Nut Meringue Cake with Baileys Cream Recipe

Ingredients

For the meringue cake:

• 185g (6½oz) roasted chopped hazelnuts (we used Waitrose), or whole blanched hazelnuts, toasted
• 350g (12oz) caster sugar
• 6 free-range egg whites
• ¾tsp white wine vinegar
• ½tsp vanilla essence

For the Baileys cream filling:

• 500ml (18fl oz) double cream
• 5tbsp Baileys
• 2tbsp icing sugar

For the topping:

• 12 After Eights cut along the diagonal
• edible gold glitter

You will also need:

• 3 baking sheets, lined with baking parchment
• 23cm (9in) cake tin

Method

1. Heat the oven to 140 C, 120 C fan, 275 F, gas 1. Draw around the cake tin on each piece of baking parchment.
2. In a food processor, whizz the hazelnuts with 2tbsp of the sugar until finely ground. Whisk the egg whites in a large bowl until stiff peaks form, then gradually add the remaining caster sugar. When the mixture is thick and glossy, whisk in the white wine vinegar and vanilla essence. Fold the ground hazelnuts through the meringue mix and spoon on to the baking parchment within the drawn circle. Bake for 1 hour then leave to cool for an hour in a switched-off oven.
3. For the filling, whip the cream with the Baileys and icing sugar to soft peaks. Remove the meringues from the oven and carefully peel off the baking parchment when they are completely cool. Place one meringue on a serving plate, spread the cream on top and repeat with the other layers. Top with After Eight shards and sprinkle over the glitter. The cake will keep for a day in the fridge but will go chewy.