Chocolate Meringue Tower

To make the meringue:

• Pre-heat the oven to 90c fan /110c /230F and line your baking trays with parchment baking paper.
• In a large bowl, whisk the egg whites to stiff peaks, adding the caster sugar a tablespoon at a time.  keep whisking until sugar is fully absorbed and the meringue is thick and glossy.
• If making chocolate meringues add 4 tablespoons of cocoa powder when adding the sugar.
• Spoon the meringue into a piping bag fitted with a star or flower nozzle. and pipe different size meringues onto the parchment paper, approximately 4cm apart.  If you don’t want to use a piping bag, use a teaspoon to spoon little balls of meringue and turn out onto the parchment paper.
• Cook in the oven for approximately 1 hour, the meringues are cooked when they can leave the parchment paper without sticking, so they may take longer to cook.  When ready, turn the oven off and leave the meringues to cool completely.

To make the (whisky) cream:

• Add 1 tbsp of whisky (optional) and 1 teaspoon of icing sugar to the double cream and whip until its holding its shape.

To assemble: 

• Spread a small spoonful of cream onto a meringue and sandwich together with another.
• Stack them carefully on the serving plate, making a pyramid.  You can us a little extra cream when stacking to hold the meringues in place.
• Sprinkle with shavings of chocolate, and dusting of icing sugar.

To Serve: 

• Eat as they are, or serve with chocolate sauce or ice-cream.