Meringue tower

Ingredients

• 1 cup white chocolate melts
• 2 x 100g packets Calais petite chocolate meringues
• Smarties (red and green), to decorate
• Jaffas, to decorate
• Silver cachous, to decorate
• Coles icing sugar, to dust

Equipment

• Silver star, to decorate

Method

1

Using a compass, cut a 50cm circle from a sheet of thin white cardboard. Cut the circle in half to make a semicircle, then cut off about one quarter of that semicircle and discard it. With the remaining piece, place a fingertip on the centre of the curved side (this will form the base) and curve the cardboard to make a cone shape. Holding the cardboard in place, have someone secure the join close to the top with a piece of strong tape. Staple the bottom end of the join and run a piece of tape along the length of the join to firmly secure.

2

Place chocolate melts in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water (make sure the base of the bowl doesn’t touch the water). Stir until chocolate melts. Remove bowl from pan.

3

To assemble tower, dip the base of a meringue into melted chocolate and attach to the bottom edge of the cardboard cone (the base of the meringue should sit flush against the cardboard). Repeat to make a row of meringues around base of the cone. Keep dipping meringues in chocolate and attaching in horizontal rows until the cardboard cone is covered. When you get to the last space in each row, choose a meringue that will fit neatly into the space (each meringue will vary in size slightly) or, if necessary, trim the edge of a meringue so it fits neatly.

4

When you get to the tip, use a skewer or chopstick to make a hole in the base of a meringue. Dip meringue, hole-side down, into the melted chocolate and place over the tip of the cone. Put aside cone to set.

5

Dip Smarties and Jaffas in the chocolate (just enough to cover about one third of each lolly) and place randomly in the gaps between the meringues. Place balls in larger gaps and Smarties in smaller gaps.

6

Using a wooden skewer, gently scrape the tip of each meringue so it’s almost flat. With tweezers, pick up a cachous and dip in the chocolate, then place on the tip of a meringue. Repeat with remaining cachous and meringues. Place the icing sugar in a small sieve and lightly dust the tower. Crown tower with a star. Top tip If the chocolate starts to set while you’re working, place it over the pan and gently melt it again.

Source: taste.com.au