Raffaello Cake (Coconut Almond Cake)

For some reason, my meringue kept turning out grainy and not completely stiff. The graininess speaks to the sugar granules not being totally dissolved during the double-boiler cooking process. I’ll admit that the first time, it was my fault. I thought it was almost there and went with it. It wasn’t there. The meringue was super hot (maybe hotter than it should have been), and I assumed the remaining few granules would dissolve while whipping. They did not. I had to scrap it all and start again.

The second time, I swore the sugar was dissolved, but it clearly wasn’t. Basically, a repeat of the above.

The third time, I switched to using a larger pot, thinking that would help. The meringue was hot, and I didn’t feel a single granule when I tested it three times, but sure enough, my meringue still had a bit of grit to it. WTH.

I don’t understand. Is it the humidity? It was raining at the time, but that’s not unusual. The only difference between this recipe and the ones I’ve been using recently is scale. I usually work with a larger batch of meringue, but this time I went back to a small batch (though one I’ve used countless times in the past, without issue). The only thing I can think is that there wasn’t enough egg whites to sugar to dissolve it properly, or something. Though the recipe works completely fine if doubled, and has worked in the past. Anyhow, if you have any insight, I’m all ears.

Coincidentally, I ran out of buttercream (lol). No joke. So I should have made a bigger batch to begin with. Recipe has been adjusted accordingly.

Okay enough ranting, on to this Raffaello Cake!