Cake Of Kisses Recipes

MERINGUE KISSES & ICICLES

Steps:

• Heat oven to 120C/100C fan/gas ½. Line two-three baking sheets with parchment. Beat the egg whites until they are foamy and doubled in size. Add the sugar, 1 tbsp at a time, while you continue to whisk. The meringue will become thick and glossy and should hold up in stiff peaks on the beaters when it is ready.
• For the meringue kisses, fit a disposable piping bag with a 1cm round or star nozzle. Hold it vertically to the baking sheet and gently squeeze, pulling the bag up and away to make a peak. If you are making frosty icicles, make some meringue dots as well.
• For colour-striped meringues, fit a disposable piping bag with a round nozzle, paint red food colouring paste in stripes onto the inside of the bag, then fill with meringue and pipe as before. Bake for 1 hr. Once cool, you can drizzle some of the meringues with melted chocolate and sprinkle with edible glitter or lustre powder, if you like.
• For the icicles and snowflakes, scoop the meringue into a disposable piping bag and snip off a tiny opening. Pipe spiky icicle shapes onto the trays, making them thicker one end and thin at the other. Pipe crossed lines to make snowflakes.
• Bake for 50 mins, then leave to cool on the tray for a few mins, then carefully loosen them off the parchment. Sprinkle with edible glitter or lustre powder, if you like. If left to cool completely, they may stick and break when you try to lift them off. If you are storing these, leave to cool completely, then layer in an airtight container between pieces of baking parchment. Now use the meringue kisses to make our white chocolate, orange & cranberry Christmas cake.

MERINGUE KISSES FROM ENTERTAINING

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 225 degrees. Line 2 large baking sheets with aluminum foil.
• Beat the egg whites until foamy. Add the salt, cream of tartar, and vanilla and continue beating. Add the sugar 1 teaspoon at a time, beating about 30 seconds between additions. When all the sugar has been added, beat an additional 6 minutes. Egg whites should be very stiff, glossy, and extremely smooth, but not dry.
• Spoon the mixture into a large pastry bag fitted with a 1/2-inch star tip and pipe out "kisses," leaving 1-inch spaces. Reduce oven temperature to 200 degrees and bake for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, until the meringues are dry to the touch and can be lifted from the foil. Cool completely before storing in a cool dry place.

CAKE OF KISSES

Steps:

• To prepare trays; cover two large flat oven trays with aluminium foil; on first tray mark two circles, one 15cm (6"), one 10cm (4") in diameter.
• On the second tray mark three circles, 12cm (5"), 8cm (3") and 5cm (2") in diameter; saucers, cups, jars and lids of the right sizes can be used as guides for circles.
• The meringues are made in two batches, each using half of the above ingredients; when ready to make second batch of meringues, cover trays with fresh aluminium foil or baking paper.
• Beat 4 egg whites until soft peaks form; gradually beat in 1 1/4 cups of sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time; make sure each spoonful of sugar is dissolved by beating before adding the next spoonful, this ensures crisp meringues - if you want pink layers in cake, beat in enough food colouring to tint meringue light pink, otherwise leave meringue layers white.
• Spread meringue over circles marked on foil on the two prepared trays so they are approximately 2 cm (3/4") thick; smooth tops of circles with spatula, bake both trays in very slow oven, 110 deg C (225 deg F) 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 hours; reverse oven position of slide after 30 minutes cooking time to allow for even cooking; when meringue feels dry to touch, remove from oven and carefully slide foil with meringue circles on top on to cake cooler; of if time permits let meringues cool in oven with door ajar, then slide foil with meringue circles on to cake cooler.
• Prepare slides as directed above for remaining meringue; mark 18cm (7") circle on one tray; prepare second batch of meringue with remaining 4 egg whites and 1 1/4 cups of sugar, using no colouring; spread meringue over 18cm (7") circle; mixture should be only about 1 cm (1/2") thick then pipe 14 individual meringues approximately 4 cm (1 ½") in diameter on to foil.
• Pipe small individual meringues approximately 2.5cm (1") in diameter on second foil covered tray; you will need approximately 50 small meringues, which will all fit on to one tray; put tray with large circle and large meringues on shelf in centre of oven, put tray with small individual meringues on oven shelf beneath; bake in a very slow oven 110 deg C (225 deg F); after 30 to 45 minutes take lower tray with small meringues from oven and set aside to cool; move remaining tray one shelf down in the oven, where the small meringues were before.
• After 45 minutes to 1 hour remove large individual meringues from top tray on to cake cooler; return large meringue circle to oven for a further 30 minutes cooking time or until it is dry to touch.
• Wash, hull and slice strawberries, leaving at least 12 whole for decoration; spread out on paper towels to dry, whip cream to firm piping consistency, ( I find that if I test, as it gets close to right consistency, by tipping upside down - cream will stay in bowl if firm enough for piping, but keep testing so it doesn't curdle if whipped too much) then spoon into large piping bag fitted with star tube; put 18cm (7") meringue circle on serving plate, spread top lightly with whipped cream, top with sliced strawberries, then 15cm (6") circle; continue with remaining meringue circles in order of size and layers of cream and sliced strawberries - don't put strawberries to close to edge.
• Pipe circle of cream around bottom layer, gently press 4cm (1 ½") diameter individual meringues into circle of cream; pipe another layer of cream above, press circle of small meringues in place; continue in this way until all small meringues are used; pipe small stars of cream in between assembled meringues and decorate with whole strawberries between only some of the meringues.