Italian meringue

Has anyone made Italian meringue frosting with caramelized sugar-- so instead of just heating sugar letting it color ?-

I have a layer cake in mind for a friend's birthday: olive oil cake + blackberry filling + caramel meringue frosting

Thoughts?

Aliwaks
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3 Comments

Nancy May 11, 2015
I see why - from tech, chemistry points of view - the caramelized sugar won't work in the meringue.
But my taste imagination says that the caramel would be a lovely addition to the cake.
If you have the energy and space, do a 3-layer cake with one each filling of blackberry and caramel, then top with meringue.
if not, do the backberry filling now abd the caramel another time.
 
PieceOfLayerCake May 11, 2015
The sugar would have to get too hot to use in an Italian meringue. I usually shoot for 240F when making an Italian meringue and caramel must be heated in excess of 300F. At that temperature, your meringue would surely collapse. I would recommend a brown sugar Italian meringue for a bit of caramely depth.
 
hardlikearmour May 11, 2015
I'm not sure it would work -- I assume you take the sugar to a specific stage for a chemical or physical property reason. RLB has a recipe for Caramel Silk Meringue Buttercream in The Cake Bible, but she uses the caramelized sugar in the crème anglaise component and not the meringue component.
 
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