Amazing crispy airy meringue dessert was loved by many sweet tooth. Delicate meringue cream for the cake is also a great way to decorate baking, widely used in cooking. Using such a cream, you can create a cake with a unique design that will decorate the festive table. Delicious cakes from it are popular all over the world.
Of various shapes and sizes, incredible colors and fillings, the most popular confectionery products are filled with meringue cream. The advantage of this dessert is that some of its varieties are easy to cook at home, it does not require much experience and special skills. Meringue products are always in the refrigerator, and cooking time takes no more than half an hour.
Wet Meringue Cream Recipe for Cake Decorating
The cream recipe is very simple. For cooking, you will need very few products:
- sugar 100 g;
- egg white 2 pcs.;
- citric acid 1/3 teaspoon;
- water 250 ml.
Step 1. Separate the squirrels from the yolks. It is important to do this as carefully as possible, getting the yolk into the separated proteins is unacceptable. If it is mixed with whipped mass, it will not be possible to achieve the desired consistency of meringue cream.
Step 2. Combine the proteins and sugar. Pay due attention to the choice of utensils. For a cream, it is advisable to take a deep bowl or pan to avoid splashing the cream. Beat with a mixer for about a minute.
Step 3. Boil the liquid for the water bath. Place a container of lightly whipped whites with sugar in a pot of boiling water and beat the mixture for five minutes. Watch the condition of the mass, it should thicken and begin to stick to the corolla. After this time, add citric acid and beat for another five minutes until a thick mass. Do not let the cream boil, otherwise it will be spoiled. The protein in the cream will curl up, and it will become unsuitable for further baking.
Step 4. Remove the cream from the steam bath and beat for another five minutes. When traces of the corolla remain on it, the cream is ready.
Cool the Wet Meringue cream in the refrigerator before decorating the cake with it, it is very important. The hot mass will not lie in beautiful curls and melt the icing if it is present on the dessert.
There is another way of making meringues, which is extremely simple, but not classic. Many housewives who love to delight the family with delicious pastries make the cream in the following way: six egg whites need to be whipped with a glass of icing sugar. Beat the cream until the consistency is dense. And that’s it, the cream is ready! They can also successfully decorate a cake or start a cake.
Decor
Meringue cream gives scope for imagination, coloring it in different colors, you can create whole works of art, in addition, it is extremely simple to prepare and economical. To color meringues, use only dry food coloring. Liquid mixtures will violate the consistency of the cream. You need to stain the cream at the last minute before full readiness, that is, it is already slightly cooled.
From this cream you can make cakes and bake decorative decorations for the cake. To make them hard and crunchy, you need to bake the cream, put it on parchment paper and bake in the oven for 90 minutes at a temperature of 100 degrees. The cream will turn into a familiar crunchy treat.
If desired, rum or vanilla can be added to the composition of this whipped mass to give various flavoring shades. Many chefs also add poppy seeds or finely ground nuts. Professional chefs and pastry chefs choose meringues for decorating pastries, because it is more than suitable for creating unique designs.
Varieties of cream
Three classic meringue cream recipes are known: French, Italian and Swedish.
To prepare large decorations for meringue cake, usually prepare the most common option - French. Its difference is that the texture of the cream in this recipe is slightly thinner than in Swedish. When baking jewelry from cream of meringue according to the French recipe, it can float a little, so it will not work to bake small delicate details from it. Jewelry from such meringues can not be laid out on hot cakes or icing, a gentle airy crust will melt. This type of cream is called “Wet Meringue”, because when baked, the dessert turns out to be hard on the outside and tender, soft, viscous inside.
The preparation of meringue cream according to the Italian recipe is slightly more complicated than described above. It’s difficult to cope with the recipe alone, Italian confectioners prepare such a cream in several hands, enlisting the help of other chefs. The recipe includes hot sugar syrup, which is very important to add at the right time and stir constantly. The consistency of the meringue cream according to the Italian recipe is more liquid, usually cakes are filled with this cream, it is practically not used in decoration.
The most difficult meringue recipe is Swedish. It requires great accuracy, even the process of whipping is not as simple as it seems, this will require certain skills that are taught by pastry chefs. The Swedish recipe requires pharmacological accuracy when heating the mass in a water bath. A few degrees above or below the temperature indicated in the recipe, and it is spoiled. The Swedish recipe for meringue cream is perfect for decorating: it does not melt when in contact with hot oil, and will keep its shape perfectly in contact with liquid meringue according to the Italian recipe.
Cream Jewelry Making Technique
You can bake meringues of various shapes and sizes. To create most of the famous designs, a pastry bag and various nozzles are used.
Cover the baking sheet with baking paper and squeeze the cream from the bag, making rosettes, sockets, leaflets, rings and any other elements necessary for your idea. After baking, the meringue cream rises and is slightly deformed, so it will take practice to create perfect decorative ornaments.
If there is no bag, ordinary baking paper is perfect for this purpose. Roll it into a bag, leaving a hole of the desired diameter below, and squeeze the cream, squeezing the paper from above. Depending on how the tip of the paper from which the cream comes out is trimmed, the design of the jewelry will depend.
Classic meringue cream cake decoration
The easiest way to decorate the cake with this cream is to make roses in a circle of cake and on the sides. This method is very fast and easy. Having painted the cream in different colors, you can depict beautiful gradient transitions on baking.
Meringue and Chocolate
White meringues blend perfectly with chocolate chips or cocoa powder. This decoration looks stylish and tasty, and the way to create it is the simplest: just sprinkle the meringue decorations on top. By adding a little syrup or butter cream, you can make the cake more interesting.
Meringue cakes with berries and fruits
Berries and fruits are a great option for decorating meringue cakes. To create such a dessert, you will need to bake the rings and simply fill them with berries and fruits to your taste. To prevent berries from falling out of the rings, fill them with cream, boiled condensed milk, peanut or chocolate paste.
Meringue and caramel
Another option is to pour caramel over meringue cakes. Pour liquid caramel over the baked meringue with a thin stream and sprinkle with nuts. Caramel will give the dessert a new flavor.
If such a treat feels too cloying, add a little more citric acid to the recipe or use salted caramel when preparing the meringue cream.