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Coconut Meringue Cakes

Published 25 October 2012 by Veronica Stillwater

Coconut meringue cakes laced with cherris, drizzled with dark chocolate and served with Italian meringue buttercream for dipping

 

These are really easy to make and they bake quickly making them great great for a lunch box snack, mid morning munch or evening treat with a nice hot chocolate or cup of tea. The Italian meringue buttercream adds a velvety smooth, airy light and fluffy cloud of sweet deliciousness to dip these coconut meringue cakes into. I piped swirls of the Italian meringue buttercream straight onto the plate, although you could serve it in mini dipping pots or a small espresso cup. I made up 2 batches as we had a party so the recipe makes up 24 smaller fairy cake sized coconut meringue cakes. If you would like to make just 12 halve the quantities for a smaller batch. Enjoy.

 

For the coconut meringue cakes:

You will need:

Electric whisk

x2 large mixing bowls

2x 12 cup baking trays

24 fairy cake paper cases

Teaspoon

Tablespoon

Small chopping board

Small chopping knife

 

Ingredients:

125g butter or margarine

125g sugar

125g self raising flour

2 heaped dessert spoons cornflour

3 medium sized eggs

1 level teaspoon baking powder

150g desiccated coconut

100g ground almonds

100g glacé cherries

3 medium eggs

2 tablespoons milk

 

Turn on the oven, set to 170° and fill the cake baking trays with the fairy cases.

 

Rinse the glacé cherries and drain. Chop finely and set aside. Place the butter and sugar in the large mixing bowl and beat with the electric whisk on a high speed setting until light and fluffy. Separate the egg whites into the other mixing bowl, set aside and place the yolks into the creamed butter and sugar mixture adding the desiccated coconut, ground almonds, self raising flour, baking powder, cornflour and milk. On a low speed setting, whisk until the ingredients are roughly combined. Add the chopped cherries. Clean the whisks of the electric whisk ensuring they are thoroughly dry and beat the egg whites on a high speed setting until firm and stiff peaks form. Add a small amount of the beaten egg whites to the bowl with the cake ingredients and lightly fold in well using the spatula. Add half of the remaining egg whites and fold in again until combined before adding the remaining egg whites and repeating the folding in lightly and gently until a smooth and light texture is formed. Fill each of the fairy cake cases with a heaped teaspoon of mixture and once all are filled, place one tray in the oven near or just above the middle shelf, placing the other tray just below and bake for 15-20 minutes, checking at 15 minutes cooking time on their progress. The cakes in the top tray will appear golden, will have risen and firm to the touch, remove the cooked top tray of cakes from the oven with oven gloves and allow to cool. Move the lower tray of cupcakes to the top part of the oven and allow to cook for approx 5 minutes further. Once baked remove from the oven using oven gloves and allow to cool.

You can always test by inserting a clean skewer into one of the cakes, if it comes out clean they are ready, if not return to the oven checking with the skewer again at 5 minute intervals. (Always really important never to open the oven door and allow any air in before 15 minutes of cooking as this will allow for the mixture to 'drop' and sink, look through the oven door if you have one that's made of glass to visually check on their progress rather than open the door). Once baked, remove from the oven using oven gloves and allow to cool completely.

 

 

For the coconut and chocolate coating:

You will need:

Microwaveable bowl

Piping bag

Small plain nozzle

Large plate

Heavy based saucepan

Pastry brush

Large sheet of greaseproof paper

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons strawberry or raspberry jam (no bits, a smooth jam is preferable but you can use regular jam)

85g desiccated coconut

75g dark plain chocolate

 

Cut a large piece of greaseproof paper big enough to place all 24 of the cakes on with enough room to leave a small space between each. Place the coconut on the large plate and set aside. Place the jam in the saucepan and heat on a low to medium heat until warmed through and a more liquid state. Remove from the heat and allow to cool a little. Remove the paper cases from the coconut cherry meringue cakes and brush each of the cakes all over with the warm jam using the pastry brush. Place each of the jam coated cakes in the coconut on the plate and coat the cakes evenly all over with the coconut. Once covered, place on the greaseproof paper, repeat and continue coating the remaining cakes in the coconut until all 24 are coated. Place the dark chocolate in the microwaveable bowl and microwave for approx 1-2 minutes until the chocolate is melted and smooth with no lumps. Allow to cool for a few minutes and pour the chocolate into your piping bag ready with the plain nozzle. Drizzle the chocolate on each of the cakes in a zigzag motion not applying pressure, but allowing the chocolate to flow freely, keeping the bag swinging from left to right moving across the cake as you go. Repeat for all the remaining 23 until all have a chocolate topping. You can turn the cake around and pipe a zigzag with the piping bag swinging from left to right over the existing chocolate to give a chocolate squares piped pattern. Allow to cool until the chocolate is completely set. Once cooled you can stack your cakes on a large plate or serving dish.

 

 

 

For the Italian meringue buttercream:

You will need:

Heavy based saucepan

Measuring jug

Electric whisk

Tablespoon

Ingredients:

125ml water

4 heaped tablespoons sugar

2 tablespoons caster sugar

60g butter

2 egg whites

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

 

Place the 125ml water and 4 heaped tablespoons of sugar in the saucepan and bring to the boil. Once boiled turn down the heat to a gentle simmer and allow to simmer for approx 5-10 minutes until the sugar and water has turned to a syrupy consistency. Turn off and remove from the heat and allow to cool for 5-minutes.

 

Place the egg whites in the large mixing bowl and using the electric whisk beat on a high speed setting until stiff peaks form. Add the caster sugar and combine on a high speed setting until thick and glossy. Pour the sugar syrup from a height in a gentle drizzle into the beaten egg whites and sugar, whilst bating on a high speed setting using the electric whisk. This will take a few minutes as it is really important to add the sugar syrup slowly to ensure the right consistency. Keep whisking in the sugar syrup until it is combined. Add the butter in small chunks at a time using the electric whisk on a high speed setting. Once you have whisked in and incorporated all the butter it will appear that the texture of the buttercream is really runny, this is normal and will take some further beating using the electric whisk for up to 10 minutes depending on the consistency you prefer. You can reduce the amount of whisking that is required by placing the buttercream in the fridge for a short while after having beaten in the butter. This allows the butter now blended throughout to firm up and when removing from the fridge, whisk again on a high speed setting until the required consistency. Once firm enough to hold its own shape, add the vanilla extract and beat in well.

 

Spoon into a piping bag ready with a large open star or plain nozzle and pipe swirls directly onto a plate for serving or alternately pipe into a dipping pot to serve with the plate of stacked cakes and serve. Until next week, happy baking! Look out for next week's post using edible gold shimmer spray!