A friend recently made her daughter a Pavolva Cake for her birthday. She shared the photo and I fell in love.

Yesterday was my husband’s birthday so I thought it would be the perfect cake to celebrate his special day.

It. was. Special. Fantastic. Out of this world.

It looked great, too.

But, oh, those crisp layers of meringue sandwiched with lightly sweetened cream and fresh berries. The textures all seem to sing in your mouth. A very happy song indeed.

Pavlova Cake With Berries And Cream

Ingredients:

9 large egg whites
600g (2 2/3 cups) caster or granulated sugar
1 Tbs cornflour or cornstarch
1 Tbs white wine or malt vinegar
400ml double (heavy) cream
75g (1/2 cup) confectioners’ sugar , plus extra to dust
2 tsp vanilla extract
250g mixed berries , plus a handful extra for the top

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 250℉/120C/100C fan/gas ½.

2. Draw three circles, 20cm, 16cm and 12cm on baking parchment (I traced the bottom of a 6″, 8″ and 9″ cake pan ). Flip the paper onto baking sheets, so the pen is underneath.

3. Whisk whites until stiff peaks form. An electric mixer is really helpful here.

4. Tip in a quarter of the sugar, whisk back to stiff, then repeat once adding the cornflour and vinegar, before folding in remaining sugar.

5. Spoon the mixture into the circles, shaping to fill, smoothing the centers.

6. Bake for 30 minutes then turn down to 200℉/100C/80C fan/gas ¼ and cook for 1½ hrs more – they will peel away from the parchment when done. Cool in oven with the door slightly ajar.

7. Meringues will keep for 2 weeks in an airtight container.

8. Whip cream with the confectioners’ sugar and vanilla, drop in the berries and fold just once or twice. Chill for up to 24 hrs until ready to assemble – the Pavlovas are best assembled no more than 1 hr before serving.

9. Peel the meringues completely from paper and stack on a serving plate, layering with cream. Arrange a few more berries on top, then dust with confectioners’ sugar.

Serves 12 to 14

Recipe from BBC Good Food Magazine

The birthday boy loved his cake.

After cutting into the cake you can see how glorious and crisp the meringue layers are.

Today I offer up some good old indie pop.

Southern California’s TV Girl make happy, retro sounding music.

Just what I feel like right now.
TV Girl-Baby You Were There

I had it really bad for Elton John growing up. He’s a freak, but man can he make music. I love the use of Benny And The Jets here. That extra ‘T’ for added coolness.

No action going on in the video. Just the song. Could use a dinosaur and his telly to liven it up.

You can download the new EP on the TV Girl Facebook page. More music from TV Girl is on their Bandcamp site.

Cheers!