Chocolate Meringue Cake

Okay, I underestimated the ‘working blogger’ and I overestimated my capabilities as a human being, it seems I was born lazy.  

Mum and I have been scrolling through range cookers from Argos, to replace our clumsy, tepid oven. Ours is a baker’s nightmare - it’s so inaccurate that even oven thermometers are confused by it. Sponge cakes come out with domed tops or they barely rise, and beating butter and sugar until the mixer's on the verge of combustion or a new bag of flour doesn’t always work. Most of the layered cakes on here were lucky escapes (face palm). 

Homemade meringue has always made me feel a bit uneasy because it always comes out just a bit too eggy to stomach. But last week I had a thought, what if I add meringue on top of a cake, purposefully over-baking it by baking the meringue for as long as the dense chocolate cake that will be at the bottom? Perhaps the secret to abolishing the raw egg aftertaste was to over-bake it. It seems, my incompetent oven could finally be put to good use.

By the time the cake is such that a skewer inserted won't be all gooey from the mucus of an egg, you’re left with a crunchy and weightless meringue topping. There’s nothing marshmallow-y about this one, but if that’s what you’re after (and I’m not judging) top the cake with meringue 20 minutes in to the cake’s baking time. 

Chocolate Meringue Cake

Ingredients

Chocolate swirl meringue

• 4 egg whites
• 225g golden caster sugar
• 1 tsp cornflour
• 30g cocoa powder

Chocolate cake

• 200g dark chocolate
• 300g unsalted butter, softened
• 300g light brown sugar
• 4 eggs, lightly beaten
• 2 tsp coffee extract
• 150g plain flour
• 2 tsp baking powder

Cream filling

• 300ml cream
• Pinch of salt
• Cream of tarter
• A few pomegranate seeds

Lasts for three days if covered. 

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180 C and line two 6” round cake tins with baking paper.
2. Start by whisking the egg whites until froth appears, then slowly add in the sugar whilst whisking. Keep whisking until thick and glossy, then add the cornflour and mix to combine. Spoon two heaped tablespoons into a small bowl and sift over the cocoa, then whisk to combine – don’t worry if the mixture deflates. Set both bowls aside and make the cakes.
3. Melt the chocolate over a pan of simmering water then set aside to cool. Cream the butter and sugar until pale. Whilst creaming, slowly add in the eggs. If the mixture curdles add a tablespoon of the flour, then add the rest of the eggs. Pour in the melted chocolate and coffee extract and stir through. Fold in the flour and baking powder and equally divide the mixture among the pans. Spoon the white meringue over the tops of each raw cake, using the spoon to roughly level the tops. Spoon small blobs of the chocolate meringue all over then take a cocktail stick and swirl both meringues together.
4. Bake for 40/50 minutes, or until a skewer inserted in the middle is a little damp. The tops will crack in the middle as they bake and then collapse slightly when cooling. Whip the cream with the salt and tarter to soft peaks, then sandwich the cakes together with the cream and pomegranate seeds. Use a spatula to smooth the sides of the cake and serve. 

I was contacted by Argos to talk ovens. I grew up with this brand, and we use them to buy many, many things (thank god for the store card). 

Love Em 

The Best Cup Of Turkish Coffee

I wrote a whole post about Turkish coffee and then Google thought it would be funny to delete it. Normally in these situations (yes this happens a lot, my life is a shambles), I would just write a new post, but I had a bit of a connection to that post so now that it’s lost I’m not going to try and remake it.

Turkish coffee is usually enjoyed as an after dinner beverage, it is thick, muddy and unbearably strong in all the best ways. Men are usually served water with their little cup, which always has flowers on it of some kind. While women are forced to drink as is, there are probably some sexist connotations there, but waters for wussy’s anyways.

Italian Tiramisù

Italian Tiramusu

Preparing a tiramisu, I say this because it's merely a case of putting a few bits together as opposed to 'baking' - there was certainly no baking involved (apologies from mbakes). Anyway preparing a tiramisu came as quite a shock for me - it was so simple and the end result - SO satisfying. After you pick up the recipe, you might find that this too becomes your 'go to' dessert after a mean meal. This is my own version of Jamie Oliver's citrus-y T-su, the next time I make it I might just add a few swigs of Brandy/Vin for that "naughty kick" he bangs on about. I am very happy that I ignored the temptation to make a standard British take on this authentic Italian dessert, it was truly worth it!  

The Recipe:
750g mascarpone
100g caster sugar
4 large eggs
210g lady fingers
50g cocoa powder
400ml sweetened black coffee

The Method 

• First off, brew the sweetened coffee and set aside to cool in a wide jug. 
• Start separating all of your eggs - the egg whites in a freestanding mixer and the egg yolks in a large bowl. 
• Add the caster sugar to the yolks and whisk until the sugar granules have dissolved and the mixture is pale and puffed up - aprox 4 minutes. 
• Chuck in all of the mascarpone cheese and continue to mix until smooth. Set aside. 
• Using the balloon whisk on a freestanding mixer, whisk the egg whites until stiff peaks form. 
• Carefully fold the egg whites into the mascarpone bit by bit until you have a gorgeously fluffy cream. Set aside. 
• Grab a Pyrex dish (approx 30cm). Then quickly dip the lady fingers into the cooled coffee and then place into the bottom of the Pyrex dish until the bottom of the dish is covered. 
• Plop half the mascarpone cream onto the lady fingers and spread around using a cranked spatula. 
• Sprinkle cocoa (using a small sieve) all around the mascarpone and repeat the same layer again. 
• Leave to set in the fridge for 2/3 hours.
• Enjoy :) 

Tiramisu

I have entered this Tiramisu into  #TuscanyNowCookOff Competition! Enter yours here for a chance to win a weekend away :)

Coffee and Walnut Cake

This was my first ever attempt at a coffee cake, I'd like to say I think it went down pretty well for a first go! But one can only slightly agree on such a subjective comment. The icing was rather sweet, but it counter-acted with the tart tasting sponge so there was equal balance. Again, (as I like to do) I glued two vaguely similar recipes together and a few additions of my own, taking bits from each - to create this cake. I used Primrose Hill's recipe with Nigellas! Two personal faves... One last thing, I think the addition of real butter is very important to this type of cake - Stork simply wont do! Hope everyone had a marvo weekend!

The Recipe:
225g golden caster sugar
200g plain flour
2 & a half tsp baking powder
Half tsp baking soda
50g chopped walnuts plus extra for decorating
4 medium eggs
4 & a half tsp good quality expresso powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
225g unsalted butter
Buttercream:
2 & a half tsp expresso powder
1 tbso boiling water
175g unsalted butter
350g icing sugar
The Method:

• Preheat the oven to 180 degrees and line two 8 inch cake tins with grease. 
• Cream together butter and sugar in a freestanding mixer for a few minutes, add eggs one at a time till smooth. 
• Chop the walnuts and put aside.
• Add baking powder/soda, expresso powder and vanilla to the mixture until just combined.
• Pour in flour in thirds also till just combined. 
• Using a spatula, scrape down the sides of the bowl and loosely throw in walnut pieces. 
• Divide the batter into two and bake for 25 minutes.
• For the buttercream, cream the butter in a freestanding mixer and gradually add in all of the icing sugar once this is done. 
• Mix the expresso powder into the boiling water and gradually pour into buttercream.
• Once the cake has cooled, decorate as you please!

Mbakes x