Festive Meringue Mushrooms
Delicious mini sweet treats, crispy on the outside with a marshmallow centre. These easy meringue mushrooms are delicious on their own or use them to top your Christmas or fairy woodland cakes.
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Ingredients
- 2 large egg whites at room temperature
- 0.25 teaspoon white wine vinegar
- 115 grams white caster sugar
- red food colouring (liquid based)
- cocoa powder (for dusting)
- 25 grams icing sugar
Instructions
Start by making the meringue:
- Preheat the oven to 100ºC (fan). Line the Tala Performance Baking Tray 34.5 x 24.2 x 2cm with baking paper.
- Add the egg whites into a spotlessly clean bowl.
- Whisk on medium speed until foamy (about 3-4 minutes). Add the white wine vinegar and whisk until the meringue reaches soft peaks (about 4 minutes).
- Increase the speed to high and gradually add the sugar one tablespoon at a time. Continue to whisk until the meringue is shiny, thick and holds stiff peaks (about 2-3 minutes).
Pipe and bake the meringue mushrooms:
- Spoon three-quarters of the meringue into a piping bag fitted with a 1cm round piping nozzle. Set aside.
- Add the red food colouring to the remaining meringue in the mixing bowl and whisk until the colour is even. Spoon into another piping bag fitted with a 1cm round nozzle.
- Hold the piping bag of white meringue upright and pipe 20 mushroom stems by squeezing the piping bag and lifting upwards at the same time to make the meringue stand tall.
- For the mushroom tops, pipe 10 red round domed discs roughly 3cm in diameter and 10 white discs the same size.
- Bake for 90 minutes. The meringues should be hard, dry to the touch and easily lift off the baking paper.
- Close the oven door and turn the oven off completely. Let the meringues cool down inside the oven for at least 2 hours or overnight (this will prevent them from cracking when you assemble them).
Assemble and decorate the mushrooms:
- Use a sharp knife too make small holes in the bottom of the mushroom tops. Push the mushroom stems into the holes until they feel secure. The marshmallowy inside of the mushroom tops should hold the stems in place.
- To decorate the white mushrooms, dust a little cocoa powder on top. I used the Tala Christmas Hot Chocolate Duster.
- To decorate the red mushrooms, mix the icing sugar with a few drops of water to make a thick white icing. Transfer to a piping bag and snip off the top to make a small hole. Pipe dots of icing on top of the mushroom.
- Leave them to set, and then use to decorate your festive bakes!