Daring Bakers - Filipino Desserts - Sans Rival Cake

This month's Daring Bakers takes us to the sunny Philippines to try some cultural delicacies from that nation.

Catherine of Munchie Musings was our November Daring Bakers’ host and she challenged us to make a traditional Filipino dessert – the delicious Sans Rival cake! And for those of us who wanted to try an additional Filipino dessert, Catherine also gave us a bonus recipe for Bibingka which comes from her friend Jun of Jun-blog.

I only made the Sans Rival Cake - at this time of year, getting time to make anything is a bonus, and I made this early on in the month to make sure that I got it done.

The Sans Rival cake is made up of 4 layers of nutty meringue, sandwiched by lawyers of smooth sweet chocolate buttercream, and decorated with crushed cashews.  I made the non-traditional chocolate version:

My quirky oven made hard work of firming up the meringue layers, but I conquered it by flipping the layers over towards the end of the cooking time.  The thinner layers crisped up well, but the thicker lawyers unsurprisingly stayed slightly chewy.

I am not normally a buttercream fan, but this version of buttercream was fabulous - not at all oily or greasy:

I'd definitely make this again - it was good.  Thanks to our host, Catherine, for introducing us to this dessert.  To see how all the other Daring Bakers fared with the Sans Rival cake, visit the slide show at The Daring Kitchen once it is posted.