Last year, I made SO MANY Raspberry and Passionfruit Pavlovas. It started because Pavlova is the favorite dessert of my godson. Also, I learned how to make gluten free pasta last year, which uses egg yolks and left me with a ridiculous number of egg whites. Also, I have a never ending craving for passionfruit and raspberry.

I have professed in the past that I preferd to make Eaton Mess, which is just a version of pavlova that allows you to not get overy fussed about how it looks. If piping meringue and decorating makes you anxious, but these flavors sound good, just make it into an Eaton Mess instead.

All of that said, I feel like I’ve found a way to make this pavlova beautiful, without getting stressed out. Something nice about this dessert is that almost all of it can be made in advance. All you need to the day of the party is assemble! So this recipe is really a friend to a working person who wants to bring a very impressive and festive desset to a holiday event.

Raspberry and Passionfruit Pavlova

For the Passionfruit Curd

Notes: You don’t have to make homemade passionfruit curd. Store bought lemon curd is perfectly delicious. But if you want to make passionfruit curd, here is how I do it. The curd can be made up to a week in advance and stored in a sealed container in the fridge.

Ingredients

• 1/3- 2/3 cup passionfruit concentrate. I like Perfect Puree Brand if you can find it. It is very concentrated and 1/3 cup is plenty. Lately, I have only been able to get Boiron Passionfruit Puree (which is perfect for making cocktails) but you need use 2/3 cup to get enough flavor into a fruit curd. If you have acess to fresh passionfruit, use that!
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 2 egg yolks (save your egg whites for the meringue!  They can be refrigerated for a few days or frozen for weeks)
• the juice of 1/2 lemon, strained
• pinch of salt
• 1 Tablespoon butter

Directions

1. Whisk the sugar and egg yolks together until light in color. Whisk in the passionfruit concentrate, lemon juice, and salt and put in a double boiler.
2. Cook stirring constantly while the mixture thickens. You will know it is finished once the mixture coats a spoon, and when you run your finger down the back of the spoon it leaves a trail. Stir in the butter.
3. Remove the curd and push through a fine mesh strainer. Place in a jar and allow to cool completely before refrigerating.  Whatever you don’t use for your pavlova is dreamy with yogurt for breakfast.

For the Meringue

Notes: You can do this a day in advance. Definitely do it far enough in advance that your meringue will have time to cool before decorating. This recipe makes a very large pavlova, suitable for 12 or more people. Feel free to halve the recipe.

Ingredients

• 8 large egg whites  (1 cup) at room temperature
• 1/4 cup corn starch
• 2 teaspoons white wine vinegar
• 16 oz (4 cups) icing sugar (also known as confectioners sugar), sifted

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Line a large baking tray with parchment paper. Trace the serving plate that you want to use in pencil on the parchment paper lined baking tray. I use a very flat 12 inch plate.
3. Fit a pastry bag with a cake decorating nozzle. I like the one that has a large eight point star opening. I did not have pastry bags, so I just cut the corner off of a clean, larg zip lock bag and put the little nozzle inside on of the corners, which I cut just enough to reveal the tip. I closed it off with an elastic while I filled the bag with meringue. Then I sealed the top of the bag, removed the elastic and piped. Don’t overfill the bag. I had to refill a couple of times. It was fine.
4. In a standing mixer or using a hand-held electric mixer, whisk the egg whites, cornstarch, and vinegar  together on high-speed for about 3 minutes or until they resemble shaving cream. Then, with the motor still running, start adding the sugar 1 heaping teaspoon at a time at a steady pace  until all of the sugar is added. This process will take about 7 minutes.  You should have glossy white peaks.
5. Gently fill your pastry bag (or jerry rigged plastic bag) with the meringue. Have a friend help you. Start by piping four tall swirls, evenly spaced within the circle. If you make the pavlova too big, you will end up having to serve it on the baking try, which is a bummer. Next, pipe swirls in between each of the four evenly spaced swirls, roughly the same size, also within the circle. Then, fill in any gaps with small swirls. At some point the symmetry falls apart, which is totally fine! You should have what looks like a wreath made of meringue swirls. If you have leftover meringue, make your primarly swirls higher. You can also fill in the center a bit, but it is nice to have a dip there to pile fruit into later.
6. Turn the oven down to 300 degrees. Bake the merignue for about 45 minutes, then remove from the oven and allow to cool completely.  Some people like to leave their meringues in the cooled oven overnight before eating them. My oven flares hot sometimes, so I often cut the cooking time a bit short, turn the heat off and leave them to finish in the cooling oven. A slightly soft meringue is lovely, whereas a burnt meringue is inedible.
7. Please note that once baked, some of the meringue always cracks. This is totally fine. You will fill up any cracks or collapsed sections with curd, then piped whipped cream and then finally berries. No one will see those imperfections.

Finishing the Pavlova

Notes: This part needs to be done close to when you serve. Rememebr that if the decorating becomes too stressful, you can just break the meringue into bowls, top them with curd, cream and fruit and call it Eaton Mess!

Ingredients

• A baked and cooled meringue ring (recipe above)
• Passionfruit curd (recipe above) or a jar of store bought lemon curd
• 1 pint of heavy whipping cream
• a very small glug of maple syrup
• At least 3 pints of raspberries, rinsed and dried (I like a lot of fruit, and some of the raspberries are always too squishy to use)
• 1/2 cup lightly toasted and very finely chopped pistachios
• Edible gold dust (totally optional, but very very pretty)

Directions

1. Carefully transfer the meringue to the serving platter. Don’t panic if it breaks. Just reassemble it as best you can. Decorating will fix everything.
2. Use the fruit curd to fill in gaps, cracks and depressions. Then distrubute the rest of the curd evenly in spoonfuls in the lower dips of the meringue.
3. Fit a pastry bag with a cake decorating nozzle. I use that same one with a large eight point star opening that I like for meringue. I use a zip lock bag for this too. Whip the cream with just a little maple syrup and put it in the pastry bag (or zip lock). Pipe the cream to make pretty swirls over any area that is not looking nice to you. I like to do a series of small swirls around the top to make the whole thing higher.
4. Place the prettiest raspberries all around the pavlova. It does not have to be symmetrical, just balanced. Fill the center of the meringue ring with the rest of the raspberries.
5. Dust eveything with finely chopped pistachios and edible gold dust.
6. Serve immediately or keep in a cool dry spot for an hour or two (not in the fridge).