Petal Perfect

You know what yesterday was, right?  Valentine's Day. . . which evokes differing emotions in different people. 

You know what today is? February 15th. . . or. .. more importantly, the day the chocolate goes on sale!!! This day usually conjures a much more reliably celebratory attitude.

Granted it's usually the cheaper drugstore chocolate that makes it to the discount bin, but even for an unabashed confectionery snob such as myself, occasionally, (just occasionally) Dove is just what the doctor ordered (especially with those scripted oh-so-sweet hidden messages.) 

😍  

But you know what would be really great?  If the super-amazing, high-end, melt-in-your mouth-and-in-your-hand, miniature-works-of-art chocolates would go on sale.   

Mmmmmmmmm. 😋 That would be really great.  

Or at least if roses would go on sale. . . I could settle for that.  And I don't say that purely because I love to look at fresh flowers (although I do. . . and really, who doesn't??)  But more because I use roses constantly when I bake.  It is one of my very favorite flavor additions (to the everlasting chagrin of my husband who is firmly planted on the "roses should be smelled and not tasted" side of things,) and more importantly one of my ultimate favorite ways to decorate.  Because, rose petals can make the most amateurish frosting job, the tiltiest tower, and the bumpiest layers look absolutely positively flawless. It basically is the airbrush of baking -- erases all of your mistakes right out of sight.

Cassatta Cake with Vanilla Rose Meringues

Ingredients

• 4 egg whites
• 2 1/4 cups powdered sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp rose water
• 6 large pesticide free roses
• Completed Cassatta Cake (recipe here)

Cooking Directions

1. Preheat oven to 175 degrees F, convection.
2. Line two 1/2 sheet pans with parchment paper.
3. Place room temperature egg whites with sugar and whisk until combine.
4. Place egg mixture in double broiler and continue to whisk constantly until mixture hits 113 degrees F.
5. Start beating eggs until stiff peaks form, at least 5 minutes. (This is easiest if you use a stand mixer and the fitted mixing bowl to begin with.)
6. Add extracts and mix at high speed briefly just so combined.
7. Gently spoon mixture into piping bag and pipe small amount of meringue onto the four corners of each sheet pan, under the parchment.
8. Press parchment down, so it sticks.
9. Pipe small kisses of meringue onto the parchment. If you would like to make the meringues more uniform, trace circles onto the parchment and then flip over, so the penned side faces the bottom of the pan. To pipe kisses, squeeze briefly with the piping bag perpendicular to the sheet pan and then release pressure and lift the piping bag straight up.
10. Bake at 20 minute intervals for at least 1.5 hours, although it took me 2 hours.
11. Break a meringue open to see if it's done. Meringue should be completely dry and crisp.
12. Top the completed cassatta cake with meringues on top.
13. Carefully tear the petals off of the roses and cover the sides of the cake with the petals.
14. To have the cake fan up, place the petals so the base is at the bottom, and start at the top of the cake. Place a ring of petals and then move down to the next ring so that the bottom of the upper ring of petals is covered by the lower ring.
15. To have the cake fan down, place the petals so the base is at the top, and start at the base of the cake. Place a ring of petals and then move up to the next ring so that the top of the lower ring of petals is covered by the upper ring. You can refer to this blogpost for guidance.                     

***Tip:  Make sure the whipped cream is soft, and the cake freshly frosted, for the rose petals to stick appropriately. 

My piping skills, sadly, get more and more inconsistent depending on how tired my hands are.  No iron fist here, unfortunately.  But luckily, the varying size of the meringue tails don't affect the taste of the cookies at all!

Dissolve a little pearl dust in vodka, and you have the perfect edible paint.

No promises for my (non-existent) artistry skills, though.

They almost look better before I painted them! 

🙈

There's just something about flame colored rose petals. . .

              🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

I love them so much -- the fiery color gives everything such movement and energy.

And of course, sugar pearls, and gold pearlized sugar (hand carried all the way from Paree! 🗼)  

Just for a touch of glammed up elegance.

Just look at this beauty. . . 

Like I said, rose petals = instant perfection. 

💕💕💕