At first I was going to make a Swedish version of Blackforest gateau, but of course I ended up improvising, so this is a slightly different version, although really nice. It is also gluten-free, which is great when friends have coeliac disease.

It is quite funny that the Swedish version of a Blackforest gateau has a hazelnut meringue base and lots of cream, but the English version is made with a chocolate sponge. I googled it in German (Schwarzwälder torte) and the result was a cake that looks like it is in between the English and Swedish. I guess it was interpreted differently in different parts of Europe…

Hazelnut meringue cake, serves 10

300 ml hazelnuts

400 ml icing sugar

3 egg whites

75 g dark chocolate

100 ml thick custard

500 ml whipping cream

1 tsp vanilla sugar

4 tbsp cocao

Grind the nuts and mix them with the icing sugar. Beat the egg whites really stiff, fold the nuts into the meringue. Try to incorporate these carefully. Smear the meringue onto parchment paper in two 20 cm rounds. Bake in 150C for 15-20 minutes. Take the baking trays out and use a sharp knife to loosen the bases from the paper. Leave them on there to cool. Melt the chocolate in a bowl over boiling water and brush it evenly onto the two meringues. Leave to dry.

Beat the cream with the vanilla sugar and divide into two bowls. Add the custard and cocoa in one and mix. Place one meringue base on a cake plate, spread half of the cocoa cream onto it and spread half of the cream on top of that. Add the other base and spread the remaining cocoa cream on top. Pipe the remaining cream into a pattern of your choice. Grate some chocolate over the cake.