Don’t hide your pride when it comes to this Floating Island dessert! You’ve just created a truly gorgeous showstopper, and deserve to feel a little smug about it.
Recipe by Toni Scorgie and Nadine Waner of The Tart
Photographs by Graeme Borchers
The Tart Boutique Catering & Individually Crafted Cakes, 48 Jan Smuts Avenue, Forest Town, Johannesburg. Call 011-646-4781 or email info@thetart.co.za.
Floating island
Ingredients
Praline
- 150g (1 cup) almonds, toasted
- 210g (1 cup) castor sugar
Meringue
- 8 large egg whites
- 220g castor sugar
- 2,5ml (½ tsp) vanilla extract
- 5ml (1 tsp) cream of tartar
- 5ml (1 tsp) cornflour
- 250ml (1 cup) fresh cream, to serve
- spun sugar (optional) to serve
Instructions
To make the praline, place the almonds on a silicone mat. Melt the castor sugar and pour it over the nuts. Leave to cool, then pulse in a blender until fine. Set aside until needed.
Preheat the oven to 150°C and place a roasting tray in the oven. Grease a 20cm cake tin and line the bottom with baking paper.
For the meringue, beat the egg whites until stiff, about 5 minutes. Reserve 60ml (¼ cup) of the castor sugar. Mix the rest of the sugar into the egg whites along with the vanilla extract, cream of tartar and cornflour and beat for a further 5 minutes.
Pour the reserved sugar into the cake tin and turn the tin until the sugar has coated the greased sides. Spoon the meringue mixture into the cake tin and cover with a round piece of baking paper.
Place the cake tin in the hot roasting tray and fill the tray with boiling water to reach halfway up the sides of the cake tin.
Bake the meringue until a knife comes out clean, about 40 minutes. Remove from the oven and turn out onto a serving plate.
Serve with fresh cream poured around the meringue “island”, sprinkled with the praline and topped with spun sugar if desired.
