Meringue Mushrooms
Use meringue to pipe small, realistic-looking mushrooms for cake decoration or to enjoy on their own.
Ingredients
egg whites (about 70g)
2
pure powdered sugar
95 g
lemon juice or white vinegar
a few drops
dark chocolate
40 g
white chocolate
40 g
Instructions
1
Whipping the egg whites
Pour the powdered sugar into the egg whites. Use an electric mixer to whip the egg whites, starting on low speed until they form a thick white foam, then switch to high speed to continue whipping. Add a few drops of lemon juice or white vinegar during the whipping process. Continue until the egg whites reach stiff peaks—when you lift the whisk, the egg whites can hold upright pointed tips. The entire process takes about 10–15 minutes.
2
Piping the caps
Transfer the whipped meringue into a piping bag fitted with a large round piping tip, and pipe round mounds onto a baking tray to form the "mushroom caps".
3
Piping the stems
Pipe upright, elongated strips of meringue to form the "mushroom stems".
4
Baking
Place the piped meringue into an oven preheated to 95°C and bake for 20 minutes. Then lower the oven temperature to 75°C and continue baking for 80–100 minutes. Bake until the meringue feels completely firm and fully set when pressed with your hand, but has not browned. Remove and let the baked "mushrooms" cool for later use.
5
Assembly
Finely chop the white chocolate and dark chocolate separately into different bowls, then melt over a double boiler while stirring constantly until the chocolate is fully liquid. Pick up a "cap" and coat its bottom with a layer of dark chocolate; set aside until the dark chocolate solidifies. Then coat a layer of white chocolate on top of the solidified dark chocolate layer, and set aside until it sets. Use a small knife to cut out a small round hole in the center of the bottom of the "cap," and use a toothpick to score gill lines underneath the "mushroom cap." Finally, take a baked "stem," dip a little melted white chocolate on one end, and insert it into the hole to assemble the complete "mushroom."
