Meringue.

Week 34, Bake 34.

Well this has been a nice week, mainly because The Great British Bake Off is on our screens again! On Tuesday, my mum, dad and I all sat round the TV and ooh-ed and ahh-ed at the cakes, gasped at the mistakes and drank our tea (as we always do in this house, we are british!). Anyway, this weeks bake was for my mum, she wanted a meringue and had seen a black Forrest meringue in The Great British Bake Off's new book. I don't particularly like cherries and so I decided to create my own meringue idea at the same time. And so this weeks bake is Black Forrest Meringue and Strawberry Meringue with a Pimms Chantilly Cream.

On a side note I have decided that I will not try to loose weight this year... I figure whatever exercise I do, it will just be contradicted by the amount of bakes I am eating so next year I will try to loose weight... I promise! (Oh, and Pimms cream does taste as amazing as it sounds!)

Ingredients:

• 4 large egg whites
• 225g of caster sugar

For the Black forest meringue:

• Cherries
• 200ml of double cream
• 100g of dark chocolate (70% solids)
• 2 tablespoons of icing sugar
• Coco powder

For the strawberry Pimms Chantilly cream:

• Strawberries
• 50ml of Pimms
• 2 tablespoons of caster sugar
• Zest of one orange
• 275ml of double cream
• 1 passion fruit

Method:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 110c. Draw on a baking sheet circles (far apart) about 8cm diameter. Turn the sheet over.
2. In a clean bowl mix the egg whites together until you get stiff peeks.
3. Now add in the caster sugar and whisk until soft peeks form.
4. Using a piping bag and a nuzzle (wide star shaped) to pipe from the centre outwards the meringue into the circle, then to create the nest pipe once round the outside of the circle on top.
5. Bake for 2 hours, then leave in the oven to cool down with the oven temperature.
6. Now for the black forest meringues: melt the chocolate in a bowl over a pan full of water. Once the meringues are cool, paint the centre of them (using a pastry brush) with the melted chocolate and cool in the fridge. Use the rest of the melted chocolate to spread onto a piece of baking parchment and allow to cool to create the shards. Whisk the icing sugar and cream together, then stone the cherries and chop half of them. Put the chopped half into the cream and mix in, then put a good dollop of the cream onto the centre of the meringue, place the other half of the cherries on top to decorate. Once the chocolate is cool you will be able to break it to create shards of chocolate and place these on top. Finally dust the meringues with coco powder and a cherry whole.
7. And for the Pimms meringue: mix the Pimms, sugar and orange zest together. Now add this mixture to the cream and whisk until whipped. Chop the strawberries and remove their hull's. Dice enough to add to the cream mixture and leave a few for decoration. Pipe the strawberry cream into the meringue nests and decorate with passion fruit and the remaining strawberries.
8. Enjoy. Warning this recipe is alcoholic....