French Meringue Layer Cake

by: Baker Guy

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Meringue’s fragile, brittle, and instant melt-in-the-mouth texture makes up for its lack of flavor. Meringue is never served alone but is juxtaposed with cakes, frostings, ice cream, or other mixtures to provide a bit of crunch. French meringue is made by beating sugar with egg whites until the mixture is very stiff. On a humid day confectioners’ sugar is folded into the mixture to keep it crunchy once baked. Here we make meringue disks for a cake. Circles of crisp meringue make wonderful cake layers because their crunchiness contrasts beautifully with the delicate texture of most cakes and frostings. You can make a cake with just meringue disks and frosting such as whipped chocolate ganache, or for greater drama, alternate meringue disks with layers made from a soft cake. You can adjust the thickness of the meringue layers by using different diameter tips with the pastry bag when you pipe out the rounds. Keep in mind that thinner rounds should be used in cakes that have lighter fillings; if the meringue is too thick and hard, the filling will ooze out when you try to cut or slice the cake. Meringue is ideally baked very slowly so that it dries out rather than actually cooks. If the oven is too hot or the meringue left in too long, it will turn ivory or even brown and the bright snowy white effect will be lost. A convection oven is great for making meringue because the moving air accelerates the drying.