Make beautiful floral Meringue Cake Adorned with Piped Pansy Flowers and Leaves.Serves about 6-8.
Prep Time20 minutesmins
Cook Time3 hourshrs
Cooling Time3 hourshrs
Course: Cake, Dessert
Cuisine: American, French
Keyword: baked meringue, merignue cake, meringue cookies
Servings: 8servings
Author: Hani Bacova
Ingredients
MERINGUE CAKE LAYERS
9egg whites
2cupsgranulated sugar
2tspfreshly squeezed and strained lemon juice, or vinegar(not balsamic)
2tbspcorn starch
1tspVanilla Extract
1tspAlmond
CHOCOLATE WHIPPED CREAM FILLING
2 1/2cupchilled heavy whipping cream
3/4cuppowdered sugar
1/4cupdark cocoa powder
1tspVanilla Extract
Instructions
MERINGUE
Trace square template onto the parchment sheets. You'll need 2 parchment sheet and trace the template 4 times. Turn the parchment upside down so the ink side is facing down. Set aside.
Preheat oven to 175F, or the lowest oven setting.
Use grease free bowl and tools when preparing meringue.
In a clean, heat proof and grease free bowl of your mixer combine egg whites (9 egg whites), granulated sugar (2cups) and freshly squeezed and strained lemon juice(or use white distilled vinegar, (2tsp).TIP : You can use apple cider vinegar or white white vinegar if you don't have white distilled vinegar. Don't use balsamic vinegar.
Heat the egg white mixture over the pot of simmering water. Whisking constantly, heat the mixture till all of the sugar is dissolved. To check if sugar is dissolved rub the mixture between your fingers. If you feel no grainy particles you can remove the bowl from the heat.
Mixture will be white and soapy, this is normal.
Return bowl with heated egg white mixture to the mixer and beat on medium speed for about a1 to 3 minutes, then increase speed to medium high. Beat until medium stiff peaks are formed. This can take 10 minutes. Beat in Vanilla Extract (1tsp) and Almond Extract (1stp) then beat in corn starch (2tbsp). Beat until stiff peaks are formed. Watch it carefully so you don't over beat.
GRAY MERINGUE CAKE LAYERS
Take about 2/3 of stiff white meringue and color it with black gel color to make it gray. Then scoop about 3/4 of gray meringue into a piping bag fitted with a large cake icer tip. Then take 2/3 of remaining gray meringue and fill the piping bag fitted with a round piping tip #12. Color remaining small portion of gray meringue with a little bit of black food coloring to make it darker gray. Fill a piping bag fitted with a round piping tip #2. You should have 3 piping bags: fitted with cake icer, round piping tip #12 and round piping tip #2(darker gray)TIP : Use folding mixing technique when coloring meringue with gel color.
Now you are going to pipe onto prepared parchment sheets. Pipe a beaded border following the square outline. Then fill the inside with gray meringue using cake icer piping tip. Smooth the meringue with a spatula best you can.
You should have 3-4 meringue cake layers. Decorate 1 layer with a filigree design using darker meringue and a piping bag fitted with a round tip #2.
PANSY AND LEAF MERINGUES
Divide remaining white meringue into 4 bowls. Color 1/3 of the meringue with royal blue to make light blue. Color about 3 tbsp with lemon yellow and a minuscule amount of orange to make golden yellow. Divide remaining meringue in half. If you have some gray meringue left squeeze it out into one of the bowls. Then color meringue in a bowl with gray with royal blue and regal purple. And lastly color last bowl of meringue with leaf green.
Pipe pansy flowers and leaves - follow step by step tutorial and a video tutorial how to pipe flowers and leaves.
BAKE MERINGUE
Bake meringue layers and flowers with leaves in the preheated oven at 175F for 3-4 hours. After this time turn off the oven and let the meringue cool in the oven as the oven cools, 2-3 hours. Then remove meringue layers from the oven. Peel of the parchment and store meringues immediately in an airtight container. Prepare meringue layers up to 4-5 days ahead, and up to 2 weeks. Store away from the moisture.TIP : Store meringue layered between parchment with a small bowl of raw rice.
CHOCOLATE WHIPPED CREAM FILLING
Beat chilled heavy whipping cream until frothy. Then gradually beat in powdered sugar (3/4 cup). Beat until soft peaks are formed then beat in sifter cocoa powder (3/4 cup) and Vanilla Extract (1stp).TIP : To stabilize whipped cream so it doesn't start weeping in several hours, you can use dissolved gelatin or Dr. Oetker Whipping Cream Stabilizer (Whip It). Check the recipe notes for directions how to stabilize whipped cream.
ASSEMBLE MERINGUE CAKE
Fit a piping bag with a star tip #32 and fill the bag with Chocolate Whipped Cream Filling. Pipe filling on the bottom meringue cake layer. Place another meringue layer on the top and repeat until you are done with all the meringue layers. Make sure to reserve meringue layer with filigree pattern so it sits on the top.
Arrange pansy meringue flowers and leaves on top of the cake. Pipe little bit of leftover whipped cream on the back of each flower and leaf and attach it onto the cake.
Notes
HOW TO STABILIZE CHOCOLATE WHIPPED CREAM?
To stabilize whipped cream use gelatin or Dr. Oetker Whipping Cream Stabilizer.How to use gelatin to stabilize whipped cream For Example, to make Chocolate Whipped Cream Filling for Pansy Meringue Cake I'd use 1 tsp dissolved in 2tbsp water. Sprinkle gelatin over cold water. Let it bloom for 5 minutes. Heat bloomed gelatin for 5 second, stir well until gelatin is completely dissolved. Let cool to room temperature. Beat dissolved gelatin into whipping cream after you add sugar. Beat on high speed. Don't over beat whipping cream.
HOW SHOULD I STORE ASSEMBLED CAKE?
Store filled and assembled cake in the fridge until ready to serve.If using whipped cream without a stabilizer it's best to serve within 3-5 hours. If using whipped cream with stabilizer it's best to serve within 8 hours.