Benjamina Ebuehi’s pistachio and cherry meringue cake recipe | The sweet spot
I’m switching up my usual Christmas pavlova this year for a slightly different but equally delicious meringue-based dessert.Discs of pistachio meringue are baked until crisp, then layered with pistachio cream and cherry compote.The meringue softens a little under the cream as it sits, giving it a pleasingly chewy, cake-like texture.A very good option if you’re after a Christmas dessert without chocolate, alcohol or dried fruit.Thanks to the viral Dubai chocolate bar, pistachio creme is quite easy to come by in most supermarkets these days; it’s already sweetened and brings a lovely, soft green colour.
You could use pistachio butter if you prefer, though the colour will be a bit more muddied and you’ll need to sweeten it a little to taste.Prep 5 min Cook 2 hr 20 min Serves 12-16150g pistachio kernels, plus 50g extra, chopped, to finish50g icing sugar1 tsp cornflourA pinch of salt 165g egg whites 155g caster sugarFor the cherry compote350g frozen cherries Juice of ½ lemon 60g caster sugarFor the pistachio cream600ml whipping cream 60g pistachio cremeHeat the oven to 170C (150C fan)/340F/gas 3½.Line three baking trays with greaseproof paper, then use a 18cm plate or cake tin to draw a circle outline on each.Turn the paper upside down, so the pen marks don’t touch the meringue.Pulse the pistachios, icing sugar, cornflour and salt in a food processor until mostly fine – some chunkier pieces of pistachio are fine.
Whisk the egg whites on medium in a large bowl until foamy, then turn up the speed to medium-high and whisk to soft peaks,With the mixer still running, add the caster sugar a little at a time until the meringue is thick, stiff and glossy,Fold in the pistachio mix, being careful not to knock out too much air, then spoon into a large piping bag,Snip off about an inch from the tip,Starting from the outside of each pencil template, pipe a meringue disc on to each tray and carefully smooth the surface with a palette knife.
Bake for 30-40 minutes, until the meringues are lightly browned and feel firm to the touch; they should peel away from the paper fairly easily.Remove and leave to cool completely.Meanwhile, put all the compote ingredients in a saucepan and heat gently until the cherries release some liquid.Bring to a boil and cook for five or six minutes, until the cherries soften.Spoon the cherries into a bowl, leaving the juices in the pan.
Bring the juices to a boil, reduce by just over half, then pour over the cherries and leave to cool.Make the pistachio cream bywhipping the cream and pistachio creme in a bowl until just thickened and smooth.To assemble, trim the edges of each meringue disc with a small serrated knife, using the 18cm plate or cake tin as a guide.Place one disc on a serving plate and top with some whipped cream.Make a slight 10cm-12cm-wide dip in the middle and spoon in some of the cherries (this will stop the juices spilling out).
Top with another meringue disc and repeat with more cream and cherries, reserving a few for the top.Place the final meringue disc on top and cover the top and sides with more cream, using a palette knife or bench scraper to smooth.Pat the chopped pistachios on to the sides.Put any remaining cream into a piping bag fitted with a star nozzle and pipe on top, add the reserved cherries and chill until ready to serve.
