Valentines Day is just a week away, so I thought for this weeks tutorial I would use this as a theme and combine 4 of my favourite things into one cake… stripes, a chocolate drip, sprinkles and meringues. So for this weeks tutorial I am going to show you how I made this vibrant pink, striped cake with these pretty pink meringue hearts on the top and cascading down the side.
I really loved how the heart meringues came out and they are so easy to make.
For the French meringue mixture I used a ration of 2:1, caster sugar to egg whites. So for 60g of egg whites I used 120g of caster sugar. If you are finding that your mixture is just isn’t thickening once you add your sugar it may be because your egg whites were not whisked enough at the start. Your meringues will also work best when your egg whites are at room temperature. If your eggs are too cold you can pop them in a bowl of warm water for a few minutes to warm up before separating them.
When piping the hearts apply pressure to your piping bag and once you have a ball of meringue the size you need just stop applying pressure and pull down into a point. Repeat directly next the the first ball, jointing the points together at the bottom to give you that pretty heart shape. For this cake I used 3 different piping tips, a circle end piping tip, the 6B and the 195K. This gave me around 17 hearts, in various sizes. I then picked the best ones to go onto the cake.
Once the hearts of piped baked these at 100°C for 45 minutes. You are looking for a nice crunchy shell with a soft center. By keeping your oven low your meringues will retain their bright colour. Once the meringues were ready I turned the oven off and let them cool inside before removing them.
For the cake itself this was a 6 inch vanilla sponge cake which I covered in 2 shades of pink buttercream. I used the contour comb by Evil Cake Genius to create the fun stripes around the edge. To contrast the pink I made a dark chocolate ganache by mixing 200g of dark chocolate with 125g of heated cream. This was just the right consistency to create the drip on the side.
Now this cake wouldn’t be complete without some matching sprinkles, and the ‘Love you more’ Pixie Pearls by SweetStamp were the perfect colours.
I really love how fun this cakes looks and how you can use any of the techniques for other cakes. Below you will find the full video tutorial, and although I do go through how I made the meringue mixture I have also included a more detailed video on how to make my meringues to give you some more ideas. I really hope you like the cake and all have a lovely Valentines Day! If you haven’t already you can also subscribe to my YouTube channel for more cake related video tutorials.
Here is a slightly more detailed Meringue Tutorial:
Tools I used
I have put a list below showing all the tools that I used throughout this video or if you would like to see all my favourite cake decorating tools just click here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/shop/cakesbylynz
Sweetstamp – ‘Love You More’ Pixie Pearls: https://www.sweetstamp.online (use code ‘CAKESBYLYNZ’ for 10% off)
Metal Scrapper Tool by Evil Cake Genius: https://evilcakegenius.com
Turn Table: http://amzn.to/2CfVJUl
Rolling Pin: http://amzn.to/2lkPtA1
Renshaw Fondant – white: https://amzn.to/38JKK30
6B piping tip: https://amzn.to/2TH8P6w
Open Circle piping tip: https://amzn.to/2KzBgKU
195k piping tip
Piping bags I use: http://amzn.to/2xqeDlM
Raspberry Food Colour: https://amzn.to/2XSvYF2
~ Please note that some of links above may be affiliate links. If you click the link and purchase any item through that link, I will receive a small commission from the website but this does NOT add any additional costs to you. Thank you so much for supporting this blog x ~
Meringue Heart Cake Toppers
Ingredients
- 60 g Egg Whites (Around 2 eggs)
- 120 g Caster Sugar
- Flavouring of your choice
- Food Colour Gel
Instructions
- Into a mixing bowl sift in the plain flour. Add the bicarbonate of soda, the ground cinnamon and the ground ginger and pop to one side.
- Into a saucepan add the butter, caster sugar, the brown sugar and the golden syrup and place this onto your hob until all the ingredients have melted together.
- You then want to add your melted ingredients to your dry ingredients in your mixing bowl. Using a wooden spoon or spatula mix this all together until it forms a dough. You can finish this off mixing it with your hands to make sure the ingredients are all combined.
- Take a piece of cling film / plastic wrap and push down your dough, coving it over. Place this into the fridge for 30 minutes.
- Whilst your dough is in the fridge you will need to print off and cut out your template pieces. You can find my template here.
- After 30 minutes take your dough out of the fridge. You can then dust your surface with a little flour and roll out your dough until its around 5mm in thickness. Then use a knife to cut out all of your shapes and place on a baking tray.
- Place your cut out shapes into a preheated oven set to 180 degrees Celsius for 10 minutes. You want the edges just to start changing colour.
- After 10 minutes you can take your shapes out of the oven to let them cool. I like to use my templates and carefully (they will be hot) cut around the template a second time, to cut off any areas that have spread in size. This will help your house fit together a little easier.
- You then have all the pieces for your gingerbread house. I like to use royal icing to stick my pieces together. Watch how to decorate your Gingerbread house in my tutorial above.
Notes
Storing your meringues
Once your meringues have cooled, you can place them in an airtight container and keep them at room temperature for around 2 weeks. Meringues don’t like to be put in the fridge as they soak up the moisture and can go sticky, so if your cake needs to be refrigerated, place the meringues on once it comes out of the fridge.Plus why not save this tutorial for later and pin it to Pinterest
