CAKE TRAY DISPOSABLE RECIPES

Steps:

• Heat oven to 120C/100C fan/gas ½. Line two-three baking sheets with parchment. Beat the egg whites until they are foamy and doubled in size. Add the sugar, 1 tbsp at a time, while you continue to whisk. The meringue will become thick and glossy and should hold up in stiff peaks on the beaters when it is ready.
• For the meringue kisses, fit a disposable piping bag with a 1cm round or star nozzle. Hold it vertically to the baking sheet and gently squeeze, pulling the bag up and away to make a peak. If you are making frosty icicles, make some meringue dots as well.
• For colour-striped meringues, fit a disposable piping bag with a round nozzle, paint red food colouring paste in stripes onto the inside of the bag, then fill with meringue and pipe as before. Bake for 1 hr. Once cool, you can drizzle some of the meringues with melted chocolate and sprinkle with edible glitter or lustre powder, if you like.
• For the icicles and snowflakes, scoop the meringue into a disposable piping bag and snip off a tiny opening. Pipe spiky icicle shapes onto the trays, making them thicker one end and thin at the other. Pipe crossed lines to make snowflakes.
• Bake for 50 mins, then leave to cool on the tray for a few mins, then carefully loosen them off the parchment. Sprinkle with edible glitter or lustre powder, if you like. If left to cool completely, they may stick and break when you try to lift them off. If you are storing these, leave to cool completely, then layer in an airtight container between pieces of baking parchment. Now use the meringue kisses to make our white chocolate, orange & cranberry Christmas cake.

Steps:

• Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/ gas 4. Line a 20 x 20cm square baking tin with baking parchment.
• Using an electric whisk, beat the butter and sugar together until pale, light and fluffy. Add the eggs and mix again. Add the flour, baking powder, lemon zest, lemon curd and milk, and mix with a wooden spoon until all the ingredients are thoroughly combined. Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and bake for 25-30 mins or until a skewer comes out clean.
• Mix the sugar and lemon juice together and pour over the hot cake. Leave to cool in the tin. You can eat the cake as it is, or for a fancy finish, try making this feather icing.
• Mix the icing sugar with just enough water to give a runny, but not watery, icing. Put a small amount of icing in a separate bowl. Add a few drops of the food colouring to the icing until pale yellow. Spoon into a disposable icing bag.
• Remove the cake from the tin and peel off the baking parchment. Sit the cake on a wire rack over a baking tray. Spread the white icing over the top. Pipe thin lines of the coloured icing across the width of the cake. Use a cocktail stick to drag through the lines in opposite directions to create a feathered effect. Leave to set before cutting into slices.