This pretty pink pavlova is a gorgeous twist on a classic, and is great to share in the middle of the table amongst friends.
You can really use your artistic licence to go wild on colours & toppings –which makes this great for any season.
Pavlova ingredients:
400g caster sugar
200g free range egg whites (about 6 eggs)
50g Urban Fruit gently baked strawberries
50g Urban Fruit gently baked cherries
Natural food colourings, any colours you like!
Strawberry cream:
500ml double cream
50g freeze-dried strawberry powder
To decorate:
A punnet of blueberries or strawberries
Extra Urban Fruit gently baked strawberries & cherries
Additional meringue kisses (optional)
Method
Preheat your oven to 200C.
Line a small baking tray with baking parchment, pour in the caster sugar and heat it in the oven for 7 minutes. Heating the sugar helps to create a glossy, stable mixture.
Pour the egg whites into a mixer and whisk them slowly, allowing small stabilising bubbles to form, then increase the speed until the egg whites form stiff peaks.
Take the sugar out of the oven, and turn oven down to 100C.
With your mixer on full speed, very slowly spoon the hot sugar into the beaten egg whites, making sure the mixture comes back up to stiff peaks after each addition of sugar. Once you have added all the sugar, continue to whisk on full speed until you have a smooth, stiff and glossy mixture. You should continue to whisk for at least 5 minutes once sugar has incorporated.
Line a tray with baking paper.
Feel a bit of the mixture between your fingers; if you can still feel the gritty sugar, keep whisking at full speed until it has dissolved and the mixture is smooth, stiff and glossy.
Working quickly – divide your mixture into 4 clean bowls.
The first bowl will be for your pavlova base – add half of your mixture to this bowl, and stir through a few drops of natural pink food colouring so that you get a lovely pastel pink colour.
In the remaining three bowls, divide your mixture – and decide which colours you would like. For example, we chose to leave one bowl white, and colour one bowl deep purple and the other a brighter pink.
Choose some different piping nozzles, and add these to 3 disposable piping bags – we used Wilton 2D, Wilton 4B & Wilton 6B – to create a range of different stars, roses & swirls.
Fill up the piping bags, and cut off the tips with scissors.
Using a spatula spread the pastel pink pavlova base all over the lined baking tray, and use your artistic license to pipe clusters of different meringue colours all over the top of the base, then dot with gently baked strawberry & cherry pieces.
Bake for 1 hour at 100c.
Leave the pavlova to cool on the tray.
When you are ready to serve, whip up the double cream to soft peaks and fold through the freeze-dried strawberry powder. Add this to a piping bag with 6B nozzle and pipe all over the pavlova.
Go wild, and decorate with some extra gently baked strawberries & cherries, and any fresh seasonal fruit, berries or kisses. What about a drizzle of chocolate?
Devour!
