Airy meringues can be the basis for simple and delicious homemade desserts. The cake can be supplemented with whipped cream, light cream. Fruit and chocolate. Such a product is quite suitable for a festive table, sweet meringue that melts in the mouth, especially children love.
Pavlova: a spectacular cake for connoisseurs of the classics
The most famous dessert made from meringues and cream is Pavlova's cake. It looks very beautiful in photographs, and it is prepared without much effort. All that is needed is to prepare fluffy air meringues and think over the design of the future cake.
Ingredients:
- 4 egg whites;
- 200 g caster sugar or powdered sugar;
- 400 g ripe strawberries;
- 2 tbsp. l. corn starch;
- 600 ml heavy cream;
- 1 tsp wine vinegar;
- fresh mint for decoration.
The base of the cake is a meringue basket. To prepare it, beat the whites with fine granulated sugar or powder, for greater splendor, you can add a little wine vinegar. A spoonful of purified glycerin will help to make the mass glossy. It is better to start whipping at low mixer speeds, gradually increasing the speed.
On a baking sheet covered with baking paper, lay out an oval or round cake, smooth out the protein mass with a spatula or a wide knife, forming low sides. From the specified number of products, one large or two medium cakes will be obtained. You can also make portioned mini cakes.
Put the baking sheet in the oven heated to 140 degrees, after 5 minutes lower the temperature to 120 degrees, bake the meringue for about 35 minutes. The cake should dry completely and acquire a beautiful creamy shade. Remove from the baking sheet and refrigerate.
Rinse the strawberries, dry, remove the sepals. Cut large berries in half, small ones can be left intact. Beat the cream with a mixer until fluffy. Put it in a meringue basket, beautifully lay the berries on top. Decorate the finished cake with fresh mint or lemon balm leaves. The product should not stand for a long time, otherwise the fragile meringues will get wet and lose their airiness.
"Count ruins": stage-by-stage preparation
The classic meringue-based dessert is the Count Ruins cake. It is simple to prepare it, air meringues will be complemented by cream: sour cream, creamy, made from condensed milk. It is easy to decorate the cake: the meringue, sandwiched with cream, is laid in the form of a slide, which can be sprinkled with nuts, decorated with chocolate or sugar icing.
Ingredients:
- 4 eggs;
- 4 egg whites;
- 1 cup of sugar;
- 1 cup powdered sugar;
- 1 can of condensed milk;
- 1 cup wheat flour
- 1 tsp baking powder;
- 1 tsp freshly squeezed lemon juice;
- 200 g butter;
- 1 tbsp. l. cocoa powder;
- a pinch of salt;
- shelled walnuts;
- chocolate.
Make a biscuit by mixing eggs with sugar and baking powder. Add sifted flour in portions, beat everything thoroughly with a mixer and pour into a refractory mold, greased with butter. Bake in an oven preheated to 180 degrees, until the crust acquires a golden hue and grows in size. Willingness to check with a toothpick. Remove the cake from the mold and leave to cool.
Beat the softened butter with condensed milk into a fluffy homogeneous mass. Set aside a little of the cream, mix most of it with the cocoa powder. Cut the cooled biscuit with a sharp knife so that the thickness of the base does not exceed 1 cm. Break the remaining cake into pieces and mix with the cream. Add chopped walnut kernels.
To prepare the meringue, beat the egg whites with powdered sugar and a little lemon juice. Add powder gradually, increasing the mixer speed. The finished mass should become dazzlingly white, airy, well-kept in shape.
Using a pastry bag, place the round meringues on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Place them in an oven heated to 100 degrees, open the door and dry the products for about 1, 5 hours. The finished meringues should easily fall behind the baking sheet. Remove them on a board and cool well. Meringues can be prepared in advance and stored in a paper bag or box at room temperature.
Collect the cake. Apply a layer of chocolate cream on the biscuit base, spread the meringue on top in a checkerboard pattern, fastening each layer with cream without adding cocoa and forming a beautiful slide. Melt the chocolate in a water bath, apply strokes on the cake with a pastry syringe or a regular spoon. Keep cake cool before serving.
Chocolate cream meringue cake: a step by step recipe
An original dessert for chocolate lovers. The cake contains a lot of calories, so a very small portion is enough for tasting.
Ingredients:
- 6 egg whites;
- 200 g of fine granulated sugar;
- 2 tbsp. l. cocoa powder;
- 50 g pistachios;
- 1 tsp white wine vinegar;
- a pinch of salt.
For the cream:
- 6 egg yolks;
- 100 g caster sugar;
- 100 g of chocolate;
- 300 ml of milk;
- 300 ml cream;
- 2 tbsp. l. cocoa powder;
- 2 tbsp. l. wheat flour;
- a few drops of vanilla extract.
Prepare meringues. Beat the egg whites with a mixer, adding a pinch of salt and gradually increasing the number of revolutions. Gradually add granulated sugar, sifted cocoa, wine vinegar. Preheat the oven to 90-100 degrees.
Cover a baking sheet with baking paper, draw 2 circles on a plate on it, fill each with a protein mass. Plant the remaining meringue separately using a pastry bag. Put the baking sheet in the oven, preheated to 110 degrees, for an hour, then turn off the heat and leave the meringue to dry for another 60 minutes.
Pour milk and cream into a saucepan, bring to a boil. In a separate container, beat the yolks with sugar until whitened, add cocoa and flour. Pour warm milk in portions without stopping stirring. Cover the container with the cream with cling film and place in the microwave for 2 minutes. The cream can also be prepared in a water bath by placing a bowl in a pot of boiling water. In order for the mass to become thick and homogeneous, it must be constantly stirred. Melt the chocolate in a water bath or in the microwave, add to the cream along with the vanilla extract, mix well. Cool the mixture in the refrigerator.
Collect the cake. Put one round cake on a dish, grease it with chocolate cream, cover with a second circle of meringue. Decorate the top of the product with cream, separate meringues, crushed into pieces, coarsely chopped pistachios. Live roses are a great decoration for special occasions.
Layer cake with meringue and chocolate
Whisked proteins with sugar make excellent cakes for homemade cake. And can be layered with dark or milk chocolate and whipped cream, garnished with walnuts, almond petals, coconut flakes.
Ingredients:
- 5 egg whites;
- 0.5 cups of caster sugar;
- 0.5 cups powdered sugar;
- 250 g milk chocolate;
- 500 ml heavy cream;
- almond petals for decoration.
Beat the whites with a mixer, gradually adding sugar mixed with powdered sugar. To make the mass more dense, you can pour in a little lemon juice. Draw rectangles or ovals on a sheet of baking paper - the outlines of future cakes. Spoon out the protein mass, smooth with a pastry spatula. The remaining proteins are deposited in the form of separate small meringues.
Place the blanks in an oven preheated to 110 degrees. Bake for about 40 minutes, the cakes should dry well. Remove them with a spatula, cool on a board or wire rack. Whisk the cream into a fluffy airy mass, melt the milk chocolate in a water bath. Grease meringue cakes with chocolate, cool. On the first crust, apply a generous portion of the cream, cover with the second crust and also top it with whipped cream. Decorate the surface of the cake with small meringues, sprinkle the sides with plenty of almond petals. Serve immediately.
