Raspberry Meringue Cake with Rosewater Cream

The month of May is a busy month for birthdays in my family. This May was extra special as my husband turned 50 and his sister from London who also had a birthday a day before his was with us to celebrate it. Uber special! I really wanted to make a cake for dear Linda and I wanted it to be different and beautiful and just yummy. After all London is a long way away and the fact she came with her husband was cause for celebration enough but to have a birthday with us as well was too fab!

One of Linda's favourite fruit is raspberry so I wanted to showcase raspberries. I love raspberries with cream and with these 2 ingredients in mind I knew I had to make her a meringue cake. I wanted it to be a little more than just raspberries and cream though so I added rosewater to the cream and can I say, those 3 together, raspberries, cream and rosewater .. OMG! The plan to take the cake to another level was to add crushed pistachios between the layers with the rosewater cream but I ooopsied and forgot. So if your memory is better than mine add some for that crunch, it'll be delish.

Raspberry Meringue Cake with Rosewater Cream
2-3 punnets of raspberries
4 egg whites
1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 1/4 cup caster sugar
500ml cream
2-3 tablespoons icing sugar
1-2 tablespoons rosewater
1 cup crushed pistachios (optional)
red food colouring (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 120 degrees.

2. Line 2 baking trays with baking paper and draw 3 circles (I used a saucer).

3. Beat egg whites on low speed until frothy then add cream of tartar. Beat on high until peaks hold.

4. Add sugar a little at the time whilst beating to firm peaks.

5. Pour mixture into drawn circle making sure it's not too thin.

6. Bake for an hour and turn off oven. Loosen meringue discs with a spatula just to make sure the bottoms are not stuck. Leave in oven to cool and dry.

7. Beat cream and icing sugar until firm. Add rosewater to taste and just a drop of food colouring for a tinge of colour.

8. To assemble simply place cream on a disc of meringue. Sprinkle raspberries and pistachios (optional) and then sandwich with another disc. Repeat for the next layer. Then garnish the top however you like.

Rosewater Stained Glass Jelly

A friend of mine showed me a post that the very clever people at The Food Librarian had on Broken Glass Jello. It is basically coloured jelly cut up and suspended in technicolor gorgeousness in white jelly. Very very simple, very very beautiful and definitely a hit with the kids. The original recipe is super easy as the technicolor jelly was just 4 packets of Jello in 4 different colours.

I did opt not to use the boxed Jello purely for the fact that if I made my own coloured jelly than the colouring and sugar content was in my control. The white jelly component is sugar laden enough as it's a whole can of condensed milk. I also wanted the coloured component to be rosewater flavoured as rosewater jelly is something that always makes me think of my childhood.

Whichever way you decide to go just know that the kids won't care as all they see is colour, colour and more colour and as quickly as you blink the pieces will disappear.

Stained Glass Jelly

1.2L water
6-10 tablespoons castor sugar (go with your taste buds)
2 teaspoons rosewater
4 tablespoons powder gelatin
300ml boiling water
food colouring (I used 4 colours but it's up to you how little or how many you want)

*** or completely ignore the last 6 lines and get 4 boxes of Jello ***

395ml sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup cold water
1 1/2 cup boiling water
3 tablespoons gelatin power

1. Make jelly. If you are using Jello only use 1 cup water for each colour as you want the jelly a harder consistency and it sets faster. If not add water, sugar and rosewater to desired taste and let simmer. In a separate cup dissolve gelatin in hot water and stir through jelly mixture. Boil once and remove from fire.

2. Separate jelly into 4 containers and add food colouring. Cool in fridge. If possible overnight is preferred but if not as long as possible, 3 hours or more.

3. Once coloured jelly is ready cut into little blocks and mix it up in a container.

4. Dilute condensed milk with hot water. Dissolve gelatin in cold water and mix. Stir and let cool before adding to coloured jelly. If you add when milk jelly is still hot coloured jelly will start to melt. Set in fridge overnight.

 

Turkish delight actually is delightful ... who knew?

For the longest time - forever really - I could not stand the smell of rosewater, found it too floral and sweet for my liking.  I had avoided eating Turkish Delight and just could not understand anyone who swore at how delicious it was. All this changed yesterday.

I had a friend come for a visit who was not really a dessert person but when I found out that she liked Turkish Delight and found a recipe that she could have with it in it I had to make it for her. So I made Turkish Delight Meringues.

After making it I waited for someone to taste it as I didn't know if it was any good since I swore that rosewater and Turkish Delight would never pass my lips. My husband and friend insisted I try one so after a lot of annoying pestering I gave in. I screwed up my nose, distorted my face and was ready to spit it out BUT .... when that crunchy meringue skin crumbled between my teeth and the soft middle melted on my tongue and the explosion of flavours from the rosewater and the little bits of Turkish Delight and pistachio nuts danced on my palate I had to admit that I was wrong. I had wasted years of not having this amazing flavour combination in my life. NO MORE I said .... as I proceeded to eat most of what was baked!!


TURKISH DELIGHT MERINGUES

4 x egg whites (room temperature please)
1 cup caster sugar
2 teaspoons cornflour
1 teaspoon white vinegar
2 teaspoon rosewater
100g Turkish Delight (chopped into teeny bits)
1/4 cup (or more if you're like me) of pistachio kernels chopped into small and medium bits for texture

1. Oven is to be preheated to 120 degrees and line a tray with baking paper
2. Beat egg whites to soft peaks and then add sugar. Beat until sugar is dissolved and firm peaks form. Mixture should be glossy and thick.
3. Fold in cornflour, vinegar, rosewater and Turkish Delight.
4. Use a tablespoon and drop dollops of mixture onto greased tray. Ths mix should yield 12 very generous size meringues but if you like smaller bite sized ones line a second tray and make smaller dollops. Sprinkle pistachio generous on top.
5. Bake in oven for 30-35 minutes ad then turn oven off. Leave meringues in oven to cool.
6. When cooled, meringues should be crusty on the outside, marshmallowey and gooey inside and the whole meringue when popped in your mouth should make you weak at the knees .. true story!!   :)