This Cielo (Heaven) cake is delicious. The sponge has more the consistency of a butter cookie, and the layer of “meringue” with the nuts gives it a delightful crunch. I added raspberry jam and chocolate to provide texture, and contrast of flavors. I loved how it looks and the flavors are so good together.

The Cielo Heaven Cake is popular in the South of Chile and like many other cakes from Chile; it has several layers and fillings. You can be creative and swap your favorite jam, but I do recommend to go with an acidic one to balance the sweetness of the cookie/sponge layers.

The technique to do the big chocolate shard I learned it from the book The Artful Baker, follow his author at his blog Cafe Fernando. He is very inspiring, and his book is fantastic, I have done three recipes with excellent results.

I made this cake for my birthday and froze half to enjoy later without issue. In general, cakes with whipped cream keep a lot fresher if frozen, on the fridge 2-3 days is the longest I will recommend having it.

You may also be interested in the recipe: Thousand Layer Cake or Mil Hojas.

Cielo (Heaven) Cake

Author: Pilar Hernandez
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cook Time: 2 hours
Total Time: 2 hours, 30 minutes
Yield: 12 1x
Category: Cakes
Method: Baked
Cuisine: Chilean

Description

A sophisticated cake with tantalizing flavors and textures.

Scale

Ingredients

For the dough

470 grams of butter
2 egg yolks
1 egg
230 grams of granulated sugar
470 grams of all-purpose flour

For the meringue

4 egg whites
150 grams of granulated sugar
1 teaspoon of cinnamon powder
zest of 1 lemon
1 cup finely chopped walnuts

For the filling,

2 cups of cold Heavy whipping cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup raspberry jam
180 grams of semi-bitter baking chocolate

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350F or 180C.
Beat the butter with the yolks and the egg until they are combined and creamy. Add the sugar and flour and continue beating until a soft sticky dough forms. Spread over parchment paper on circles of 20-24 cm in diameter. Use wet fingers to distribute the dough.
Beat the egg whites until soft peaks. In a bowl, mix the sugar, cinnamon, lemon zest and nuts.
Spread the whipped whites over the dough and sprinkle with the mixture of sugar and nuts.
Bake for 20 minutes until golden brown. Let cool on a rack. Choose the ugliest circle to decorate and break into pieces.
Prepare the chocolate layer, melt the chocolate in a water bath and spread on parchment paper. Cover with another paper and roll. Place on a tray and refrigerate. Unroll, it will break into big shards.
Beat the cream until it forms soft peaks, add the vanilla extract and beat until incorporated.
Assemble the cake: Place a baked layer over a serving plate. Cover with 3 tablespoons of whipped cream, spread in a thin layer, place half of the chocolate shards. Another baked layer, raspberry jam, cream, baked layer. Repeat.
Cover the entire cake with cream and decorate with remaining chocolate shards and the broken baked layer.
Refrigerate until serving. Keeps 3 days. It can be frozen.

Recipe adapted from Ximena Leal Galle, from the book “Manos del Sur.”

Keywords: cielo cake