When it comes to baking, few things are more satisfying than pulling a perfect batch of cookies from the oven or adding the final dollop of whipped cream to a beautifully plated cake. Sure, taste is the most important factor when all is said and done, but there’s also something to be said for that visual sweetness. What’s that saying about eating with the eyes first? My eyes must have quite an appetite.
The dessert in the photo above was baked by my sister-in-law for New Year’s Eve this year (er, last year?), and it’s the prettiest thing I’ve eaten in a long, long time. It’s a basic pavlova, topped with whipped cream and raspberries. And yes, it tasted just as good as it looked. For all the non-pavlova-eaters out there (I was one, too, before she whipped up this deliciousness a few summers ago), pavlova is a simple dessert with a meringue base that’s filled/topped with whipped cream and some sort of fruit. The meringue is super light and airy with a healthy dose of sweetness. Mix that with the coolness of the cream and the tartness of the fruit (in this case raspberries), and you have a dessert that hits all the right taste buds at once. And after a day of noshing on appetizers galore, this raspberry pavlova was the perfect way to ring in 2011.
I don’t have the exact recipe that she used for this pavlova (I must remember to ask for it soon!), but there are a lot of similar takes online (Ina Garten has a mixed berry pavlova recipe here that sounds really good, and this chocolate raspberry pavlova from Nigella Lawson looks similar to the recipe my sister-in-law used, minus the chocolaty business). We did snap a few photos of the process though, so grab your figurative fork. And bon appétit!
After whipping the eggs whites to stiff peaks and slowly incorporating the sugar, my older brother and sister-in-law spooned the meringue mixture onto the Silpat for baking.
Here’s the meringue base after baking. It baked for about an hour in a 250-ish-degree oven, then sat in the cooling oven for a few hours afterward, basically until we needed to use the oven for something else. Oh yes, that human-shaped blob in the middle of the meringue is my brother’s egg-white portrait of his wife. Pretty snazzy skills, don’t you think?
See the pretty sugary bits on the edges? It’s like edible glitter. Ooo la la!
After the base had cooled, my sister and sister-in-law whipped up some homemade whipped cream and then mixed in a few raspberries (thawed, from frozen because it’s wintertime, y’all) to turn the whipped cream pink. Then it was just a matter of assembly: meringue base, whipped cream in the center and the rest of the raspberries on top. Pretty as a picture.
So what’s your favorite pretty dessert? Do you have any favorites that are just as satisfying to the eyes as they are in the tummy? Do you have any surefire tips when it comes to visual presentation? Let’s hear it!
XO,
Katrina