Sugar High Friday Failure: Meringue

I’m a wee bit late for Sugar High Friday, but it’s been a busy week. I made this on Monday, but didn’t have time to post until now. I really wanted to do the meringue theme that’s hosted by One Messy Kitchen (which is the current state of mine). I had been eyeing the Gateau Diane recipe since I had bought the Bittersweet cook book years ago and this was my chance of trying it.

Meringues aren’t usually an issue for me. They’ve been pretty successful every time except for one recipe. This time, I made the meringues twice and I wasn’t happy with both results. The first time I made the recipe it was pretty humid. The egg whites after whipping to stiff peaks seemed to have melted by the time I folded in the chocolate/walnut mixture. I don’t know if it’s because I underwhipped, overwhipped, the humidity, or that I took too long to mix. The meringue came out very flat so I tried it again with the a/c on. The second one turned out a bit better but still a bit too flat for my liking. I think next time I’ll double the meringue recipe to make it taller and I’ll bake it on a silpat marking the rounds with icing sugar. The parchment paper was a pain in the ass and my meringues cracked trying to peel them off.

The cake flavour-wise is amazing! Meringues which are usually very sweet aren’t due to the bittersweet chocolate flecks speckled throughout. The dark chocolate whipped ganache also lessens the sweetness of the meringues. I made my neighbours come by and eat this cake at 9:30pm which they were quite happy to do.

Despite all this trouble I would make this again. I love cakes with meringue layers so I need more practice to make something more presentable.