Amazon in talks to invest $10bn in developer of ChatGPT
Amazon is in talks to invest more than $10bn (£7.5bn) in OpenAI, in the latest funding deal being struck by the startup behind ChatGPT.If it goes ahead, the market valuation of OpenAI could rise above $500bn, according to The Information, a tech news site that revealed the negotiations.Amazon, which is best known as an online retailer, is also the world’s largest datacentre provider and its investment would help OpenAI pay for its commitments to rent capacity from cloud computing companies – including Amazon.OpenAI said last month it would spend $38bn on capacity from Amazon Web Services – the company’s datacentre arm – over seven years
UK insists US tech deal not dead as Trump threatens penalties against European firms
Downing Street insists the $40bn Tech Prosperity Deal between the US and UK that is on hold is not permanently stalled. The BBC reported on Tuesday evening that the prime minister’s office claimed that the UK remains in “active conversations with US counterparts at all levels of government” about the wide-ranging deal for the technology industries in both countries to cooperate.The agreement, previously billed as historic, was paused after the US accused the UK of failing to lower trade barriers, including a digital services tax on US tech companies and food safety rules that limit the export of some agricultural products. The New York Times first reported British confirmation that negotiations had stalled.“We look forward to resuming work on this partnership as quickly as possible,” a Downing Street spokesperson said in a statement
US date rape survivors file lawsuit accusing Hinge and Tinder of ‘accommodating rapists’
The Dating Apps Reporting Project produced this story in partnership with the Pulitzer Center’s AI Accountability Network and The Markup, now a part of CalMatters, and copublished with The Guardian and The 19th.Six women who were drugged and raped or sexually assaulted by the same Denver cardiologist filed a lawsuit against Match Group on Tuesday, accusing the world’s largest dating app company of “accommodating rapists across its products” through “negligence” and a “defective” product.The women, backed by four law firms, said that by allowing known abusers like Stephen Matthews to remain on its apps, Tinder and Hinge, even after they are reported for rape, the company fostered a breeding ground for “sexual predators”.“Even when Match Group receives reports about rapists, they continue to welcome them, fail to warn users about the general and specific risks, and affirmatively recommend known predators to members,” the complaint said. “Rapists know each Match Group platform offers a catalog of available victims
Water levels across the Great Lakes are falling – just as US data centers move in
The sign outside Tom Hermes’s farmyard in Perkins Township in Ohio, a short drive south of the shores of Lake Erie, proudly claims that his family have farmed the land here since 1900. Today, he raises 130 head of cattle and grows corn, wheat, grass and soybeans on 1,200 acres of land.For his family, his animals and wider business, water is life.So when, in May 2024, the Texas-based Aligned Data Centers broke ground on its NEO-01, four-building, 200,000 sq ft data center on a brownfield site that abuts farmland that Hermes rents, he was concerned.“We have city water here
Boost for artists in AI copyright battle as only 3% back UK active opt-out plan
A campaign fronted by popstars including Elton John and Dua Lipa to protect artists’ works from being mined to train AI models without consent has received a boost after almost every respondent to a government consultation backed their case.Ninety-five per cent of the more than 10,000 people who had their say over how music, novels, films and other works should be protected from copyright infringements by tech companies called for copyright to be strengthened and a requirement for licensing in all cases or no change to copyright law.By contrast, only 3% of people backed the government’s initial preferred tech company-friendly option, which was to require artists and copyright holders to actively opt out of having their material fed into data-hungry AI systems.Ministers subsequently dropped that preference in the face of a backlash. Artists who have opposed any dilution of their copyright include Sam Fender, Kate Bush and the Pet Shop Boys
Google AI summaries are ruining the livelihoods of recipe writers: ‘It’s an extinction event’
This past March, when Google began rolling out its AI Mode search capability, it began offering AI-generated recipes. The recipes were not all that intelligent. The AI had taken elements of similar recipes from multiple creators and Frankensteined them into something barely recognizable. In one memorable case, the Google AI failed to distinguish comments on a Reddit thread from legitimate recipe sites and advised users to cook with non-toxic glue.Over the past few years, bloggers who have not secured their sites behind a paywall have seen their carefully developed and tested recipes show up, often without attribution and in a bastardized form, in ChatGPT replies
Jimmy Kimmel on Trump’s Rob Reiner comments: ‘So hateful and vile’
The Vietnam War ended 50 years ago. But its lessons live on in The Quiet American
‘Fans stole my underwear – and even my car aerial’: how Roxette made It Must Have Been Love
From Eleanor the Great to Emily in Paris: your complete entertainment guide to the week ahead
‘Like lipstick on a fabulous gorilla’: the Barbican’s many gaudy glow-ups and the one to top them all
Maria Balshaw to step down as director of Tate after nine years