After last week’s episode of the Great British Bake Off I decided to end my GBBO challenge and instead return to baking things I actually enjoy. I had my eye on a recipe the last few weeks that I couldn’t wait to try and thankfully I had the opportunity to bake it on Friday when I was going to a family dinner. I had spotted this particular meringue cake in this years Christmas Good Housekeeping magazine and it seemed easy enough and it looked delicious too.
To begin with I drew 8in circles on three separate baking sheets then flipped them over so the pencil line was underneath. Then I whisked 4 egg whites until they held their shape and added in 200g of caster sugar, one tablespoon at a time until it was glossy. While that was whisking I put 100g of hazelnuts into the oven at around 200C to roast for about 10 minutes, checking on them every now and then. I turned the oven down to 110C . I divided the mixture between the three circled sheets and placed them in the oven to be baked for 30 minutes. Once it was done, I turned off the oven and left the meringues to cool.
While I was waiting I placed the hazelnuts in between some paper towels and rubbed the skins off them. I used a food processor to roughly chop them up and I whipped 450ml of double cream and 2 tablespoons of icing sugar until it just held it’s shape. I added in 2-3 tablespoons of strong coffee, cooled, a teaspoon of baileys and quickly mixed it in. I grated 50g of Lily O’Brien’s caramel chocolate and then began to assemble the cake.
I carefully peeled the baking sheets off of each meringue and then spread half of the cream mixture onto it, I sprinkled some of the nuts and chocolate onto the cream. I repeated the same process with the next layer and finished with the last meringue on top and sprinkled some more grated chocolate and chopped nuts on top.
I mixed the remaining nuts and chocolate into the cream and placed the cake onto a serving dish and left it cool in the fridge before bringing it over to the family dinner. It was a lovely cake, lovely and light and I’d definitely make it again for sure.
Fernweh with T 