Mixed berries pavlova recipe

Looking for a dessert recipe to impress your friends and family? Look no further than this truly posh pavlova! Layers of crisp, sweet meringue are sandwiched together with cream and topped with fresh seasonal berries for a wow-factor pud that everyone will love. It takes a little extra time to put together, but the finished product is more than worth the wait.

Ingredients

• 500g egg white
• 1kg caster sugar
• 1tbsp white wine vinegar
• 1tbsp cornflour
• 600ml carton whipping cream
• 2 x 400-500g punnets strawberries
• 2 x 150-200g punnets raspberries
• 150-180g punnet blueberries
• Icing sugar, for dusting

You will need:

• Piping bag, fitted with a star piping tube, eg, Jem 1B
• Baking sheets and baking parchment

Method

1. To make your pavlova, preheat the oven to 150°C/300°F/Gas mark 2.
2. On 3 sheets of baking parchment, draw around a cake tin or plate of about 20cm in diameter, and turn the paper over and place on baking sheets.
3. Whisk half the egg white until stiff, then gradually whisk in half the sugar. Fold in half the vinegar and cornflour.
4. Fill the piping bag with the mixture and pipe 2 circles, spiralling from the outside into the centre, in a single layer over the plate outlines on the baking parchment. Use any remaining mixture pipe small swirls. Bake the meringue for about 1 hour, or until it feels crisp. Remove it from the oven and leave to cool completely.
5. Make up the 2nd batch of meringue and pipe the remaining large circle. Use the rest of the mixture to pipe as many small spirals as possible, and bake as before.
6. Whip the cream until it forms soft peaks and spread about 3⁄4 of it over the top of the 3 large meringues. Divide the berries between them, leaving the hulls on the strawberries on the top layer to add colour, but removing them and slicing the strawberries for the lower 2 layers. Stack the meringues up. Use the reserved cream to stick the small swirls around the sides. Dust with icing sugar.