Meringue Christmas Cake With Whipped Coconut Cream and Mulled Port Drizzle
, Updated Nov 15, 2019
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Meringue Christmas Cake with whipped coconut cream, raspberries and white chocolate truffles – a spectacular festive dessert!
You will also love my classic Pavlova
It’s December 1st and Supergolden Bakes turns the ripe old age of FOUR!!!! I feel like the exclamation points and all caps are allowed, I am so excited to have reached this milestone.
The past year has been the most thrilling in the life cycle of the blog and in the way the blog has changed my own life. It has morphed from a diverting side project into my full-time occupation – yes I think I can officially call myself a ‘full-time blogger’.
Blogger, recipe developer, food photographer and all-round mess maker. My husband recently joked that he would start a blog titled ‘married to a food blogger’… I am sure it would bring a whole new perspective to the inner workings of Supergolden Bakes, but he promised to shelve it for the sake of our marriage.
Anyway, a big blog birthday deserves a spectacular celebration cake, don’t you think? This year it is a Meringue Christmas tree inspired by Food to Love magazine. It is such a divine winter dessert, snowy white and perfect for the festive season.
Despite the showy looks, it is actually really easy to make – the meringue layers can be baked in advance and the ‘tree’ assembled just before you are ready to serve. I treated myself (well, the blog!) to a big present in the form of a TKMaxx trip for wonderful new props. I always visit TKMaxx at the beginning of December as they have an amazing array of festive decorations and gifts on offer.
This year they truly outdid themselves, I wanted to practically move in to the shop. But I also wanted to give something back, so make sure to enter the giveaway for a chance to win a £100 voucher to spend in TKMaxx or Homesense!
The cake is tall but fairly small, however it can be sized up very easily as the meringue works on a simple ratio of twice the amount of sugar to egg whites.
You can make it vegan two by simply replacing the egg whites with aquafaba – the method works in precisely the same way. For filling use the coconut or chocolate mousse recipe but doubled. I also made a mulled port berry coulis to drizzle on this – it is delicious but make sure it is added at the last minute otherwise your lovely meringue will start to wilt.
Meringue Christmas Tree
Ingredients
- For the meringue
- 150 g | 5.3oz | 1/2 cup + 2 tbsp egg whites
- 300 g | 10.5oz | 1 1/2 cups caster or granulated sugar
- ½ tsp cream of tartar
- a little cornflour cornstarch to dust the trays
- For the filling
- 300 g | 10.5oz | 1 1/4 cup double heavy cream
- 150 g | 5.3oz | 1 cup 2 tbsp chilled coconut milk optional you could replace with more cream
- 100 g | 3.5oz | 1 cup icing sugar more or less, to taste
- 1 tsp vanilla paste
- ¼ tsp coconut extract
- Mulled berry coulis
- 150 g | 5.3oz | 1 1/2 cup frozen mixed berries
- 6 tbsp tawny port or red wine
- 2-3 tbsp granulated sugar
- ½ tsp ground cinnamon or a cinnamon stick
- To assemble and decorate
- 150 g | 5.3oz | 1 punnet fresh raspberries
- white chocolate truffles optional
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 150C | 300F and set two shelves in the middle of the oven.
- Trace three circles on greaseproof paper - mine where 16,11 and 7cm, but you can trace them wider as long as the are decreasing in size so that they can be stacked to create the 'tree'. You will have enough meringue to create duplicates of the smaller layers plus a few kisses. Base your biggest circle on the diameter of the cake stand or plate you plan on using.
- Place your tracings on two baking trays and dust with a little cornflour.
- Put the egg whites and cream of tartar in the bowl of your stand mixer. Start whisking at medium-low speed and gradually increase the speed to maximum until you have soft peaks.
- Start adding the sugar, a tablespoon at a time, while whisking. Continue whisking for several minutes until all the sugar is added and meringue forms firm peaks. Beat it the vanilla paste until combined.
- Fill the circles you traced with meringue using a spoon to shape it. Pipe any extra merigue into kisses using a piping bag fitted with a large star tip.
- Reduce the oven temperature to 120C (250F) and bake for an hour and half to two hours, rotating the trays halway through, until dry to the touch.
- Turn the oven off. Leave the meringues in to cool completely with the door closed.
- Make the coulis: put all the ingredients in a saucepan and bring to the boil. Reduce heat to a simmer and cook for 5-10 minutes until the fruit is softened. Leave to cool then strain the syrup and set aside.
- Beat the chilled coconut milk and double cream until you have soft peaks. Add the icing sugar, vanilla paste and coconut extract and whisk until you have firm peaks. Transfer to a piping bag fitted with a large star tip.
- Assemble the meringue tree by piping the whipped cream over the base layer and dotting with raspberries and white chocolate truffles (if using).
- Repeat with remaining layers. Top the tree with a meringue kiss or the smallest circle and drizzle with the coulis just before serving.
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Happy Blogiversary! Is that the right spelling? Anyway, I think everyone will be totally stunned to read that you’ve not be doing this for 10 years – everything about your blog is so pro and inspiring. What a way to celebrate! PS I am really looking forward to seeing you again some time in 2017. xx
Oh, dear…this looks stunning!! Love your blog so much and the photos 🙂 I can’t tell you how happy I am I found yur blog 🙂
Anja
Use Your Noodles
Hi Anja – so glad you stopped by! Going to check out your blog too <3
Congratulations and happy birthday, gorgeous meringue cake. I’d love to hear more about how your blog has become a full time job. I’m two years into mine but I feel like I’m taking to myself! X
Thanks Jane! Working on the blog has helped me develop my food photography and recipe creation – both aspects fuel the blog but also help me freelance outside it as well. It is round-the-clock hard work and very unpredictable but I will ride the upward wave while I can!
This is seriously stunning!! Wow! I also love Homesense (here in Canada). I am there WAY too often but they have the best props! And Christmastime at Homesense is my favourite — so many goodies!
I know, right? Lucky everything is so reasonably priced because I end up wanting to buy EVERYTHING!! I always go in December and on all our birthdays to stock up on gifts. But mostly props 🙂
Love love love this meringue tree so much! I don’t know Food to Love magazine, is it an online one?
It was so delicious! Food to Love is an Australian magazine but I found it in WHSmith in the UK and it has UK pricing so am wondering if they are now doing a UK edition. Well worth seeking out – beautiful design and photography.
Oh my gosh this is a special pudding!
I can’t wait to attempt it!
It is really easy to make – just looks impressive 🙂
Four years massive congratulations. I love this meringue Christmas tree. Perfect as I’m not a fan of Christmas pud but prefer something lighter. Here’s to the next four years. X
Thank you so much! Good thing the blog birthday falls on December 1st so I have plenty of excuses for all things festive!
Happy anniversary! Such a sensational cake to celebrate it with 🙂
Thanks Kate! Hope the meringue lasts until we can dig in later today
Happy anniversary to you!! That’s a huge accomplishment as lots of people quit! I am a big meringue fan and absolutely adore this cake. So pristine! Love the addition of raspberries, they provide such a nice contrast to sweet and crunchy meringue.
Thank you my friend! One day we will do a joint post celebrating our blogs. Keeping them going hasn’t been easy at times but it’s worth it.
That is so stunning. I only discovered a love for meringue last year, so I am going to have to try this.
I love meringue a little too much. I remember discovering it as a kid and thinking how easy it was to make – possibly one of the first recipes I attempted!