Three Kings Cake

Christmas foods seem to fall into one of two categories.  The first - insanely complicated and time-consuming, resulting in copious hours in the kitchen which, given Christmas is in summer here in kiwiland, seems a bit ridiculous.  Secondly you have easy, BBQ-style, low-fuss high-taste.  Much smarter.  Rifling through the November-December edition of Cuisine I discovered that there was a potential third category - relatively time-consuming, but easy.  

There was a recipe for a three milk cake which was topped with a fluffy mound of marshmallow.  It needed to be made over a couple of days (to allow the cake and the marshmallow time in the fridge to do their thing), but it was simple to make and just looked sooooo cool.  Especcially at the end, with green pistachios and red cranberries sprinkled over the top!!  

The original recipe suggested trimming the marshmallow before serving, to make it nicely in line with the cake, but I didn't bother - why waste marshmallow?  Without further ado, meet the Christmas centrepiece of the future...

For the cake 
225 g flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
5 large eggs, separated
225 g caster sugar
1 tbsp vanilla essence (or 1 tsp extract)
2 tsp lemon juice
1/2 cup milk

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees celcius.  Butter 21cm x 12cm loaf tin and line base with baking paper. 
2. Place egg whites in large bowl and whisk to form firm peaks (I used a handheld electric beater).  Gradually add sugar, still whisking. 
3. Turn motor to lowest speed and whisk in egg yolks, vanilla and lemon juice.  Fold in flour, baking powder, salt and milk. 
4. Spoon mixture into prepared tin and bake for 40 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean. 
5. Turn baked cake onto a wire rack and allow to cool for 1o minutes.

For the three milks
200 ml condensed milk

150 ml cream

150 ml milk

1. Combine ingredients in jug. 
2. Cut any dark sides from cooled cake and place cake into dish slightly bigger than it is. 
3. Poke holes in top of cake and pour half the milk mixture over, reserving remainder for serving. 
4. Cool completely, cover and refridgerate overnight to soak up milks. 

For marshmallow topping

2 egg whites

125 g caster sugar

1 tsp tsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp rosewater (I used normal water with a drop red colouring)
1 1/2 tsp powdered gelatine
125 ml boiling water

1. Whisk egg whites to firm peaks then gradually whisk in sugar.  Finally mix in lemon juice and coloured water. 
2. Add gelatine to boiling water, stirring until dissolved. 
3. Slowly pour gelatine into egg mixture while whisking.  Continue whisking until mix is cool and firm (about 8 minutes). 
4. Pile marshmallow on top of cake and return to fridge to chill for at least an hour, or up to a day. 

Remove cake from fridge about 30 minutes before serving andd tidy up the marshmallow with a hot knife, if you wish.  Sprinkle with pistachios and cranberries and put reserved milks into jug alongside.