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The Great British Baking Show™ - SU2C ™
Year
Week
Showstopper Challenge
3D meringue display of an epic celebrity fail
Matt Lucas: "Now, today, the judges would like you to create a 3d scene out of meringue depicting your biggest ever celebrity fail."
Paul Hollywood: "The bakers are making their biggest fail in meringue. So when we look at it, we need to be able to see what that is. It should scream up off the tray - what we are looking at."
Prue Leith: "Meringue is really simple. You just separate the eggs and beat up the egg white and add the sugar."
Prue Leith: "It's really important to separate the eggs cleanly. If you get the tiniest little bit of yolk in your egg white, they just will not beat up. "
Paul Hollywood: "The bakers really have to concentrate on their timing. Once the meringue is baked, you need to bring it out the oven and cool it before they start to assemble."
Paul Hollywood: "When they come to build their scene, big, lumpy pieces of meringue is probably better. The more delicate the meringue, the harder it'll be gluing all the parts together. They could use caramel, they could use icing. But whatever they do use, it can dissolve the meringue and the whole thing will come tumbling down."
Prue Leith: "With everyone choosing a classic french meringue, it is vital they whisk the egg whites to stiff peaks, adding the sugar gradually. "
Culinary Learnings from the Showstopper
Edible grass
David Schwimmer wanted to include green grass in his meringue scene, and successfully used sweetened, shredded coconut flakes with green food coloring.
Meringue Sticks
Almost all of the bakers suffered because their meringue stuck to their cook-ware. For Tom, is was a bowl, and for David it was parchment.
It is always a good idea to cook meringue on silicon - the famous brand is "SilPat" but there are plenty of affordable mats on the market.
What type of meringue?
For the showstopper in the 2023 series of The Great British Baking Show's ™ "Stand Up 2 Cancer ™", all the celebrity bakers chose a classic French meringue for their scenes. Prue Leith said "With everyone choosing a classic french meringue, it is vital they whisk the egg whites to stiff peaks, adding the sugar gradually."
Molding with Meringue
Paul Hollywood said "When trying to create a scene out of meringue, big, lumpy pieces of meringue are probably better. The more delicate the meringue, the harder it'll be gluing all the parts together.
They could use caramel, they could use icing. But whatever they do use, it can dissolve the meringue and the whole thing will come tumbling down.
David Schwimmer used white chocolate as his glue, and it worked fairly well.