Doink has sort of been requesting me to prepare this sinful dessert for him for quite a while but I hesitated and instead I told him to bring me to Cameron Highlands to get the freshest strawberries and I will make for him. *cheeky me* However, I saw that Tesco was selling strawberries at kinda cheap price and they look kinda fresh, so decided to surprise him on Friday night. *smile* Well, can you guess what he requested?
He fell in love with the dessert when he saw it in
Carol's Blog. To be honest, Carol prepares lots of beautiful desserts and I have learned a lot from her blog. It's actually Strawberry Pavlova. *oooooohhhhhh*
In the 1930's an Australian chef, Herbert Sachse, invented this dessert when a soft meringue cake was requested for an afternoon tea at the hotel where he worked. This meringue cake, with its unusual soft sweet marshmallow center and crisp crust is produced by folding a little vinegar and cornstarch (cornflour) into the stiffly beaten egg whites and sugar. Once the Pavlova has been baked and cooled, softly whipped cream and fresh fruits (kiwi, raspberries, strawberries, passion fruit) are mounded in the center of the cake.
Fresh Strawberries - Oooh... beautiful colourInitially I didn't have confidence in making this dessert as I never try making a meringue and I was afraid that I might fail. Anyway, to my surprise I did it and I have to say that I'm very proud of myself. The only mistake that I learn from making this pavlova is that the next time I have to make sure the edges of the meringue are slightly higher than the centre. I want a slight well in the centre of the meringue to place the whipped cream, custard and strawberries so that it doesn't flow over the meringue like mine. *shake head*
Sweet yummy custardMost pavlova recipe that I find online does not have added custard on it. But Carol gave me the idea of adding custard in between meringue and whipped cream. That's actually a brilliant idea and it somehow provide much more richer taste in it. I think if it's served with just whipped cream, it may get a bit sickening after a while. That's my opinion. Well, you can always opt to just put whipped cream. *grin*

Please do try and prepare this dessert. I'm sure you will make everyone very happy when you serve this yummy, sinful, pretty dessert. Hehe... Even to treat yourself with this gorgeous desseet, is just heaven.
To prepare the meringue2 egg whites
3/4 cup caster sugar (reduce it if it's too sweet for your liking)
1/4 tsp cream of tartar or 2 tsp white vinegar
2tsp cornflour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp vanila essence
1. Preheat oven to 130 degrees celcius. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. In the bowl of your electric mixer which is free of grease and water, with the whisk attachment, beat the egg whites with cream of tartar on medium-high speed until they hold soft peaks. Start adding the sugar, a tablespoon at a time, and continue to beat until the meringue holds very stiff peaks.
3. Sprinkle the vinegar and cornstarch over the top of the meringue and fold in.
4. Gently spread the meringue on the parchment paper, smoothing the edges, making sure the edges of the meringue are slightly higher than the center. Bake for 1 hour 15 minutes or until the outside is dry and takes on a very pale cream color. Turn the oven off and let the meringue cool completely in the oven.
To prepare Custard (optional)I used instant custard adjusting the recipe of my own to get a rich taste of the custardy flavour.
Whipped Cream Topping200ml whipped cream - whipped it if it's in liquid form
Strawberries - 250gm
Top the meringue with custard, then with the whipped cream and decorate it with strawberries. Sprinkly some icing sugar over the top. It's ready to be served. *drool*

Tadah - simple, yummy dessert. Doink was really enjoying it a lot and he actually told me that he never had such yummy dessert before and this is probably the best dessert he ever had in his life. It really made his day. I told him that I might make it an effort to prepare this gorgeous dessert once every 2 months. Hopefully that's not too often at all. But I do enjoy making it and I enjoy just munching the meringue by itself. However, I think I might need to reduce the amount of sugar added. Never mind, I will prepare this again and make sure that I make it nicer and prettier next round.

Hope everyone had a lovely weekend and do have a great week ahead. As for me, I'm just waiting to cook Xmas Dinner soon. *jumping up and down excitedly* But I have a problem here, I don't know what dessert to prepare. *banging head* Gonna go bury my head in the recipe books to find out what to prepare.