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Confitería Classic · Meringue Sponge Cake

Chajá

Chajá — street food from Paysandú, Uruguay
Photo: Fadesga / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0

The cake is named after a native Uruguayan bird known for looking bulky but weighing almost nothing — exactly the light, airy texture the confectioner was aiming for.

Layers of sponge cake, dulce de leche, whipped cream, meringue bits, and peach are stacked and coated entirely in more meringue and cream. Bakeries across Paysandú sell it by the slice from glass display counters.

Why it's made this way: The cake was invented in Paysandú in 1927, and the city is uniformly credited across Uruguay as its birthplace.
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Part of World of Street Food — 690 dishes from 118 countries. Something wrong here? Tell us in the comments below. Photo credits.