Recipe
🍰 DESSERT
Chajá
Airy sponge layered with whipped cream, peaches, and crushed meringue, Uruguay's cloud-light celebration cake.
Uruguayan · medium · serves 10
prep 40 min · cook 25 min
~595 cal · 7g protein · 79g carbs · 29g fat · 0g fiber · 65g sugars · 18g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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AI-generated illustration
Chaja was invented in 1927 in the city of Paysandu by the confectioner Orlando Castellano, who named it after the chaja bird, whose feathers look large and full but weigh almost nothing, exactly like the cake. It is now Uruguay's signature dessert.
It is built from the lightest possible components: soft sponge brushed with syrup, mounds of barely sweetened whipped cream, tinned or poached peaches, and, crucially, a thick tumble of crushed meringue folded through and pressed over the outside. The meringue keeps it feeling like air rather than cake.
Dulce de leche often finds its way in too, this being the River Plate. Served for birthdays and holidays across the country, a slice of chaja is meant to collapse softly under the fork, sweet, creamy, and impossibly light.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian and nut- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 10
6 eggs
1 cup flour
1 1/4 cups sugar
3 cups heavy cream
2 cups peaches in syrup, sliced
1 cup dulce de leche
2 cups ready-made meringues, crushed
Instructions
1
Whisk 4 of the eggs with 3/4 cup sugar to a thick ribbon, fold in the flour, and bake as a sponge at 350F (180C) for about 20 minutes; cool and split into layers.
2
Whip the cream with 2 tbsp sugar to soft peaks.
3
Soak the sponge layers with the peach syrup, spread the bottom one with dulce de leche, then lay whole meringues over it as though they were another layer of cake, and cover them with cream and sliced peaches.
✎ Chef’s note
Meringues go inside as a structural layer, not just on the outside. Soak the sponge properly with the peach syrup too: that syrup is where most of the flavour comes from, and a dry chaja is a failed one. Keep the cream barely sweet, because the meringue and dulce de leche carry the sugar.
4
Set the second syrup-soaked sponge on top as a lid, coat the whole cake in more cream, and press crushed meringue over the top and sides, finishing with peach wedges and cherries.
5
Chill briefly and serve, expecting it to collapse softly under the fork.
Paysandu confectionery tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Montevideo. Montevideo is a beef city with an Italian accent, and the chivito, a steak sandwich loaded with ham, cheese, egg, and olives, is its everyday order; it was invented up the coast at Punta del Este in the mid-1940s and reached Montevideo by 1949. Wood-fired parrilla grilling, mate passed hand to hand, and dulce de leche in every dessert define the Uruguayan table.
🗺️
Uruguay. Uruguay eats more beef per head than almost anywhere, roughly fifty kilos a person a year, and exports about three quarters of what it produces. The grill it goes on is a parrilla with an adjustable brasero at the side, where wood burns down to embers that are raked under the grate as needed, so the cook controls heat by moving coals rather than the meat.
🌍
South America. South America's cooking follows its dramatic geography, potatoes and quinoa in the high Andes, cassava and river fish in the Amazon basin, and grass-fed beef on the pampas. Indigenous ingredients like maize, ají peppers, and cacao meet Spanish, Portuguese, African, Italian, and Japanese influences brought by five centuries of migration. Ceviche, feijoada, arepas, and the smoke of the asado are its most beloved icons.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Uruguay
Chivito al PlatoUruguay’s glorious everything-plate: thin steak under ham, cheese, olives, and a fried egg with ensalada rusa.
Torta FritaGolden discs of fried dough with a slit in the middle, crisp-edged and pillowy, the treat Uruguayans make whenever it rains, dusted with sugar and dunked in mate.
Tarta PascualinaA flaky double-crust pie of chard and ricotta with whole eggs baked inside, an everyday River Plate lunch.
Browse all Uruguay recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Oven, Whisk.
Storing it: Store in an airtight container. Most keep 2 to 3 days at room temperature, and longer refrigerated.
Make it a Uruguay meal
Chivito al PlatoDinner
Medio y MedioDrink
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Cuisine
Diet
Frequently asked questions
What is Chajá?
Airy sponge layered with whipped cream, peaches, and crushed meringue, Uruguay's cloud-light celebration cake.
Where does Chajá come from?
Chajá is a Uruguayan dish from Montevideo, Uruguay.
Can Chajá be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Chajá recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Chajá safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Chajá take to make?
About 65 minutes total (40 minutes prep, 25 minutes cooking), serving 10.
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