Chilli chocolate and almond dacquoise

Preheat the oven to 140°C. For the meringues, line 3 baking trays with baking paper. Draw 20cm circles onto each piece of baking paper and invert the paper onto the trays.

In a large bowl, beat the egg whites using an electric mixer. Very slowly add the castor sugar, beating until the mixture is thick and glossy. Gently fold in the cream of tartar and almonds.

Spoon the meringue mixture into a piping bag fitted with a star nozzle and pipe the meringue, evenly, in a coil motion within the drawn circles. Bake in the oven until crisp and dry, about 1 hour. Switch the oven off, leave the door ajar and allow the meringues to cool completely.

For the chocolate curls, melt 150g chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water, making sure the water does not touch the bottom of the bowl. Once melted, remove from heat and pour two-thirds into a clean bowl. Keep the remaining chocolate in a warm place.

Stir the remaining 50g unmelted chocolate into the two-thirds melted chocolate to bring the temperature down to 29°C (use a sugar thermometer to test). Remove any unmelted chocolate once the desired temperature is reached. Add the remaining third melted chocolate and bring the temperature up to 31°C.

Spread the melted chocolate on thin strips of baking paper (4cm x 10cm) and sprinkle some of the strips with Robertsons Crushed Chillies. Wrap the strips, baking paper side down, around medium-sized glasses sprayed with cooking spray. Use a dab of melted chocolate to ‘glue’ the ends of the baking paper onto the glasses. Set the strip aside to harden in a cool area (but not in the fridge).

Once set, brush some of the chocolate curl strips with edible gold powder. Carefully remove the chocolate curls from the glasses by releasing the stuck ends and sliding the curls from the bottom of the glasses. Gently peel off the baking paper and set the curls aside.

For the filling, melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water, making sure the water does not touch the bottom of the bowl. Stir in the egg yolks, coffee extract, Robertsons Ginger, Robertsons Crushed Chillies and cream. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until soft peaks form. Fold the egg whites into the chocolate and refrigerate to thicken, 2 hours.

To assemble, peel the baking paper off the meringues. Place a meringue disc onto a serving plate and spread a thick layer of chocolate filling on top. Repeat with the remaining meringues and filling.

Top with the chocolate curls just before serving.