Rose and Strawberry Kisses

I'm sure you've noticed that I participate in a lot of baking/blogging challenges. Sometimes I have a recipe that I want to make that fits and other times I create a recipe specifically for the challenge. This is a creation recipe for 2 challenges - one an old favourite and another a brand new challenge.

Firstly, Tea Time Treats hosted by Karen from Lavender and Lovage and co-hosted by Kate from What Kate Baked set a lovely FLORAL theme for May. As Karen's birthday is in May, she asked us to send in something with floral flavours and flowers. Happpy (belated) birthday Karen - I hope you enjoy these :) 

Secondly, a new challenge I discovered which is the Improv Challenge hosted by Kristen from Frugal Antics of a Harried Homemaker.  It's a  monthly party where everyone takes the same two assigned ingredients and lets their imaginations run wild.  This month the two ingredients are strawberries and cream.

So I got to thinking about what to make for each of these challenges and then came up with something that would fit both. The inspiration comes from these lemon meringue kisses I made for a friend's birthday last year. I decided to make Rose & Strawberry Kisses which is floral and contains strawberries and cream! 

Colour co-ordinated ingredients :) I found this lovely concentrated Rose culinary essence at an Asian grocery store - it is AMAZING!! I would highly recommend this over rose water (which is what you can buy at a supermarket).  The colour and flavour is intense and it tastes great! You can really smell and taste the rose. I'm so glad I found this (amongst other things)

 adding the rose essence to the meringue - love the pink colour

 looks slighly orange-y but I'm sure it's the lighting, I promise it's pink! 

 Pipe meringue 'kisses' 

 Chop up fresh strawberries

 Fold into freshly whipped cream

 Rose & Strawberry Kisses :) 

 I made a few large meringues so I could have a Royal Rose Eton Mess - crushed meringue with strawberries and cream, fresh strawberries topped with a 'strawberry crown' I won't lie... I ate the whole bowl myself (in 2 sittings) 

 view from the top 

For the meringue shells (I made a double recipe which yielded 76 stars or 38 kisses and 3 large meringues for my eton mess)

This is for a SINGLE recipe which makes ~40 stars or 20 kisses

2 egg whites

pinch of salt

150g caster sugar

2 teaspoons rose essence

optional : drop of pink food colouring

• Preheat oven to 90C. 
• Line 2 baking sheets with greaseproof paper. 
• Whisk egg whites in an electric mixer until foamy.
• Add salt and increase speed to medium-high.
• Slowly sprinkle in the sugar.
• Continue to beat eggs until they become thick, glossy and hold stiff peaks.
• Add the rose essence and a drop of pink food colouring.
• Spoon into piping bag.
• Pipe little stars as shown using a star tip onto the baking sheets. 
• Using the back of a spoon, flatten out half of the stars, making them as flat as possible (for the bottom) but not necessarily making them larger. 
• Bake for 2 hours until they are no longer sticky. 
• Store in an airtight container.

For the filling

• Finely chop a bowl of fresh strawberries that have been washed and hulled.
• Whip a carton of whipping cream or double cream until firm.
• Stir the strawberries into the cream.

To assemble

• Place 1 teaspoon of strawberries & cream filling on a 'flat' star and top with another similar sized star. 
• Serve immediately if possible.