BAKING IS FUN, Volume 4 (we don't seem to have other volumes, hmm) was a recipe by the very simple name Blueberry Squares.
It's basically a cake bottom, with fresh berries, topped with meringue. It sounded so light and fresh and summery that I had to try. (We won't mention my personal addiction to meringue.) Happily I had bought beautiful raspberries as well as peaches, so today's recipe is Raspberry Squares.
This is a super easy recipe. The hardest part was spreading the meringue over the berries. I found it was easiest to add it in globs (that's an official cooking word) and then spread them together with an offset spatula.
Raspberry Squares
Batter for Base:
1/4 cup butter + more for greasing
3 egg yolks
3/4 cup sugar
3 tablespoons hot water
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 2/3 cups flour
1/4 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
Grease a 13x9 pan. Preheat oven to 350.
Melt the butter and set aside. Cream the egg yolks with the sugar and the hot water until they are light colored and fluffy. Sift together the baking powder and the flour. Add it, alternating with the milk and butter. Add the vanilla and beat. The batter will be very thick. Pour it into the pan and spread. Bake 20 minutes. When done, lower heat to 325.
Berries & Meringue:
3 egg whites
1 cup sugar
splash of vanilla
1 pint fresh raspberries or blueberries
While the base is baking, wash berries and spread on a paper towel to dry. Beat the egg whites until they hold a soft peak, then slowly add the sugar. Add the splash of vanilla. Beat until the sugar has dissolved. Spread the berries across the baked base. Add the meringue in dollops and spread together with an offset spatula across the top. Bake at 325 for 20-25 minutes until light golden.
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| Beautiful fresh berries. |
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| Thick batter. |
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| Cake bottom. |
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| Spread berries on top of cake. |
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| Spread meringue over the berries. |
