This Meringue Cake with berries is a naturally gluten-free, light, crispy with loads of berries combined with delicate and creamy chantily cream.
Prep:
Preheat the oven to 200°F.
Cut out 3, 9.5 - 10-inch circles from parchment paper. With a marker, draw an 8 – 8.5 inch circle in the middle of each piece of parchment. Turn the parchment over and place each parchment circle over an upside down 9-inch round pan, set aside (you can use layered aluminum foil if you don’t have 3, 9 inch round pans).
Prepare a large pastry bag (or a gallon size zip-lock bag) fitted with a large star tip. Set aside.
Drape the sides of a small zip-lock bag over a glass/cup. Set aside.
Whip: In a bowl of an electric mixer, fitted with a whip attachment, whip 12 room temperature egg whites with 1/4 tsp cream of tartar for about 1 minute or until they start to foam up. Then, add 2 cups of sugar, one tablespoon at a time and continue whipping for about 20 minutes on high speed or until the eggwhites are glossy and increased in volume and have formed stiff peaks.
Careful not to over whip, or you will have to start over. Overwhipped meringue looks chunky and broken, whereas properly whipped meringue looks fluffy and smooth.
Pipe: Use a small drop of meringue to secure the parchment paper to the bottoms of the upside down baking pans. In a swirling mositon pipe 3 meringue disks on top of the parchment paper and within the drawn circles. The piped disks should be about ¾- 1 inch in height, if your pastry tip is not large enough to make it that tall in one layer, just make another spiral layer on top.
Side note: it’s best to make 2 thicker meringue layers and one thinner. The two thicker will be the two bottom layers and the thinner one will be on top. The two bottom layers will absorb a lot more moisture then the top, as the bottom will do so from the weight and the middle one will do so because of being surrounded by whip cream from both sides
Bake: Transfer the pans into the 200°F oven and dry the meringue for about 10-12 hours. Then, turn off the oven, leave the oven door ajar and allow to cool completely for a couple of hours.
Make the cream right before assembly for best results.
In a chilled bowl of an electric mixer, fitted with a whip attachment whip cold heavy cream until it just starts to get fluffy. Then, add the sugar and the vanilla extract and keep whipping until medium peaks form. Refrigerate until ready to use.
Bring 1/2 cup cream to a boil (in a microwave or in a small saucepot). Add 1/2 cup chopped dark semi-sweet chocolate or dark semi-sweet chocolate chips. Allow to sit for a minute, then stir until smooth.
Pour into the prepared zip-lock bag. Close the end and snip off the corner of the bag.
Drizzle the chocolate over all meringue layers, place in the freezer to set, 3-4 minutes
Reserve [adjustable]2 cups of frosting[/adjustable] for decoration and refrigerate.
Prepare the berries, by washing, drying, and slicing what's needed.
On a serving dish, put a dab of Chantilly Cream, add the first meringue disk and press gently to adhere.
Spoon or pipe ¼ of the frosting on top of the meringue layer. Layer out the bananas and cover with ¼ of the Chantily cream. Layer half of all the berries on top. Press them in gently. Place a couple of dabs of cream on top for the next meringue layer to adhere.
Continue layering in the above manner finishing with the thiner meringue layer. Pipe 8 swirls around the edge of the top layer, then top each swirl with a half straberry sliced side up.
Refrigerate until ready to serve.
Pro tips:
When to assemble the cake: Make the cake at least 2-3 hours before serving, but not more, then 6 hours before serving.
Keep the cake refrigerated: Keep the cake in the fridge up until serving time. It's natural for the cream to separate if it stays at room temperature for too long, so keeping it in the fridge is best.
Making the meringue in advance: Meringue layers can be made up two 2 days in advance but must be kept in an airtight container (wrapped in shrink wrap), to prevent moisture from being absorbed by the meringue.
Transporting the cake: If the cake must be transported, let the cake sit in the fridge for 2-3 hours before doing so, otherwise, the layers will start to slide off, or the cake will crack or split.
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