Relish: Valentine's Day Strawberry Meringue Cake

Valentine's day is coming up...have you gotten your sweetheart anything yet? Baked goods are always a good "go to" when you're crunched for time. But this year, if you decide to go down the "baked goods path," think outside of the box! Try my Strawberry Meringue Ice Box Cake! After making the Food & Wine Chocolate-Hazelnut Meringue cake, I'm obsessed with making meringue! This past weekend, I decided to play around with same recipe with the intentions of making the meringue strawberry flavored and the end result was a success!

Ingredients:
6 large egg whites, at room temperature

Pinch of salt

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 teaspoon pure almond extract
1 teaspoon pure strawberry extract

12-16 oz of freeze dried strawberries

4 cups heavy cream

1/4 cup confectioners' sugar

2 pints of freshly sliced strawberries

Complete layout of ingredients

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 225° and line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper.

Pulse the freeze dried strawberries in a food processor until they are a powder.

In a bowl use a standing electric mixer if you have one fitted with the whisk (if you have one) or just use a regular electric hand mixer fitted with a whisk (Which is what I did) and beat the egg whites with the salt at medium-high speed until soft peaks form.

Before being beat

After being beat...I love seeing the change!

Gradually beat in the granulated sugar at high speed until stiff. Beat in the vanilla, almond, and strawberry extracts. Fold in the powdered strawberries.

Spread the meringue into four circles (approximately 6 inch diameters) and bake for 2 hours and 30 minutes, until crisp; rotate the pans halfway through baking.

Before going into the oven: 8 inch meringue spreads

Turn off the oven, slightly open the door, and let the meringues cool completely.

In the bowl of the standing mixer, beat the cream with the confectioners' sugar until firm.

Homemade whipped cream is so easy to make!

Remove the meringues from the parchment paper. Spread the whipped cream on the layers and then top each layer with freshly sliced strawberries and stack them. Garnish and freeze the cake overnight. When ready to serve, cut into wedges and serve at room temperature. Or if you have time, you can wait and assemble the layers of the day of!