UnCake: Meringues

Meet my new Tool. My last electric mixer was a hand-me-down that was barely alive and only lasted me a few weeks before giving up the ghost. That was a few years ago, and I’ve muddled through without one for a while.

But when a girl wants to make meringues, she needs something more than elbow grease. After using 13 egg yolks for my Gold Cake, I ended up with a lot of egg whites.

The Recipe

3 large egg whites
175g (6oz) caster sugar
pinch of salt

1. Heat the oven to 140C (gas mark 1). Line two baking trays with greaseproof paper.
2. Place the egg whites and a pinch of salt in the bowl of an electric mixer with a whisk attachment. Whisk on a low speed for 1 minute, then increase the speed to medium and whisk for another 2-3 minutes, or until the egg whites form stiff peaks. If you lift the whisk attachment out of the bowl, the mixture should look fluffy and cling to them, while the peaks remain stiff and moist-looking.
3. Then, while continuing to whisk, gradually add the sugar a tablespoon at a time, until the mixture is stiff and glossy – this may take 5-10 minutes.
4. Using a large, metal spoon, place freeform shapes on to the prepared baking trays.
5. Bake for 30-40 minutes, or until the meringues are pale and dry. Turn off the oven and allow the meringues to cool in the oven with the door slightly ajar.

My Alterations

So yeah. I used a LOT more egg whites than called for. When multiplying the recipe, I realised that it would require about a pound of sugar to sweeten so many egg whites. I wasn’t down with that, so I used about half. The mixture was still sweet, though.

This is how they looked when whipped up:

The Results

I probably should have made a Pavlova rather than meringues, because I just didn’t have the space in my oven to cook them, and had to make two batches even so.

Unfortunately, making meringues is harder than you would think. Or maybe you already know that making meringues is difficult, and I was just hopelessly naive to think I could whip some up one afternoon when I was too rushed to pay close attention to what I was doing!

At any rate, they didn’t turn out very well. The first batch, as pictured above, were undercooked. The tops were that lovely meringue texture and flavour, but the rest of them was too gooey and tasted of sweet eggs. Kind of gross, but you kept going back for more. Yeah.

With the next batch, I was determined to cook them all the way through. I ended up with these specimens:

Not what I would call store-quality, really.

The Verdict

The moral of the story is this: If you have a hankering for meringues, go buy some. Easier, less hassle and mess, and you can enjoy them straight away!

Ah well. I enjoyed watching those egg yolks fluff up into the lovely white sugar-egg mixture. That was kind of fun, actually.

The Rating

1/5

Choice between undercooked sweet eggy goo or burnt meringue. Mmm boy.

Day 15: Gold Cake

Over two weeks of cakes floating around my house has been fun, but I was suddenly in the mood for meringues today. That little adventure will be posted shortly, but what to do with the leftover egg yolks? Luckily, there is a recipe geared just for this exact conundrum, and I dug it out of my recipe box. Originally from Allrecipes, of course.

The Recipe

• 3/4 cup butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 1 cup egg yolks
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup milk

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour two 8 inch round pans.
2. Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl.
3. Cream butter and sugar together in a mixing bowl. Add egg yolks and vanilla; beat until fluffy. Add milk to butter mixture in 2 parts alternately with flour mixture in 3 parts, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Spread in prepared pans.

My Alterations

In case you didn’t realise it, one cup of egg yolks is a lot. See?

I ended up using 13 egg yolks, and I probably could have fit another yolk in there. Granted, my eggs are more medium sized than large, so that may make a difference, but that’s still a lot of eggs. So I used a bit less than the one cup that the recipe called for.

Otherwise, it’s an easy recipe and was simple enough to follow without any further alterations.

The Results

The cake turned out really well. It’s a bit on the heavy side, so I was surprised to see all these bubbles when I bit into a slice:

It has a very rich taste, but not unpleasantly eggy or anything. I wouldn’t go out of my way to make this cake again unless I had a surplus of egg yolks for some strange reason.

The Verdict

I really like this cake. I passed on one of the cakes to my neighbours, who also enjoyed it, so it wasn’t just me and my cake loving ways.

It wasn’t anything fancy or amazing, but it’s a little bit different from your bog-standard yellow cake, and the amount of egg yolks in it can be a talking point with people. Or a source of heart attacks. Whichever, I guess.

The Rating

4/5

Nothing stupendous, but a good, moist and flavourful cake. Pleasant brown top compared to the rich yellow of the cake. Moist, dense but not like a brick or this thing. (although to be fair, you can only go up from that cake)