Meringue Cake with Strawberries

A wonderful party cake. This meringue is very atrractive as the sauce colours the meringue itself.

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   1. Heat oven to 140C/fan 120C/gas 1, then line two flat baking sheets with baking parchment. Whizz about 2/3 of the toasted almonds in a food processor until they are chopped. Make sure they don't start to look greasy or clump together, make sure that they are in pieces rather than ground. Roughly chop the remaining third with a knife.
   
   2. Stir the sugars together. Beat the egg whites in a large bowl using an electric hand whisk until stiff, then add the sugar in three batches, beating the mixture back to stiff after each addition. Add the cornflour and vinegar, and keep going until the meringue mixture is glossy and so stiff that the beaters begin to feel heavy when stirring - this may take up to 5 mins.
   
   3. Quickly fold in all of the finely chopped nuts and most of the roughly chopped with a spatula. Next, divide the mixture between the two baking sheets. Spread both into 20cm circles, then scatter the remaining chopped nuts over. Bake for 1 hr, then turn the oven off and leave the meringues inside to cool for at least 1 hr. Leave the oven door closed (this will help to prevent them cracking). Will keep overnight in an airtight container, or freeze, wrapped in cling film, for up to 1 month.
   
   4. For the strawberry sauce, purée 600g of the strawberries in a food processor or blender. Press through a sieve to remove the seeds, then sweeten with 2 tbsp of the icing sugar. Can be made up to 1 day ahead. Sieve the remaining icing sugar into the double cream, whip until it just holds its shape, then carefully swirl through two-thirds of the sauce.
   
   5. To serve, slide one of the meringues off its baking parchment onto a serving plate, then spread over half the cream. Place the second meringue on top, pile over the rest of the cream and top with the remaining strawberries. Dust with a little more icing sugar if you like, and serve the leftover strawberry sauce alongside.