Eton Mess Cake

Hello

안녕하세요 

(Annyeonghaseyo)

こんにちは 

(Konnichiwa)

你好

(Ni Hao)

It's been such a long time that I did some proper baking and I thought what better excuse than to surprise my friend with a birthday cake and I thought making this Eton Mess cake, would give off a more mature and sophisticated bake. Some of the steps are minus pictures as I was finishing the last stages I completely forgot about taking pictures as I was in the mindset of completing it.
Lets get baking!

Ingredients:

For the sponge

280 g unsalted soft butter

280 g golden caster sugar

5 medium eggs

1 orange, zested and juiced

280 g self-raising flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tbsp milk

Ingredients:

For the syrup

3 limes, 1 zested and 3 juiced

1 orange juiced

85 g caster sugar

Ingredients:

For the filling

500 g strawberries, hulled and quartered 

2 tsp fresh chopped mint, plus torn leaves for decoration

1/2 lime juiced

5 tbsp icing sugar

500 ml whipping cream

300 g raspberries

1 x tub 16 plain mini meringues, 6 kept whole and the rest broken into pieces

Start off by pre-heating the oven t0 180C/Fan 160C/ Gas Mark 4, then grease and line 3 sandwich cake tins with baking paper.

Next in a large bowl, whisk together the butter and golden caster sugar for about 5 minutes, until pale and fluffy.

Gradually add in the eggs, one by one, whisking well between each addition.

Then add the orange zest and mix.

In a separate bowl, mix the flour and baking powder together. then add to the wet mixture and fold through. 

Lastly fold in the 2 tbsp orange juice and milk.

Divide the mixture evenly between the 3 sandwich tins, levelling the tops. Place in the oven for 20-25 minutes, until golden brown and springy, and a skewer inserted into the centres comes away clean.

Once the cakes are baked and out of the oven, make the syrup. In a small pan, gently heat 3 tbsp of lime juice, the zest of 1 lime, 3 tbsp orange juice and the caster sugar, until the sugar has dissolved. Bubble for 5 minutes.

Prick the tops of the cakes all over with a skewer, and brush over the warm syrup, then leave to cool. I don't have a pasty brush, so I used a spoon to pour over the cakes.

Next macerate the strawberries by placing them in a bowl with the chopped mint, lime juice and 2 tbsp icing sugar. Stir, then set aside for 15-30 minutes. Drain the juice and reserve for drizzling.

For the filling, whip the cream with 3 tbsp icing sugar to soft peaks.

Spoon a 1/3 of the mixture into a separate bowl and set aside for the topping. Fold three-quarters of the macerated strawberries, some broken and full meringues (depending how big they are) and most of the raspberries through the whipped cream.

Place your first sponge on your serving plate, and spoon half of the filling over the top. Sandwich with the second sponge and repeat the filling and place the final sponge. Decorate the top with the reserved whipping cream, the remaining strawberries, raspberries and whole meringues. Drizzle with the reserved strawberry juice and serve.

To say how time consuming this can be when it's not a familiar recipe, it was really easy and simple to make. The sponges were really soft and moist and had a bit of a tang from the lime juice, the cream with the strawberries, raspberries and meringue was divine, I think when I make it again I'll cut the mint a lot smaller.
I think this is a perfect cake if you're having afternoon tea with a group of friends or just wanting a gorgeous cake to be an edible centrepiece. It was well received all round when I presented mine, it really was delicious and can't wait to make it again.

If you would like to follow the original recipe or just want to see where I came across this cake, then you can check out Eton Mess Cake Recipe on the Tesco website.

See you soon!

안녕
(Annyeong)
さようなら
(Sayonara)
再见
(ZaiJian)

Bye