Mocha Meringue Gateau

Things have been a bit meringue-y around here. Scones, mushrooms, ghosts, etc - you get the picture.  I'm certainly not going to apologise for it. I love meringue. 

This cake is made up of three parts - meringue, a light sponge and buttercream.

Meringue

Ingredients

2 egg whites

100gr caster sugar

1/2 tsp white wine vinegar

Method

1, Beat the egg whites until they are foamy and add in the vinegar.

2, Carry on beating the egg whites until they reach soft peaks.

3, Turn the speed up and slowly start adding in the caster sugar.

4, Carry on beating the mixture until you can rub a tiny bit between your fingers and it doesn’t feel grainy and you've reached a thick glossy mixture that holds its shape when you lift the whisk.

5, Preheat your oven to 100 degrees C and line two seven inch sandwich cake tins with grease proof paper. Divide the meringue between the two and smooth out as much as possible.  I found putting a little blob of the meringue under the great proof stopped it from sliding all over the place when smoothing.  Bake for 1 hour, turn off the oven and leave the oven to go cold. Keep them in an airtight container or wrap in cling film when they are completely cold. 

Jaconde Sponge

Ingredients

3 eggs

75gr caster sugar

75gr self raising flour

½ tbsp cocoa powder

2tbsp espresso or strong coffee

Method

1, Beat the sugar and eggs together until really pale and fluffy - at least five minutes in a stand mixer. Beat in the coffee.

2, Gently fold the sifted flour into the beaten sugar and eggs until just incorporated. 

3, Preheat your oven to 170o/c and grease or line three seven inch sandwich cake tins. Divide the batter between the tins and bake for 4-7 minutes or until just golden.

4, Turn out onto cooling rack until cold.

Chocolate Buttercream

Ingredients

150gr soft butter

350gr icing sugar

25gr cocoa powder

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

2tbsp espresso or strong coffee

Method

1, Beat the butter until pale and fluffy.

2, Sift in the icing sugar and cocoa powder and beat together with the vanilla extract and cocoa powder until you have a smooth butter cream icing.

Construction

Add a little dab of buttercream to your serving plate and lay down one of the sponges and then alternate layers of meringue and sponge with buttercream in between each layer. Finish the gateau off by swirling on the rest of the buttercream.