Sans Rival — dacquoise with cashew buttercream

i. Origin & history

Sans Rival is a dacquoise by construction: layers of nut meringue with buttercream between them, a French pâtisserie form. Its arrival in the Philippines is generally attributed to Filipinos who studied in France in the early twentieth century and brought the technique home, where it was adapted to local ingredients — most importantly by replacing the French almond or hazelnut with cashew.

That substitution is the crux of the cake's identity. Cashews grow well in the Philippines, and Antipolo in Rizal province is particularly known for them. The cashew is sweeter, softer and more buttery than almond, and it changes the character of the meringue considerably.

The cake is most strongly identified with Negros Occidental and the city of Bacolod, and this is not accidental: Negros was the centre of the Philippine sugar industry, and a sugar-growing region with an established landowning class that sent children to Europe is exactly where a French-derived, sugar-heavy celebration cake would take root. Bacolod remains a place people specifically go to buy Sans Rival, and several long-established bakeries there built their reputations on it.

Its close relative silvanas — the same components in a frozen, cookie-sized, individually breaded form — is likewise a Negrense speciality and is often sold alongside it.

ii. Two components, both temperamental

Sans Rival is not technically complicated so much as unforgiving in two specific places: the meringue must be genuinely dry, and the buttercream must not split.

The meringue layers are a nut meringue baked low and slow — the aim is to dry them out rather than to colour them. They need to be crisp all the way through, because any residual moisture will soften them further once the buttercream goes on, and a Sans Rival with soft layers has lost its entire textural point. Humidity is the real enemy: on a damp day meringue takes noticeably longer to dry and may never crisp properly, which is a genuine problem in a tropical climate and the reason many Filipino bakeries make it in air-conditioned rooms.

The buttercream is classically French — egg yolks whisked with hot sugar syrup, then butter beaten in — which gives a rich, dense, pale-yellow cream quite unlike the icing-sugar buttercream of Anglophone baking. The syrup must reach the soft-ball stage, roughly 115–118 °C, and must be poured into the yolks in a thin stream while whisking, or it will scramble them. The butter must then be added at the right temperature: too warm and the mixture goes soupy, too cold and it seizes into lumps.

A split buttercream is not a disaster and does not need throwing away. If it is soupy, chill it briefly and re-whip. If it is curdled and lumpy, warm the outside of the bowl gently while whipping. Both faults are temperature problems and both are reversible.

Assembly then has its own timing issue: the cake must be chilled to set the buttercream before slicing, but served closer to room temperature, because cold butter is waxy and mutes flavour.

iii. Ingredients

Makes 12 servings · scroll the side panel to adjust

• 6 egg whites
• 200 g caster sugar
• Pinch salt
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 200 g cashews, roasted and chopped
• 250 g unsalted butter, soft
• 6 egg yolks
• 200 g caster sugar
• 60 ml water
• 2 tbsp brandy or vanilla
• 100 g whole cashews, to top

Cashews are what make this Filipino rather than French — toast them first, which deepens the flavour considerably, and chop rather than grind so the meringue keeps some texture. Use good unsalted butter; in a French buttercream the butter is most of what you taste, and there is nowhere for a poor one to hide. Egg whites for the meringue should be at room temperature and the bowl scrupulously clean — any trace of fat or yolk will stop them whipping. A little cream of tartar stabilises the meringue. Traditional recipes are extremely sweet; reducing the sugar in the meringue is not advisable, since sugar is structural there, but the buttercream tolerates a modest reduction.

iv. Method

1. Make the meringue: whip whites with salt to soft peaks; gradually add sugar; whip to glossy stiff peaks. Fold in chopped cashews and vanilla.
2. Pipe or spread three 22 cm discs of meringue on lined trays. Bake at 130 °C for 60 min until dry. Cool fully.
3. Make French buttercream: cook 200 g sugar and water to 115 °C. Whip yolks; pour hot syrup in a thin stream while whipping; whip until cool. Beat in soft butter a few cubes at a time; flavour with brandy.
4. Stack meringue discs with buttercream between layers and on top. Cover sides with buttercream. Press whole cashews onto top and sides. Chill 2 hours.

v. Tips & common mistakes

• Bake the meringue low and long, then leave it in the oven. The aim is drying, not browning. When the time is up, turn the oven off and leave the layers inside with the door ajar until cool — this drives out the last of the moisture and is what makes them shatter rather than bend.
• Do not attempt it on a humid day. Meringue absorbs atmospheric moisture and will refuse to crisp. If you have air conditioning or a dehumidifier, use it; this is genuinely why Filipino bakeries make Sans Rival in cooled rooms.
• Take the sugar syrup to soft-ball stage. 115–118 °C on a thermometer. Under-cooked syrup gives a buttercream that never sets; over-cooked gives one that is grainy. This is the step most worth using a thermometer for.
• Pour the syrup in a thin stream, down the side of the bowl. Poured onto the moving whisk it flings hot sugar up the sides and sets into shards; poured too fast into the yolks it scrambles them. Slow and steady, with the mixer running.
• Fix a split buttercream rather than discarding it. Soupy means too warm — chill the bowl for ten minutes and re-whip. Curdled and lumpy means too cold — warm the outside of the bowl gently while whipping. Both come back.
• Chill to set, then serve near room temperature. It needs a few hours in the fridge to firm enough to slice cleanly, but straight from the fridge the butter is waxy and the flavour is muted. Twenty minutes out before serving is about right.

vi. Variations

Silvanas are the same components reformatted: cookie-sized cashew meringue discs sandwiched with buttercream, coated in meringue crumbs and served frozen — a Negrense speciality in their own right. Frozen Sans Rival is a common serving style, and some bakeries sell it that way by default. Flavoured buttercreams are widespread: coffee, chocolate, ube and mocha versions all appear. Some recipes substitute or supplement the cashew with pistachio or almond, which brings the cake back closer to the French dacquoise it descends from.

vii. Serving & storage

Sans Rival is cut into small squares or thin slices — it is exceptionally rich, and a modest piece is a full serving. Take it out of the refrigerator fifteen to twenty minutes before serving so the buttercream loses its chill without softening. Many Filipino households serve it straight from the freezer instead, semi-frozen, which is entirely traditional and arguably better in a hot climate. Black coffee is the standard accompaniment and cuts the sweetness well.

It keeps for four or five days covered in the refrigerator, though the meringue layers soften progressively as they draw moisture from the buttercream — this is inevitable and is why it is at its crispest on the first day. It freezes very well for up to two months, better than most cakes, because the high butter and sugar content resists ice crystals; wrap it well and slice it while still partly frozen for the cleanest cut.

ix. More from Filipino

• Dacquoise — French almond meringue layer cake
• Napoleon Cake — Russian mille-feuille
• Paris-Brest — praline cream choux ring
• Baked Alaska — meringue-covered ice cream
• Kremna Rezina — Slovenian cream slice
• Medovik — Russian layered honey cake