To make this beauty, you'll need:
- 8 Medium sized Eggs
- 500g of Caster Sugar
- 2tsp Vanilla Bean Paste
- 1 Punnet of Raspberries (approx. 150g)
- 600ml of Double Cream
- 300g of White Chocolate
- Red Food Colouring - I use Wilton's food gels, but the choice is yours
- Disposable Piping bag
- Paintbrush
Before you begin warm up your oven to 180c (fan oven)/ Gas Mark 4.
Place some baking paper onto a baking tray and using a cake tin, draw around it, so you have a template for your pavlova.
Separate your eggs into the yolks and whites, you must not have any yolk in your eggs otherwise they won't whisk up properly and you'll have a very flat, liquid Pavlova!
Place your egg whites into a food processor and whisk until they form soft peaks. Alternatively place in a clean metal bowl and use an electric handwhisk to whisk them up.
Once you have your soft peaks, add the sugar to the whisked egg whites, a tablespoon at a time. When all the sugar has been added, you should have a beautiful shiny mixture (think melted marshmallow!), which forms stiff peaks when lifted.
Meanwhile, cut the end of a piping bag off, so it's wide enough to squeeze a raspberry through. Then open up and using your paintbrush, paint lines of the food gel up the sides of your piping bag and pop to the side.
Carefully fold half the punnet of raspberries and 1 tsp of Vanilla Bean Paste into the shiny mixture, being careful not to knock out too much air.
Put the Pavlova and raspberry mixture into the piping bag and pipe around your circular template, then fill in, so you have a full circle. Then pipe another layer ontop, only around the edges, so you build up Pavlova wall.
Before you place your Pavlova into the oven, turn it down to 150c/ Gas Mark 2. Pop in the oven for an hour, then when it's done its time, turn the oven off and leave it in there to cool down for a good 30 minutes.
When it is fully cooled, remove it from the oven (you'll be able to smell the raspberry!). It will have cracked - but do not panic! This is what a Pavlova is all about and just shows individuality! At this point, you could store it in an airtight container for up to a week.
Then gently whip up the cream just until it is almost solid.
Melt the white chocolate in a Microwave (About 20 seconds, stir, 20 seconds does it) or over a Bain marie.
Let the white chocolate cool a little then add it and the remaining 1 tsp of Vanilla Bean Paste to the whipped cream and whisk together for a couple of seconds until it is fully combined.
Place the white chocolate cream on top of your pavlova and pop a few raspberries on top, and there you have it: one very delicious Pavlova full of rapsberry, White Chocolatey goodness!
- If your egg whites are under or overwhisked, your final mixture will be too liquid and will not hold any shape at all. Therefore, sadly the best thing to do is to probably start again, keep a eye on the mixture and as soon as you see soft peaks, start adding the sugar.
- If you're Pavlova is too cracked (in that it is falling apart) use the cream to gently place parts back together. Remember that once everyone digs in, it will crack up completely -so it doesn't really matter!
- If your cream appears to crack a little when you add the White Chocolate, quickly pop it all in the fridge - the White Chocolate will have been a little too hot!
