I woke up this morning with the bug. Fortunately not the sickness bug, but the bug that catches you, the one that won’t give up, the one that makes you want to bake. I decided it was time to master the meringue, to have another go at producing something that was not a sloppy, soggy weepy mess.

I had a few variations to try, in addition to making some more of the chocolate dusted stars, it was time to try some pine nut meringues and some custard meringues. I decided this time to halve the amount of sugar that I normally use. It was a bit of a eureka moment, considering my meringues would weep and stick and this is commonly caused by either too much whipping, and/or too much sugar!!!!!!

I am pleased to announce, there was no sticking no weeping (from either the meringues or me) and the consistency was, dare I say, the perfect blend of crunch and stickiness. Today was a meringue success day!!!

I also had a cake to bake for later, a simple Victoria sponge filled with whipped cream and raspberry jam, topped with a rather large dusting of icing sugar. I think I got carried away!!

The dogs were unlucky today. Normally they get the egg yolks mixed I with their dinners after a day of meringue trials. Today I thought I would treat G to one of his favourite puddings, custard. It was the first time I had made custard, I’ve always been out off by the warnings of ending up with scrambled egg at the bottom of the pan, but with a very low heat, and constant stirring for 10 minutes, the custard came out smooth.

All in all, today has been a good baking day.