Eton Mess Easter Eggs

It's nearly time for my third annual Easter Egg Hunt. I make chocolate eggs, but I also like to mix things up a bit. The first year I made eggs out of sponge cake and gingerbread.

The second year I designed and added cheesecake eggs and millionaire's shortbread eggs to the mix. That's when I decided to undertake a 'new egg challenge' each year.

This year's new egg challenge is Eton Mess, inspired by this egg sold by Lidl. Theirs is white chocolate with meringue pieces and dried fruit but mine will be a hard meringue shell filled with whipped cream and strawberry pieces (which is closer to actual Eton Mess). Today is my first test run.

I've never made hard meringue before so I looked up a few recipes and learned that I just have to bake it really really slowly at gas mark 1/2 for about and hour and a half, then turn the oven off and leave the meringue in there until it's cool. It's not really baking, so much as drying it out.

So anyway, I start by making up 1 egg of meringue.

And I spoon it into my silicone egg moulds to make shells. I have a few designs, so I'm trying them all to decide which is best.

I go to put it in the oven. This is when I learn I can't set my oven to less than mark 1. Plus it's still a little warm from my dinner. So I set it to mark 1 for 15 minutes and then turn it off, leaving the meringues to cool for an hour and a half. But then they're still a little bit soft so I put it back on gas mark 1 for 30 minutes and leave inside the oven  to cool again.

And now they're cooled and hard, time to find out if I can get them out of the moulds without breaking them. Must be very, very careful.

Aww I broke one. Sadface. Looking at the outside of the shells, I think I've let the oven be on for too long. Next time I'll do the first bit for 30 minutes and not do a second bit.

Now for the filling. I whip up some double cream and chop some strawberries. The strawberries go in the cream and I mix 'em both together.

Now I put the filling in the shells and use edible glue to stick the two egg halves together.

Time for the tasting.  

Not bad, though the meringue is a little overcooked, but this is why I do test runs. I think the optimum meringue to cream ratio is the blue mould, so that's what I'll use. Now the others can go in the fridge and I go to bed. 

Night night.