Last month I was asked by Achica to come up with a strawberries and cream recipe for Wimbledon fortnight. I have to say that there are few combinations that go together as well as strawberries and cream, except when you add some sugary meringues to it! Oh my mouth is watering just thinking about it!

I decided that I would make some mini pavlovas, but I didn’t want them to be just ordinary ones. Oh, no. I wanted them to be pretty! So I made the meringues in Rose shapes using a rose piping nozzle. They’re dead easy to make and look so effective. I coloured my ones pink but anything goes really.

How to make Mini Strawberry Pavolvas

Ingredients

(makes 12 meringues)

3 egg whites (at room temperature)

160g caster sugar

1 tea spoon cornflour

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

Pink food colouring

500ml double cream

2 tablespoon strawberry jam

handful of strawberries cut in half to decorate.

To ensure that your meringues will be similar in size draw circles onto a sheet of silicon paper- I used a small glass. Flip the paper over and place on a baking tray ready to pipe the meringues on.Heat the oven to 120ºC (100ºC fan)

Whisk the egg whites until they form stiff peaks. You can do this by hand but it will take forever! In a separate bowl sieve the sugar and cornflour together. Add a spoonful at a time to the egg whites and beat in well. Continue adding one spoon at a time until all the sugar is combined.
Add the vanilla essence and blend further until the mixture is thick and glossy and won’t fall out of the bowl if you turn it upside down!
For a pretty two tone look to the meringues add a little pink food colour to the bowl and stir a small amount up, making sure to leave some of it white.

Fill a piping bag with the mixture. You can use any piping tip. I wanted to get a flower effect so I used a closed star tip no. 846 (it’s the one on the left which is available from Amazon on this link Flower Piping Nozzle), but any style tip will work.

Use a tall glass or jug to hold your piping bag steady and open while you fill it. You can paint some pink stripes on the inside of the piping bag for a more streaky look. I did this but I thing mixing the colour in the bowl had a better result.

Pipe circular shapes onto your silicon paper, using the circles as a guide. For a flower effect meringue start your swirl in the centre. Keep the nozzle close to the paper and at a right angle then keep going round and round until you have filled your circle line.

Pop the tray into the oven for 1hr 30 mins. After that turn the oven off but leave the tray in there till the oven has completely cooled. This stops the meringues from cracking. They crack if they cool too quickly.

Once the meringues are completely cool whisk up the double cream so it’s no longer runny and add the strawberry jam.
Place a spoonful of jam to the bottom meringue, add cream then top off with another meringue.
Assemble with the cream on the day you are eating them or they’ll get soggy.