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.  

Let's Make Christmas: The Big Event

After weeks of watching all the delicious things popping up all over the foodie blogosphere, the event 50 brilliant food bloggers had all been looking for took place on Friday 18th November at Fortnum & Mason.

Created by the gorgeous Vanessa Kimbell, Let's Make Christmas has given us the opportunity to actually meet bloggers face to face and discuss all things food and beyond.

Each of brought gifts to swap. I took along some Triple Ginger Cakes baked in Kilner jars, some Glittery Chilli Vodka and some little Meringue Nibbles. These are the laden gift tables, the baked one proving to be very popular!

After judging the entries, baking king Dan Lepard announced the winners. Congratulations to them all! Can't wait to see the recipes!

It was really lovely chatting to some new and old bloggers alike including Laura from Craftstorming, Julia from Eat Healthy But Tasty, Kate from Turquoise Lemons, Kate from What Kate Baked and Choclette from Chocolate Log Blog.

These are the gifts I received in the swap. Some lovely Blackberry Liqueur from A Trifle Rushed, some Table Truffles from What Kate Baked and some Christmas Feel Good Cookies from Cindy at Food for Thoughts. All of which, I can personally say are delicious. Jim was very impressed too!

Overall, it was a great day spent in great surroundings with even greater people. I honestly hope we can all meet up again very soon!

Eton Mess Stack Tutorial

It was Jim’s birthday last Monday and, like every other year we have been together, I made him a cake to take to his office to share with his work colleagues.  He has had huge boxes of cupcakes and Tardis to name a couple but this year, time is in short supply.  I haven’t been able to take off a day (or two) to make a big fancy cake at my leisure.  So this year, simple wins. 

The original recipe is from here but I baked mine in three seven inch sandwich tins to create a stack.  And this is how I did it.

Preheat your oven to 160o/c and line and grease three seven inch sandwich tins.  And I mean line and grease by the way.  I didn’t.  Mistake…

Melt 175gr unsalted butter in a small saucepan.

When it’s melted, remove from the heat and add 1tsp of vanilla extract.

 And 5 tablespoons of double cream (about 60ml)

In a large bowl, add 225gr plain flour, 100gr almonds, 1tsp of baking powder and a large pinch of ground sea salt.

Using a whisk, combine to keep it light and airy.

 Set this aside for the moment.

Add 5 eggs and 200gr golden caster sugar…

…into the bowl of your stand mixer.  (Rosie-Rose has a new bow.  Isn’t she a doll!)

And using a whisk attachment, beat for 5 minutes or until the eggs and sugar are thick and creamy. 

While that is beating, pull out your 400gr of strawberries and chop half of them into chunks…

 

…and the other half into slices.

By now, the eggs and sugar should be thick and creamy. 

Beat in the butter-vanilla-essence-cream combo.

And fold in the flour in batches. 

Fold the chopped strawberries in.

Pour equally into your three (lined and greased) sandwich tins. 

Top with the sliced strawberries and 50gr of meringue.  I made my own meringue but shop bought is fab for this. 

Bake for 30 minutes or until they are golden brown, an inserted knife comes out clean and they are starting to pull away from the edges. 

Turn out the cakes and leave to cool right through. 

Take pictures of one of your cats whilst you’re waiting. (Optional)

When the cakes are cool, whip up a batch of butter cream icing by beating together 115gr soft unsalted butter with 265gr icing sugar and a little splash of vanilla extract. 

Put the most damaged cake at the bottom, I should have greased and lined… And turn it round so that it is at the back of the cake.  Out of sight…

Slap on some butter cream and some strawberry jam.

Add another cake and top that with more butter cream and strawberry jam.

Put the prettiest cake on the top.

Add any leftover strawberries/butter cream/meringue on top.  If you fancy, or simply dust with icing sugar. 

I made meringue letters for the birthday boy too. 

It was gorgeous!  Hooray!

Meringue Ghosts

These guys are more ‘Aawwww!’ than ‘Aaaargh’

This is the recipe I used for my little ghosts meringues.  

It gives perfectly crisp and crunchy meringues that hold their shape so is perfect for piping.  

I piped little mounds onto silicone baking sheets and baked them for about an hour, then turned the oven off and left it until cold.  I then painted little faces on them!