Shortbread Meringue Cake with Custard Buttercream (Holiday Cake) (2024)

This Shortbread Meringue Cake with Custard Buttercream is a classic Russian Cake made with layers of delicious flavors. A perfect cake recipe!

This Russian cake is also known as Holiday cake. The cake is made of layers upon layers of tender Shortbread, Meringue, and plum butter for tartness, then brought together with delicious condensed milk based Custard Buttercream.

With this cake, I am paying homage to the authentic Russian or Ukrainian cakes. According to my mom who shared this recipe with me, this was the most popular cake back in the day. It has several components to it, but they all come together beautifully and even collect many compliments as the pieces go around the table.

This Shortbread Meringue Cake is very similar to the Markiza cake with the differences being that this cake has a layer of plum butter underneath the Meringue, which offsets the sweetness of the cake, and the Buttercream in this Holiday Cake is made with Custard instead of condensed milk.

Can I bake this Shortbread Meringue Cake in rectangle form?

If you’re making this cake for a party, I would double the recipe and bake it in a rectangular baking sheet – it is always easier to cut the cake into squares than wedges when serving a big crowd.

Lastly, I would like to wish you God’s blessings, happiness, and joy as you spend this holiday season with your families or friends!
Merry Christmas Friends!

Yield: 9-inch cake
(For 12-inch cake, double the recipe)

Ingredients for the Shortbread Cake:

• butter
• sour cream
• egg yolks
• all-purpose flour
• baking soda
• vinegar

Meringue Recipe

• egg whites
• sugar

Custard Buttercream Recipe

• whole milk
• flour
• egg yolks
• butter
• vanilla extract
• salt

Also:

• plum butter, warmed (I get it at the local Russian store, or on Amazon (affiliate) )
• walnuts, chopped

How to maketheHoliday Cake

• Preheat oven to 350F with the wire rack set in the middle.
• Get all ingredients measured and ready.
• Combine baking soda and vinegar in a cup and stir until the foam subsides.
• Cream 250 grams of butter for one minute. Add egg yolks, vanilla, sour cream and the baking soda mixture to the butter. Whisk together for 2 minutes.
• Add 2 cups flour and mix. Add another half a cup and knead it in.
• Wrap the dough into plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
• Once the dough has been in the fridge for at least 20 minutes, start making the meringue.

How to make the Meringue

• Add egg whites to a thoroughly cleaned bowl, make sure it’s grease free or the egg whites will not properly whip up.
• Whip for about 30-40 seconds on high speed. Now start adding the sugar one tablespoon at a time and whip for 5-7 minutes on high until very thick and glossy.

Bake the Cake Layers

• Cut the dough into 6 equal pieces.
• Roll the dough out on an upside-down 9’inch pan. Sprinkle flour and roll out with a rolling pin.
• If you have more than one baking pan, you can fit up to 3 of them on the oven at once.

• Spread ¼ cup plum butter on top of rolled dough. Top with ½ cup of whipped meringue and sprinkle with walnuts.

• Bake for 15-22 minutes or until meringue is dry to the touch. Watch not to burn the walnuts. Repeat until all the dough is used up.

Make the Custard for the Buttercream

• Heat milk until boiling.
• Combine 4 egg yolks, 2 tsp vanilla, and 1 cup sugar in a bowl and whisk until combined.
• Pour the hot milk into egg mixture while continuously whisking.
• In a separate bowl whisk together 3 tablespoons of flour with about 1/2 a cup of milk until smooth. Now pour it back into the egg/milk mixture and whisk together.
• Cook it over medium heat constantly whisking, for about 4-5 minutes past the boiling point.
• Remove from heat, transfer to a wider dish, cover with plastic wrap touching the custard and cool to room temperature.

• Whip 2 sticks of room temp butter for 3-4 minutes or until white and fluffy. Add the custard in 3 additions, minimally whisking between addition to prevent the buttercream from curdling.

Assemble the cake

• Reserve 1 cup of custard buttercream and set aside.
• Set aside the best-looking layer for the top layer.
• Add buttercream the cake layers, finishing with the prettiest cake layer that you set aside.
• Do not cover the top layer with cream, it will stay as is.
• Use a serrated knife to trim the sides of the cake, to make it even.
• Use the reserved buttercream to frost the sides of the cake. Press the chopped walnuts to the sides of the cake.

• Combine 3 Tbsp of boiling hot cream with 3 tbsp of dark chocolate chips.
• Allow to sitfor a minute then stir until smooth. Pour down the sides of the cake with a spoon, or pipe with a ziplock bag.
• You really do need to wait at least 24-48 hours before cutting into the cake, so this is the perfect make-ahead dessert.

I hope that the instructions for this delicious Shortbread Meringue Cake didn’t scare you away. This cake is filled with so many delicious ingredients that go so well together. I hope you enjoy this cake recipe!