Festive Meringue Wreath
Festive Meringue Wreath

This delicious centrepiece will surely wow any guests, it’s a gorgeous sweet treat, really simple to make and you can accessorise it with any fruits or sprinkles you like, I’ve gone for a luxury winter shimmer design, but you really can use this for any occasion. Piping the meringue around a circle in little swirly nest design looks really festive and is then easy to fill up with cream and berries in the centres of each nest.

If you want to make mini meringue wreaths for tree hangers, you can just use bakers twine and bake it right into the wreaths, you can add food colouring to the meringue if you wish, do this right at the end of the mixing! This quantity for a large wreath will make about 12-16 mini hanging ones, use a small open star nozzle for the mini ones instead of a large.

Serves: 12
Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients

Stuff you’ll need:

  • A large baking sheet/s lined with baking parchment
  • Large piping bag, reusable or plastic
  • Large open star nozzle
  • Electric hand whisk
  • Pencil
  • Round tin or plate to draw around (depending on your tray size a 9 or 10’” round is about right) 
  • Large baking tray
  • Scales
  • Bowls 

For the meringue:

  • 3 medium free range egg whites at room temperature
  • 150g white caster sugar
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract 
  • Any food colouring you fancy, I use strong cake decorating ones for an intense colour (if making mini hangers)
  • 400ml double cream for the filling
  • 1 tbsp icing sugar
  • 2 tsp vanilla bean paste or extract
  • Lots of lovely fruits or festive berries of your choice
  • Other festive decorations like golden sweets or chocolates also look lovely to add sparkle
  • Edible shimmers and sparkles, (sprinkles if doing the hangers)
  • Bakers twine (if you are making mini tree hangers)

Method

  1. Draw a large circle on the parchment paper, almost to fit the entire tray allowing a bit of room at the edge as it will puff up a little. Turn over.
     
  2. Whisk the egg whites in a clean, grease free bowl until completely stiff peak.
     
  3. Gradually add in the caster sugar, whisking until fully incorporated in between each addition, then lastly whisk in the vanilla. If using colouring for the mini ones, now whisk this in at the end to tint the meringue any shade you like.
     
  4. Colour if necessary (if doing the mini wreath tree hangers). 
     
  5. Using a large piping bag with a large open star nozzle (I use a Wilton 1M), pipe in a circular motion at the top of the tray to create the first ‘nest’, then continue around piping little circles around the circle to create a wreath.
     
  6. If doing the mini tree hangers, use a small open star nozzle and draw mini circles on the parchment, pipe in the same way decorating with sprinkles or shimmers. You can bake bakers twine into the backs to allow them to hang, simply cut a few lengths of about 10cm, fold in half and pipe a little meting on the tray to secure the twine, then go over with the wreath style on each.
     
  7. Bake on 120 degrees centigrade for 30 mins, then reduce temp to 100 and bake for a further 45 minutes to an hour until completely dry and crisp. Turn off the oven and leave to cool with the meringue left in.
     
  8. When ready to fill and decorate, add shimmer to the meringue wreath, dip the berries in lustre if using,  whisk up the double cream with the sugar and vanilla until soft peak (or you can change the flavour  to suit if you prefer an orange extract or perhaps a dash of liqueur)  and fill the meringue with lashings of cream, shimmer and berries.
     
  9. To make mini ones, draw around a round cutter several times on baking parchment on a large tray (you will need a few trays, leave gaps in between!) load up a piping bag with meringue, pipe a small blob on the circles and embed loops of bakers twine, then pipe around the circles to make mini wreaths. Bake on 120 degrees for 20 mins then turn down the heat to 100 and bake until completely dried out. Turn off the oven and leave to dry completely while the oven cools down. Decorate with any types of sprinkles you fancy!