White as snow

PalmThe bakery was bright and clean. A sweet, milky air filled the air, thanks to the freshly baked treats, ensaimadas, and cakes that were so tempting. I peered into the oven; more than one person could fit inside, a thought that both unsettled and intrigued me. On the marble counter lay the pastries that would later become cakes, and beside them, whipped cream, fruit, chocolate cream, and a large, pristine, glossy bowl of meringue—a mound of sticky snow, the sweetest of fillings.

Tradition attributes the invention of meringue to the chef Gasparini, an Italian pastry chef who is said to have created the recipe around 1720 in the Swiss village of Meiringen, from which it takes its name. Meringue is a sweet and light preparation made from egg whites and sugar, which must be beaten until it transforms into a stable and glossy foam. There are three main classic variations. The most fragile is French meringue, which is prepared by beating egg whites and incorporating raw sugar. It is the most unstable, but also the lightest. It is usually used for baked meringues or in pastries that are baked in the oven. Swiss meringue is the most stable. It is made by whipping egg whites and sugar in a bain-marie (double boiler) at a temperature not exceeding 60°C (140°F). This strengthens its consistency and gives it a lustrous finish. And Italian meringue, which is made by pouring hot syrup over egg whites, partially cooking them and turning them into a dense, glossy cream, ideal for covering cakes or as a filling.

Glaze

Meringue first appeared in Mallorca in the 18th-century cookbook of Friar Jaume Martí Oliver, though it was called varnish there, alluding to its function and the fact that it was spread with a feather onto a pastry. It was a French meringue that was beaten for fifteen minutes until it reached a stiff, soapy consistency. In later cookbooks, also attributed to the same author, the varnish was applied to sweets such as the royal tart. Meringue, a small, baked and dried sweet, appears in many of our cookbooks. It is almost always a French meringue that is spooned onto brown paper or paper molds and baked in a very low oven. Two portions are then joined along the smooth side. Sometimes it is made with jam, other times, as De re Cibaria (Mahón, 1923), a flint knife is used to join the two halves. The Menorcan recipe book includes other ways of using meringue, such as "nun's udders," where the meringue is baked on a circle of sponge cake, macarons, which are made with meringue and almonds, and "fine patiences," flavored with orange blossom water. In The practical cook (Felanitx, 1935) and in Mallorcan cuisine from a stately home (1927) the meringue will be made in the Italian style, clarifying the sugar and then pouring it over the stiffly beaten egg white. A more curious case arises in the Sollerico recipe book Popular Mallorcan cuisine (1931), which contains three recipes. The first two are almost identical, in the French style; the third, called 'Spanish meringues', is actually a meringue in the Italian style.

Meringue will be a very common filling in our most festive and elegant pastries, which will adorn desserts such as... blowerThe royal tart and the glazed quarters. The low cost of its ingredients made it a very common filling and a good way to use up egg whites when the yolks were used in other recipes.

Today's recipe is for one of the most popular cakes from old-fashioned pastry making. A cake that could be very laborious to make, with different fillings layered in the top and that could be lavishly decorated with meringue, but also with sugared almonds and a printed image. In my case, I simplified it due to time constraints, but if you decide, you can fill it with royal paste and egg confit.