Saturday 26 July 2008

Pavlova

The perfect summer pudding. Pavlova. Light, crunchy, chewy and just delicious with whipped cream and summer fruits. I didn't take very good pictures; sometimes I feel a bit silly taking photos when everyone is waiting to eat! hehe! I made the meringue the night before and then added the cream and fruits just before we were about to eat it.

It is really easy to make and tastes so better than bought ones! You will need:

4 egg whites
225g (80z) caster sugar
300ml double cream
Summer fruits - I used strawberries, raspberries and red and blackcurrants

Preheat the oven to 140c and place a large circle of baking parchment paper on a baking tray.

Take a large bowl and make sure it is spotlessly clean! Also be extremely careful when separating your eggs. Place the egg whites in a bowl and then using an electric mixer, whisk the egg whites until they are very stiff. Add the caster sugar gradually, whisking the mixture after each addition.

When the mixture is quite stiff, spoon it onto the baking parchment paper, spread in around with the back of a spoon and swirl in around into a lovley pattern. Make sure you leave a dip in the centre so the sides are slightly higher. This is so that you can fill it with fruit later on.

Bake the meringue for about 1 and a half hours. I then turned the oven off and left it in the oven over night.
The next day I whisked the cream, spooned dollops of it into the meringue and then poured over the fruits. The meringue was just delicious, crunchy on the outside and all goey and lovely on the inside! Yum!

Tuesday 8 July 2008

Mini cupcakes

I am a little behind in posting all my recent yummy cakes and bakes so here are lots of pictures of some very mini fairy cakes I made a few weeks ago! They are vanilla sponge covered with white icing and then decorated with different sugarpaste creations! I made buttons, roses, flowers, mushrooms and a little pig! Enjoy!