HAZELNUT COFFEE MERINGUE

Recipe from Rita Ross

Gluten free and no butter in the cake mix. It is decorated with whipped cream, but you can also make it dairy free. There is a no cream  option (see  below), which is still simply delicious! And of course, with no flour at all, this is an ideal Passover cake.

This cake is Rita's favourite. And her grand daughter Lauren's too. 

INGREDIENTS

• 5 egg whites
• 3/4 c caster sugar
• 1 cup ground hazelnuts
• 1 teaspoon vinegar
• 1 tablespoon vanilla essence
• 2 tablespoons instant coffee

METHOD

1. Separate eggs, setting yolks aside for another dish. Beat egg whites till stiff. Best to use large, room temperature eggs.
2. Add sugar, and beat some more. Egg whites will become stiffer and glossy now. 
3. Fold in remaining ingredients. Rita does it all at once, using a steel spoon.
4. Bake in a moderate oven for 30 -40 mins.

Cool. Decorate with strawberries, melted chocolate and cream.

TOPPING

• 300 ml carton cream, whipped
• 150 g dark chocolate, melted, in a little water
• 1 punnet strawberries, with some warmed apricot jam, for brushing to make them shiny
• optional: sour plum jam eg Povidl

You will have 3 pots, if using the jam, and you are spreading them in layers over the cake. First, cover the cake with a thin layer of plum jam. Then the melted chocolate, Rita likes it to go down the sides of the cake, so that you see it beneath the cream. When it's cooled and set a little, the final layer of cream goes on top. 

At the end, cover with the strawberries, making whatever pattern you like best. Rita brushes them with warmed apricot jam. so they shine.

DAIRY FREE TOPPING

• 200 g melted chocolate
• 100 ml of coconut cream

Melt good quality dark chocolate in the top of a double boiler. Pour in the coconut cream and beat over the heat, with a whisk or hand held beaters for a few minutes. Cover cake with jam, and pour over the chocolate mix. It will set in the fridge. Serve with berries.