- 10
Ingredients
- 4 egg whites, room temperature
- 2/3 cups sugar
- 1/8 tsp cream of tartar / 1 tsp lemon juice
- 1 tiny pinch of salt
- 1 cup peanuts, lightly salted and roasted
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 3/4 cup water
- 2 tablespoons vanilla extract
- 10 inch cake
- 6 eggs
- 1.5 cups flour
- 1.5 cups sugar
- 5 tablespoons butter
- 3 tablespoons water
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 75 grams dark chocolate, good quality chips or chopped chocolate
- 100 grams heavy cream
- 3 tablespoons glucose or corn syrup
- 4 sticks butter, room temperature
- 1 3/4 cans sweetened condensed milk, room temperature
- 8 ounces cool whip (optional)
- 1/2 cup peanuts for decorating
Preparation
Step 1
Instructions Meringue
Turn the oven to 220F. Line a jelly roll pan with parchment paper. Set aside.
In a bowl of an electric mixer, fitted with a whisk attachment whip the egg whites, salt and cream of tartar for 2 minutes on high speed.
With the mixer still running, add sugar 1 tablespoon at a time.
Continue whipping for another 5 minutes, until stiff peaks and white and glossy appearance.
With a tablespoon, spoon the meringue onto the prepared baking sheet, into little mounts. Place them 1-2 inches apart. Sprinkle each meringue mount with peanuts.
Bake in the preheated oven for 3 hours, or until a meringue taken out of the oven, allowed to cool to room temperature and cracked in half, is dry in the middle. Allow to cool on a cooling rack. Simple Syrup
Bring water and sugar to boil. Stir, allowing the sugar to dissolve. Let cool to room temperature. Add the vanilla extract and stir again. Cake
Preheat your oven to 350F. Line two 10 inch round with aluminum foil or parchment paper. Spray with non stick spray. Place wet cake strips around the pan (if available), to keep the cake from forming a dome when baked. Set aside.
In a separate bowl, sift together the flour and baking powder.
Melt the butter, add hot water and whisk together.
In a bowl of an electric mixer, fitted with a whisk attachment whisk the 6 eggs on high speed, until lightly foamy. With the mixer still running add sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time and continue whipping for about 10 minutes. The mixture will be pale yellow and foamy.
Add the flour mixture into the egg mixture in 3 additions, carefully folding each flour addition before adding the next.
Add the butter and water mixture into the egg mixture and fold it carefully until completely incorporated.
Pour the batter into the prepared pans, distributing the batter evenly. If you have only 1 pan, make only ½ the batter at a time.
Bake in preheated oven for 20+ minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Do not open the oven before 15 minutes.
Let sit in the pans for 5 minutes. Invert onto a cooling rack. Remove the foil. Leave to completely cool. Chocolate Ganache
Bring cream and glucose/corn syrup to simmer, pour over the chopped chocolate/chocolate chips. Allow to sit for 2-3 minutes. Stir until the mixture is smooth and glossy. Frosting
In a mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, whip the butter until white and fluffy on high speed, about 3 minutes. Scrape the bottom of the bowl, 2-3 times throughout the whipping process.
With the mixer still running, pour the condensed milk down the sides of the bowl, when most of the condensed milk is whipped into the butter, stop the mixer.
Add cool whip, and gently fold it into the rest of the frosting. Use right away. Assembly
Place a dab of frosting onto a platter. Place your 1 cake layer, bottom side up on top and press to adhere. Place 4, 3inch wide strips all around the cake, completely covering the serving platter (this will make for easy cleanup later on).
With a pastry brush, brush on half of the simple syrup.
Place a couple of tablespoons of frosting and spread it out onto the cake layer.
Take 1 meringue, holding it by the 'bottom', dip the top into the frosting and adhere the meringue to the spread out frosting on the cake, bottom side down. Repeat with the rest of the meringue mounds, covering the cake layer with meringues. Place a couple more tablespoons of frosting on top of meringues and spread it out. (Optional - reserve 5-6 meringue mounts for decorations)
Place the other cake layer, bottom side up, on top and press to adhere.
With a pasty brush, soak the cake with the rest of the simple syrup. Cover the whole cake in the leftover frosting. Place in the fridge for about 15-20 minutes.
Take it out of the fridge, pour the ganache in the middle of the cake and while rotating the cake on the cake turnable, with the help of your spatula, allow the ganache to drip over the sides of the cake.
Sprinkle some peanuts around the edge of the top of the cake, or place the reserved meringue in the middle first, then drizzle with chocolate ganache & sprinkle with peanuts.
Remove the strips from under the cake and refrigerate overnight.
Serve at room temperature with coffee or tea.
Instructions