The Best Sans Rival Cake (Easy Delicious Filipino Dessert)

Sans rival is a Filipino cake made of buttercream, meringue and roasted cashews. It’s chewy, crunchy, sweet and salty in one glorious bite.

(If you love sans rival, you would love its cookie cousin, silvanas. Meringue cookie sandwiches filled with luxurious French buttercream and coated with cookie crumbs. Delicious. Check it out!)

Sans rival is not your ordinary, everyday cake. It’s usually reserved for special occasions and celebrations like Christmas, Easter or a loved one’s birthday.

I used to make sans rival with American buttercream (butter and confectioner’s sugar) but a reader mentioned that Nora Daza (a popular Filipino baker and chef) made it with French buttercream (egg yolks and butter). 

I tried that and never looked back. This cake is one of the most delicious cakes I make and is everyone’s favourite. 

With rich, creamy French buttercream sandwiched in between layers of chewy cashew meringue, sprinkled with crunchy, chopped cashews throughout, it is a cake so sublime a single bite will make your tastebuds sing. 

Let’s get to it.

What is it?

Sans rival literally means “without rival”. And how appropriate that this cake is called that.

It’s very much like, and can probably trace its origin back to, the French Dacquoise (yes, very fancy).

A dacquoise is a meringue made with finely chopped nuts folded into the mixture before baking.

It’s then piped or spread into shapes and baked until crisp in a low temperature oven, then layered with buttercream, whipped cream or even ice cream. 

Unlike a dacquoise though, sans rival can be crunchy or chewy depending on the recipe. My version is more chewy than crisp. It gets its crunch from the roasted cashews.

In the Philippines, you can find the best sans rival cakes in Dumaguete, a city on Negros Island, in the southern Philippines. 

Although the ones from Goldilocks or Red Ribbon, which you can find nationwide, are pretty good too. 

Ingredients

To make this delicious Filipino cashew cake at home, you’ll need simple, easy-to-find pantry staples:

• Eggs
• Cream of tartar
• Granulated sugar
• Cashews
• Unsalted butter
• Vanilla extract
• Salt

Baking tools

A stand mixer would make the process of making your cashew meringue and your buttercream that much quicker and easier. An electric handheld mixer works great too; it’ll just take a little more time.

Other things you’ll need include:

• Parchment paper
• Cookie sheets or baking sheets – I use a commercial size baking sheet
• Measuring cups
• Measuring spoons
• Spatula
• Instant read thermometer — to ensure you’ve cooked the egg yolks properly

These are nice-to-haves, especially when you’re decorating your cake:

• Piping bag
• Piping tips
• Offset spatula
• Cake turntable
• Bench scraper

How to make (with step-by-step photos)

There are 3 components to making this easy sans rival recipe: the roasted cashews, the meringue and, finally, the buttercream.

Roasted cashews

First, prep your cashews because you need it ready before you can make your meringue. 

Just toast your cashews on a skillet until they’re a light golden brown and fragrant.

Then roughly chop and set aside. You want it at room temperature.

You can use a food processor to make chopping easier but be careful not to chop the nuts too finely; you want to feel that crunch in every bite.

Cashew meringue

Next, you can work on your meringue.

7 BAKE. Bake for 30-40 minutes or until the top turns a light golden brown. Once that happens, turn the oven off but leave the meringue in the oven with the door closed for another 20 minutes.

8 COOL. Take the meringue out of the oven and leave on the cookie sheet until it’s cool enough to handle (don’t leave on the pan for too long or they will become too brittle and break).

9 PEEL. Carefully peel the meringue off the parchment and trim the sides if needed so they’re even. Cool completely before assembly.

French buttercream

While your cookies are baking, you can work on your buttercream.

1 BOIL. Start by boiling water in a large pot, then bringing it to a simmer.

6 CHILL. If you’re not using the buttercream right away, transfer to an airtight container and refrigerate. You’ll need to re-whip before using.

Assembly

Now for the most exciting part, assembling your cake!

3 DECORATE. Then you can go decorate! Frost your entire cake with buttercream and slap on the rest of your cashews on the sides or tops or both.

4 CHILL. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours to allow the cake to set. Leave on the counter at room temperature for about 10 minutes before serving.

Tips when making meringue

Meringue is a little finicky to make but with lots of practice, you’ll be a meringue master in no time. Here are some of the things I’ve learned to make meringue successfully every time:

• Make sure your egg whites are room temperature. They whip better and are more stable. It’s easier to separate the yolks from the whites when the eggs are cold though so what I do is separate the yolks and whites right when I take the eggs out of the fridge, place the whites in a bowl and leave them on the counter for about 30 minutes to bring them to room temperature.

• Everything must be grease-free. You need to make sure that your bowl and whisk are dry, clean and oil-free. So it’s better to use glass, stainless steel, or ceramic bowls because plastic has a tendency to hide traces of oil in it.

• Add sugar gradually. It takes a lot of restraint to only add a teaspoon of sugar at a time when you have a cup of sugar to add but this really makes all the difference. You want the sugar to dissolve into your meringue properly.

• Don’t make meringue on a very humid day. Meringue has a tendency to absorb moisture so if it’s humid or rainy, your meringue has a bigger chance of falling apart.

Tips for making French buttercream

Unlike American buttercream, which is made with butter and confectioner’s sugar, French buttercream is made with egg yolks so you have frosting that’s richer, smoother but not as sweet.

Traditionally, French buttercream is made by slowly pouring hot sugar syrup (238F/114C) while you whip the egg yolks.

I have two issues with this: one, I’m deathly scared of hot sugar syrup drizzling into a running mixer. And two, I have reservations about the syrup fully cooking the egg yolks.

My favourite frosting is Swiss meringue buttercream and I wondered if French buttercream can be made the same way, i.e.  cook the egg yolks with sugar in a double boiler then whip it with butter.

Happy to report that yes, it can be made using the same method! It’s not the classic, traditional way to make French buttercream but it works for me and I’m confident the yolks are cooked through. 

A few things to remember when making this cooked French buttercream:

• Constantly stir your egg yolk-sugar mixture so it doesn’t turn into scrambled eggs.
• Watch the temperature of the egg yolks — once you reach 155F / 68C the egg yolks should be fully cooked.
• Make sure you use cubed, softened butter. Butter must easily give way when you gently press your thumb onto it. But it should not look greasy or oily like it’s about to melt.

Recipe FAQs

Making sans rival has more steps than the usual cake but trust me, each step is worth it. Here are answers to some of your most frequently asked questions. 

Happy baking!

Did you make this recipe? I’d love to hear from you in the comments section below.