Poppy cake with lemon curd & meringues

Melting biscuits with sweet and fluffy meringue clouds and a bright accent of the lemon flavor… Don't you think you already want to taste this combination? The perfect proportions keep a balance between the sweetness and the sourness, between the crisp meringue and the delicate custard. No sweet tooth can resist this splendor!

The calculation in the recipe is for the cake: diameter 18 cm (7 inch), height 11 cm (4.30 inch), weight about 2 kg (70.50 oz).

First, let's cook the lemon curd, as it needs to spend about 5 hours in the fridge.

1. Remove the lemon zest, trying to take only the yellow part. Squeeze the lemon juice. If you are bother about the lemon sourness, then some part of the lemon juice can be replaced with the orange one.
2. Separate the yolks from the whites. You will use the yolks in the curd, and the whites in the meringue.
3. Mix the yolks with sugar, and add the lemon zest and the lemon juice.
4. Put the mix on a water bath, stir constantly and bring it to thickening. It takes about 20 minutes.
5. Remove the mass from the water bath, and add the creamy mass. Stir until thickened.
6. Strain the curd through a sieve to get rid of the lemon zest.
7. Cover the curd with foil in contact and put in the fridge to stabilize.

1. Mix the eggs and the sugar, whip until dense fluffy foam.
2. Mix the flour with the cornstarch and salt, gradually sift to the eggs. Gradually add the poppy. Stir gently with bottom-up movements so as not to lose the fluffiness.
3. When the dough gets completely smooth, pour it into a baking mold with a diameter of 18 cm (7 inch). The bottom can be wrapped in foil.
4. Preheat the oven to 170C (338F), and bake the biscuit for about 25 minutes.
5. Let it cool completely on the wire rack, then remove the foil and cut the biscuit into 4 equal parts. The biscuit is about 7 cm (2.7 inch) high.

1. Whip the egg whites at a low speed, until a foam appears, and then gradually add the powdered sugar.
2. As you add the powdered sugar, increase the speed to the maximum and whip the whites until dense peaks.
3. Transfer the meringue to a baking sheet covered with parchment paper. You should get a circle with a diameter of 18 cm (7 inch).
4. Spread the meringue evenly over the diameter and bake it in the oven at about 140C284F) for about 1.5 to 2 hours. The meringue should dry completely.

1. Heat the white chocolate in the microwave (better use the “defrost” mode, so that the chocolate does not overheat). Let it cool at the room temperature.
2. Whip the curd cheese and the cream in a mixer bowl.
3. First whip it at a low speed until combining, and then increase the speed to the maximum.
4. Whip until fluffy, and then add the melted cooled chocolate. Whip for about a couple of seconds until combining. Add the powdered sugar for sweetness.
5. Mix the mass again, and place it in some pastry bags. The custard is quite dense and is suitable for both leveling and interlayering.

Some of you will have some extra basic custard left, you can so multiply the ingredients by about 0.8.

Dissolve the sugar in the water and let it cool.

1. Place a drop of the custard on the plate, so that the first cake layer sticks to it. 
2. Soak each cake with the sugar syrup.
3. Pour the first custard layer and make a border.
4. Place half of the lemon curd in the middle, and flatten it with a spoon. Pour the custard on the top of it again.
5. Place the next cake layer and soak it in the sugar syrup. Grease it with a thin layer of the custard.
6. Grease the meringue cake with white chocolate so that it remains crispy. Put that cake on, with the chocolate down. Remove the protruding parts and grease the top with the melted white chocolate.
7. Again: a thin layer of the custard and the next cake layer. Repeat everything that you did with the first cake.
8. Place the finished cake into a sliding ring-mold, and lay it with an acetate foil to increase the height. You can also assemble the cake in a split ring, but then it will be inconvenient to smear the custard.
9. Let the finished cake stabilize in the fridge overnight. Then remove the ring-mold and the film, and cover the cake with the finishing custard.
10. Decorate the top of the cake with meringues. If you want them to remain crispy, then grease their bottoms with white chocolate.