The Starry Windtorte

So, it was that time of year for my birthday to roll round again, and normally I'd just make do with my usual, bog-standard favourite - pavlova. But this year, my sister reminded me of something from my past that really inspired me, and I thought it was the perfect chance to indulge in a vanity project.
She reminded me of an art project I previously completed as one of my first bigger projects for my Art GCSE. The theme was "movement" and "texture" explored through Van Gogh's "The Starry Night". For a whole semester, I worked on nothing but this painting, studying is shapes and movements, Van Gogh's classic rough yet somehow subtle depictions of life through thick smears of oil paint. During this time, I recreated "The Starry Night" in all manner of mediums - from seashells, to sand - seeing what worked and what didn't at bringing out the feeling and meaning in the night-time scene. As a result, I got to know the nuance of this particular piece inside out - every curve, every burst of a star, the lonely cypress figure as well as the distant lights of the houses.
Then I realised the obvious medium that I hadn't yet tried - baking! Of course, there have been a number of depictions of "The Starry Night" in cake form - from cupcakes, to more elaborate, beautiful cakes, such as this one - but all were "painted" in buttercream - too easy to work with. I didn't want to replicate what had already been done, and I figured that the consistency of meringue is probably not too far off the thick paste of oil paint that Van Gogh himself would have used (plus, I have a limitless love for meringue). I found that the meringue was a bit more tricky to work with than I thought, having more of a tendency to move around, but like oil paint, it took a long time to dry, so it was very forgiving to scoop off and correct any mistakes. 

This recipe is mainly taken from the BBC recipe for Spanische Windtorte, which was used as a technical challenge in the Great British Bake Off in 2015. I just changed the shape of the box to rectangular to fit the painting, and in addition, I prefer my meringue to be completely crispy, bone dry all the way through, so I have much longer cooking times, which I've outlined in a previous meringue post.

I like to think that if my art teacher could see this creation, she would admire my attempts to use such a unique medium to continue the challenge she first set me, but sadly, she is no longer with us, so I dedicate this cake to her memory.

Ingredients:

For the meringue box and lid:

7 large free-range egg whites

Measure the weight of your egg whites, and use double that weight in caster sugar

1/2 tsp cream of tartar

For the meringue "paint":

5 large free-range egg whites
Measure the weight of your egg whites, and use double that weight in caster sugar

1/4 tsp cream of tartar

Gel food paste food colouring - in yellow, light blue, navy blue, dark green and purple 

Filling:

300 ml whipping or double cream

2 tbsp icing sugar (or honey)

~ 500 g mixture of berries, such as strawberries, raspberries, blackberries according to taste

Method:

1. Start two days ahead of when the cake will be required by preparing the box and lid. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C. Lay out the sugar onto a baking sheet lined with a silicone or paper baking sheet. Spread it out thinly and place in the oven to heat up. This will help the sugar to dissolve in the egg whites later. Leave in the oven for about 5 minutes or until the edges are just beginning to melt.

2. While the sugar is heating, start to whip the egg whites. Make sure that the bowl is spotlessly clean and wipe it and the whisk with half a lemon or some vinegar. Whisk slowly at first but then turn up the speed until the egg whites are medium stiff peaks.

3. When the sugar is heated enough, turn the oven down to 80 degrees C, and the mixer down to medium, and add the sugar, a tablespoon at a time, until dissolved. Continue to whisk until very stiff peaks are formed, and no sugar is felt between your fingertips when you rub some of meringue. Many people worry about overmixing, but it is important here not to undermix. The mixture needs to be so stiff that if you leave the whisk attachment in the bowl, it will not flop down to the side but will stand up in it. The whisking should take at least 10 minutes.

4. In the mean time, prepare three baking sheets (four if you have space in your oven) by placing baking parchment on them, and marking the outline of an A4 piece of paper on each one. 

5. Spoon the meringue into a large piping bag with a roughly 1.5 cm plain nozzle, and make two filled in rectangles on two of the baking sheets. This will be the bottom and the lid of the box. 

Simple rectangle for the lid, where the painting will eventually go

6. On the rectangle that will be the bottom, pipe a single layer outlining the edge of the rectangle to start the "walls" of the box.

Adding the first layer of "wall" to the bottom layer

7. On the third (and fourth if you have it) baking sheet, pipe the edges of the rectangle to continue the walls. These rectangular hoops will build up the "walls" of the box further. I only had space in my oven for three sheets to fit in, so I tried to cheat a bit and pipe two "wall" levels on top of each other, but this wasn't as stable as I'd hoped, so this isn't really recommended.

Piping the "walls" which will be added later. Best to do these separately, one layer at a time, if you have enough space in the oven

8. Bake the meringue pieces in the oven for about 6 hours or overnight at 80 degrees or 45 minutes at 120 degrees C

9. Following that, make the second batch of meringue in the same way as the first. Use about a fifth of the meringue to plaster together the walls of the box to the bottom panel and disguise the hoops. Use a spatula to smooth out the edges to make it look like a box. 

10. Bake the bottom of the box in a similar way, either 6 hours or overnight at 80 degrees or 45 minutes at 120 degrees C.

11. In the mean time, divide the remaining meringue mixture into separate bowls, and mix in the gel food colouring according to the painting you want to make (making sure to leave enough white to do the picture frame at the end). If you have whipped up your egg whites enough, mixing the food colouring will not cause the meringue to deflate. 

12. To recreate Van Gogh's style, I put the different coloured meringues into separate disposable piping bags, and cut a hole a few mm thick at the end, and used that as thick brushstrokes. I also found that spreading around the meringue with fingers worked quite well! Just make sure to thoroughly clean your hands first, and also to leave enough space at the edges for the frame

13. Once you're happy with your painting, pop the remaining uncoloured meringue into a piping bag with a star-shaped nozzle, to pipe stars around the picture, and also at the bottom of the bottom half of the box to make a border. Put this and the painting lid into the oven using the same cooking conditions again, as preferred. 

14. When you're ready to serve, whip up the cream and mix in the icing sugar or honey to sweeten to taste. Spoon into the box, and then add the berries. Place the lid on the box to neatly present your work of art Spanische Windtorte.

The finished Windtorte

Hope you enjoy making your own work of art out of meringue!