Rainbow rippled meringues

Serve these multi-coloured meringues with flavoured creams for a stunning dessert. Our flavours include lavender, pistachio and blueberry

Prep:45 mins
Cook:1 hrs

More effort

Nutrition per serving

kcal 60
fat 1g
saturates 0g
carbs 12g
sugars 12g
fibre 1g
protein 1g
salt 0g

Ingredients

4 large eggs whites
225g white caster sugar
very finely grated zest 1 lemon
yellow food colouring paste
very finely grated zest 1 orange
orange food colouring paste
2 tbsp finely chopped shelled pistachios
green food colouring paste
2 tbsp freeze-dried blueberries, pounded to a dust using a pestle and mortar
blue food colouring paste
½ tbsp dried lavender, pounded to a dust using a pestle and mortar
purple food colouring paste
2 tbsp freeze-dried raspberries, pounded to dust using a pestle and mortar
pink food colouring paste
disposable piping bags
small paintbrush
extra-large round piping nozzle

Tip

Passion fruit cream for lemon meringues

In a bowl, whisk 400ml double cream with 2 tbsp icing sugar until it just holds it shape. Swirl through the pulp and seeds from 3 passion fruits, then chill until ready to serve.

Cardamom yogurt for pistachio meringues

Break the seeds from 10 cardamom pods into a mortar. Add 1 tbsp golden caster sugar and pound with a pestle to a fine powder. Swirl the cardamom sugar into a 500g pot Greek yogurt, then chill until ready to serve.

Sweet basil cream for raspberry meringues

Put 10 basil leaves into the small bowl of a food processor with 100g icing sugar. Blitz to a powder. Whisk 400ml double cream until it just holds its shape, then add the basil sugar and briefly whisk again until just combined. Chill until ready to serve.

Cinnamon cream for orange meringues

Put 400ml double cream, 2 tbsp icing sugar and 1 tsp ground cinnamon in a bowl. Whisk until it just holds its shape, and chill until ready to serve.

Lemon curd cream for blueberry meringues

In a bowl, whisk 400ml double cream with 2 tbsp icing sugar until it just holds its shape. Swirl through 3 tbsp lemon curd and chill until ready to serve.

White chocolate & mascarpone cream for lavender meringues

Break 100g white chocolate into a small microwaveable bowl and melt in 20-sec blasts in the microwave, stirring in between. Leave to cool a little. In another bowl, whisk 200ml double cream and 200g mascarpone until it just holds its shape. Swirl through the chocolate, but don’t overmix. Chill until ready to serve.

Method

Heat oven to 140C/120C fan/gas 1 and line 2 large baking sheets with baking parchment. First, set up your piping bags. You will need 3 disposable piping bags for the 3 flavours. Using a wet paintbrush, paint lines of undiluted food colouring along the inside of the piping bags. Be quite generous, because you want bold colours. Wash the brush well between each colour so they don’t mix. Snip off the end of 1 bag and drop in an extra-large round piping nozzle, then put the bags to one side.
Tip the egg whites into a large mixing bowl or table-top mixer – make sure it’s grease-free before you start. Whisk the eggs with an electric hand whisk or in your mixer, until they hold soft peaks. Begin adding the sugar 1 tbsp at a time, whisking continuously, until you have a thick and glossy meringue, which will hold up in a stiff peak on the end of the whisk. Divide the meringue into 3 bowls and swirl through your chosen flavourings (to correspond to the piping bag colours). You want to achieve a marbled effect rather than thoroughly mixing it all in.
Put the piping bag fitted with your nozzle into a tall glass or jug and roll the piping bag down over the lip of the jug to hold it in place. Fill the bag with the correct flavoured meringue to match the colour in the bag. Lift up and twist the end to seal.
Hold the piping bag about 2cm vertically above the baking tray. Apply an even pressure to the bag, slowly lifting the bag as you squeeze, to make a smooth round meringue, approximately 6cm wide. To finish with a nice peak at the top, push down a little on the mixture then quickly pull the nozzle away.
Continue until all the mixture in the bag is used up, leaving enough room for the meringues to spread a little. Quickly remove the nozzle, wash it and dry well, then drop in the next piping bag. Continue with the remaining mixtures until it they are all used up and you have 2 trays covered with 3 colours of meringues.
Bake for 1 hr, turning the heat down to 120C/100C fan/gas ½ for the final 30 mins. Remove from the oven and cool on wire racks while you make another batch of meringues with the remaining 3 flavours, if you like. Can be made up to a week ahead and kept in an airtight container, or serve with our flavoured creams (see tips, below).