I wanted to use the flavours of the lemon meringue pie and turn it into a cake because I thought a cake would be a lighter alternative. I like the flavours but always thought the thick base of curd was a bit heavy. Here you see 7 delicate layers of vanilla cake layered with lemon curd and then topped with French meringue and torched to toast the sugar in the meringue. I used vanilla instead of lemon cake because I found that the layering of flavours worked. I would caution the use of vanilla essence though as it would be too strong. I used a vanilla bean. The subtle flavour goes well with the lemon curd. I also tried this using normal meringue, the taste is not very desirable and didn't hold too well. French meringue taste much better and can be piped into shapes that hold.