Indulgent treat and really easy to make. We needed to make some cakey type treats for my wife's work, they take cakes in to share from time to time. So instead of buying them, we both produced some goodies to make them a bit different from the norm.

I made these little meringues with the left over egg whites I had from the pastry I'd just made. It saves wasting the egg whites, and they taste rather nice too. I decided to make small spirals for the bases and some cone type shapes for the tops, to be filled with Chantilly cream. This is a two part job, so you have a meringue recipe and a Chantilly cream recipe

*** Please read the meringue recipe fully for the important bake information before you start or you could ruin your cooking plans and/or your meringues ***

Ingredients for the meringue recipe (made about 16 pairs)

• 3 egg whites
• 6 oz caster sugar

Ingredients for the Chantilly Cream recipe

• 200 ml double cream
• ¾oz or 20g of caster sugar

How to make the meringues

Preheat your oven to 150°C.

Tip you egg whites into a reasonably sized bowl to accommodate a whisk or hand mixer. If you want to use a kenwood chef style mixer with the whisk attachment this is fine too. Whisk away until the egg whites start to stiffen so that when the whisk is removed it leaves soft peaks. Continue to whisk whilst adding the sugar bit by bit. Not too much at any one time or else the mixture could collapse. Once all the sugar has been mixed in you should have a fairly strong mixture that shouldn't fall out of the bowl when turned upside down (do this at your own risk!). If it's not done enough it'll be runny, so don't tip it upside down otherwise it'll end up on the floor.

You'll need baking paper ready on baking trays. To prepare their shape I like to pipe out meringue mixture to give me more control over how they look, if you don't have a piping bag then I'm sure you can sort some kind of shape out with some spoons. To make the base meringues I make a spiral with the piping bag. Remember, the meringues will increase in size slightly in the oven, so don't make them too large (unless you're aiming for that). For the tops I once again use a piping bag and again a spiral but this time each swirl on top of the other like a 'Mr Wippy' or '99' Ice Cream. To be honest, both layers of meringue can look however you want but it might be best keeping to the same diameter. You are now ready to bake the meringues.

Pop the meringues into the oven on the trays and immediately drop the temperature to 140°C. Bake until their texture begins to look like they've solidified and their colour has begun to change from brilliant white. When you're happy switch the oven off.

*** Important part *** Leave the meringues as they are on their trays in the switched off oven. Allow to cool completely inside the oven. Don't cool artificially cool by opening the door. As you can see, if you're planning on using the oven this is the part that will kill your plans. Best time I find to make meringues is last thing in the evening. Switch off the oven and leave until the morning.

How to make the Chantilly Cream

I don't know if this is a correct Chantilly Cream, it's how I make it. The amounts I use are 10% sugar to the volume of liquid. So 200ml double cream = 20g sugar, 300ml double cream = 30g sugar, etc. Some people add a touch of vanilla essence or extract.

Whip the double cream as usual until the cream stiffens. Fold in he sugar bit by bit, and then you're done. Once again I use a piping bag to apply the cream to the base meringues, then place the top meringue on.

Told you it was easy.

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