Chocolate brownie meringue cake

Today was a special day. You might have seen 'The Big Reunion' on the TV (lots of pop bands from the late nineties and early noughties reuniting) - well today was the proper big reunion. It is ten years this summer since I and my very special friends graduated from university. In honour of this special occasion we had a get together to reminisce, laugh over photos (what were we wearing?!?) and partake in a game of petanque. I of course offered to make dessert. I'd had my eye on this recipe for a while and recently had a similar cake at 'The Tenth Hole Tea Rooms' in Southsea (they are legendary in Hampshire for their amazing cakes!) so decided now was the time. I am now a little bit obsessed with the idea of making meringue cakes and have my eye on a Nigella Lawson lemon meringue cake, a BBC Good Food blackberry and almond meringue cake and a mocha meringue cake I have found on a blog. Oh the possibilities!

As you will see from the photos I have yet again failed in my attempts to make a meringue that does not crack! I am obviously just doomed. However despite appearances the cake went down well. It is a Miranda Gore-Brown recipe from the Great British Bake Off. You can find it on lots of different websites but I used the version from the BBC website that you can find here. It is very tricky to slice and serve and does not look pretty but makes up for it in taste. The combination of meringue and brownie works well and the raspberry cream adds some freshness. There was a debate over the hazelnuts in the meringue but the end decision was that they add texture. The recipe is meant to use two 23cm sandwich tins which I don't possess so I used springform tins instead which still works.

Ingredients:
For the brownie base
200g good-quality dark chocolate (roughly chopped)
200g unsalted butter, softened (plus extra for greasing)
250g icing sugar
3 eggs
110g plain flour

For the meringue topping
4 egg whites
200g caster sugar
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
100g hazelnuts (roasted and chopped)

For the filling
300ml whipping cream
100g icing sugar
200g raspberries

Method:
1) Preheat the oven to 190C/375F/Gas 5. Grease and line two 23cm sandwich tins.
2) For the brownie base, melt 180g of the chocolate in a bowl and set over a pan of simmering water. Chop the remaining chocolate and set aside.

Melt 180g of chocolate 

Roughly chop the remaining chocolate

3) Meanwhile, cream the butter and icing sugar together in a separate bowl until light, creamy and fluffy. Slowly whisk in the eggs, one at a time, until well combined (the mixture will look a little bit odd at this point but don't worry!)

Cream the butter and sugar until fluffy and creamy

Add the eggs one at a time

4) Gradually beat in the flour until the mixture is very smooth. Slowly pour in the melted chocolate and fold it into the mixture, then fold in the chopped chocolate.

5) Pour the brownie mixture into the prepared sandwich tins and bake for 10-12 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 170C/325F/Gas 3.

6) Meanwhile for the meringue topping, whisk the egg whites and cream of tartar in a bowl until soft peaks form when the whisk is removed (I think I probably stopped whisking a little bit too early and should have carried on a little longer). Slowly which the sugar until smooth and glossy, then fold in the chopped hazelnuts with a metal spoon.

7) Spoon the meringue topping onto the cooked brownie base. Use a palette knife to smooth the meringue mixture in one sandwich tin and use a skewer to make peaks in the meringue mixture in the other tin (I failed here as I don't think I whisked my meringue enough for the peaks to hold).

8) Return the sandwich tins to the overn for a further 30 minutes, or until the meringue is golden-brown (I check mine just after 20 minutes and they were ready then.) Remove from the oven and set aside to cool. Carefully remove the cakes from the tin and set aside to cool completely on a wire rack.
9) For the filling, whip the cream and icing sugar together in a bowl until stiff peaks form when the whisk is removed (again I think I failed in my whisking here!) Fold in the raspberries.

Whisk the cream and icing sugar until stiff peaks form

10) To assemble, place the flat meringue brownie, meringue-side down onto a cake stand or large plate, spoon over the raspberry cream and top with the remaining cake, brownie-side down (this is tricky - this is where my cracking took place). As an optional extra you can sprinkle over chopped hazelnuts and pistachios.

Happy baking!

Banoffee Pie

Summer has finally arrived and it is barbecue season. Our friends Simon and Louisa (and their super cute son Finn) joined us this afternoon for a barbecue in the sunshine and to cheer Andy Murray on (well done Andy!) I was tempted to make Nigella's Forgotten Pudding or her Strawberry Shortcakes but Mr Birdie requested banoffee pie so banoffee pie it was!

There are hundreds of recipes for banoffee pie on the Internet. After much perusing I opted for a Hairy Biker's recipe from the BBC website which you can find here. I made some changes such as not putting banana in the cream on top and not putting any banana on the top. It is a simple recipe and it is super tasty. After a few baking disasters recently I was happy to get back on track and enjoy some baking success!

Ingredients:

For the base and sides

75g butter

300g oaty biscuits (the recipe states chocolate oaty biscuits but I decided to use plain)

For the filling
115g butter
115g soft dark brown sugar (I didn't have any and used light brown instead - it didn't make any difference other than the colour of the caramel)
397g can sweetened condensed milk

For the topping
450ml double cream
4 ripe but firm medium bananas (I ended up using 3 large ones as I didn't put any on the top or in the cream)
25g coarsely grated plain dark chocolate or chocolate curls

Method:
1) To make the base, melt the butter in a small pan. Break the biscuits into chunky pieces, put in a food processor and blend into crumbs. Alternatively you can put the biscuits into a strong food bag and bash with a rolling pin. Tip into a bowl and stir in the melted butter.
2) Tip the crumbs into the centre of a deep, 23cm/9in fluted loose-base tart tin and press firmly into the base and sides (I didn't have one large enough so used a 23cm springform tin which worked just as well). Make sure the biscuit is evenly distributed and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes, or until set.

3)To make the filling, melt the butter in a medium non-stick saucepan and stir in the sugar. Cook over a low heat as the sugar dissolve, stirring constantly until the butter and sugar look smooth and no oil floats to the surface. Add the condensed milk and bring to a gentle simmer, stirring constantly. Cook until the mixture turns a deep, creamy caramel brown (You need to be very paitent - the recipe states this will take three minutes but mine took a lot longer than this).

4) Pour the toffee gently onto the biscuit base and quickly smooth the surface. Leave to chill for at least one hour (I left mine overnight) before topping.

5) Just before serving, lightly whip the cream in a bowl. It should stand in soft peaks. Diagonally slice the bananas and scatter them over the toffee. (The recipe suggests putting half the bananas on top of the toffee and folding the rest into the cream but I decided against this).

6) Spoon the cream gently on top. If you want to decorate your pie with banana on top the recipe suggests slicing some banana and pouring lemon juice over it to stop it from going brown. You can then decorate the top with the lemony banana, poking it into the cream randomly. Finally, sprinkle the pie with grated chocolate or chocolate curls. 

7) To serve cut into slices and enjoy!