Meringue Cookies (& Chocolate Ruffle Cake)

Meringue and I go well together (unlike genoise).  Maybe its beginner's luck, but I tend to have success with meringue-based things, thus far.  Despite this luck,  these meringue cookies,  look no where near professional, but then again, a 4 and a 7 year old piped up most of them.  (But even mine lacked a professional air.)  I think, the only thing easier than whipping these up, is eating them.

On the other end of the difficulty spectrum was the chocolate ruffle cake (or the chocolate roll cake in my case).   This recipe had 5 recipes within it; not your after-dinner-whip-up-dessert dessert.   And not a recipe to be repeated anytime soon or anytime, period.  That being said, I am glad I did it.

I have always wondered how cakes were wrapped in a thin sheet of chocolate; I had absolutely no idea how it could be done.  Making that sheet and wrapping my little cake was far and away my favorite part.

My favorite part to eat was the chocolate creme fraiche filling.

And wow, those ruffles have to be made with impeccable timing.

I will leave this one up to the professional bakeries from here on out, but I have a much deeper respect for the 5-7 recipes and the subtleties that go into a slice of cake like this.

Rhiannon!

Cardinal Slice

This was an intimidating recipe: genoise/ sponge batter piped with meringue, sandwiched with whipped cream flavored with an espresso coleur.  The latter two ingredients were not so intimidating but the former two made me nervous.  I have yet to make a successful genoise or sponge cake batter (maybe it knows I don't like eating it) and well, meringues, I haven't had too much experience with.

I started successfully with the whipped cream and the coleur (a caramelized sugar with added espresso).   I thought the coleur was burnt and almost tossed it, but when mixed with the whipped cream, the next day, all I could taste was espresso.  Perfect.

The meringue also turned out just fine and was simple to make. (I have recipe for Eton Mes that I have been wanting to try and now I think I will.)  I may have piped the meringue  a bit thin but it was suitable.   Then  came the sponge batter which was initiated with the leftover meringue batter.  I followed the directions as well as I could, timing the mixing and everything, but I believe I whipped it too much.  It piped out well but seemed a bit airy and when baked just collapsed on itself.  (The ladyfingers I made after that suffered a worse fate- flat as flat.)

Assembling was quite fun: layering the cakes and the whipped cream.    Even if mine turned out with half the height of the one shown in the recipe book, it still looked somewhat grand.  Accompanied with a raspberry filled caramel basket, it looked delicious.  And it tasted delicious too.

Unfortunately not delicious enough to make again.  I will look for it when and if I find myself in Austria and will savor it, knowing how hard it is to make and master.

This blog participates in Tuesdays with Dorie blogroll.

Rhiannon!

Tropical Napoleons

How does one go about eating this…  layers of crisp meringue with whipped cream and sliced tropical fruit…?  There is no graceful way, really. (But I would love to learn a way if it exists.)   Thank goodness each messy bite is delicious.

The meringue wafers were easy to whip up but a little tricky to shape and bake.  We were instructed to make circular molds of meringue with a cut out plastic ring, which worked surprisingly well.  But I didn't know how thin to make the wafers, so I experimented a bit and learned the thinner they are, the harder they are to pull off the tray.  And I baked them for about 10 minutes  (recipe calls for 5-7 minutes) and they never seemed to stiffen up enough;  I could have baked them longer.  But being that they are whipped egg whites, sugar and coconut, they still tasted excellent even if a bit chewy.

The whipped cream was a treat in and of itself.  The recipe asks for a small amount of dark rum to be added which makes it irresistible by my tastes.  It compliments the coconut of the meringues well.

For the fruit I used kiwi and strawberries, relying on the kiwi to make it tropical.

Check out Tuesdays with Dorie baking group to see how my fellow bakers fared with this recipe.

And Rhiannon...