Anyone who goes to any fashion or PR events in London will be familiar with the rainbow displays of miniature meringue kisses whipped up by East London’s Meringue Girls. Since dreaming up their baking company four years ago Alex Hoffler and New Zealand born Stacey O’Gorman have risen to foodie stardom. And they are already onto their second book, Everything Sweet, which like their debut is a riotously colourful, fun and inspiring read. There’s a Willy Wonka zaniness about their reworked classics where old favourites (Jaffa Cakes, Iced Gems, Tunnocks Teacakes) are given homespun make-overs or their totally over the top celebration cakes which are piled high with everything from fresh honeycomb to fondant foxes. Colour plays a huge role in the girls’ baking which is partly why their recipes are so seductive – and they helpfully include all their little tricks in the book like how to pipe those amazing rainbow meringues (it’s ridiculously simple and brilliantly effective), how to dye white chocolate to create the fab Jackson Pollock chocolate bars or a dazzling fuchsia pink marbled millionaire’s shortbread. It’s their show-stopping cakes though that are truly mouth-watering – the piled high Eton mess layer cake is pretty much the most spectacular cake you can serve – and deliciously unctuous and summery too. If you’ve got kids there are lots of things here that can be made with them – we’ve never seen a six year old get quite so excited by recipes. And the results – like the genius chocolate cookiemuffs – were an all out hit.
