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THE MERINGUE GIRLS

 SUPER CUTE STRAWBERRY TRAYBAKE RECIPE

This pretty pink pavlova is a gorgeous twist on a classic, and is great to share in the middle of the table amongst friends.
You can really use your artistic licence to go wild on colours & toppings –which makes this great for any season.

Pavlova ingredients:

400g caster sugar

200g free range egg whites (about 6 eggs)

50g Urban Fruit gently baked strawberries

50g Urban Fruit gently baked cherries

Natural food colourings, any colours you like!

Strawberry cream:

500ml double cream

50g freeze-dried strawberry powder

To decorate:

A punnet of blueberries or strawberries

Extra Urban Fruit gently baked strawberries & cherries

Additional meringue kisses (optional)

Method
Preheat your oven to 200C.

Line a small baking tray with baking parchment, pour in the caster sugar and heat it in the oven for 7 minutes. Heating the sugar helps to create a glossy, stable
mixture.

Pour the egg whites into a mixer and whisk them slowly, allowing small stabilising bubbles to form, then increase the speed until the egg whites form stiff peaks.

Take the sugar out of the oven, and turn oven down to 100C.

With your mixer on full speed, very slowly spoon the hot sugar into the beaten egg whites, making sure the mixture comes back up to stiff peaks after each
addition of sugar. Once you have added all the sugar, continue to whisk on full speed until you have a smooth, stiff and glossy mixture. You should continue to
whisk for at least 5 minutes once sugar has incorporated.

Line a tray with baking paper.

Feel a bit of the mixture between your fingers; if you can still feel the gritty sugar, keep whisking at full speed until it has dissolved and the mixture is smooth, stiff
and glossy.

Working quickly – divide your mixture into 4 clean bowls.

The first bowl will be for your pavlova base – add half of your mixture to this bowl, and stir through a few drops of natural pink food colouring so that you get a
lovely pastel pink colour.

In the remaining three bowls, divide your mixture – and decide which colours you would like. For example, we chose to leave one bowl white, and colour one
bowl deep purple and the other a brighter pink.

Choose some different piping nozzles, and add these to 3 disposable piping bags – we used Wilton 2D, Wilton 4B & Wilton 6B – to create a range of different
stars, roses & swirls.

Fill up the piping bags, and cut off the tips with scissors.

Using a spatula spread the pastel pink pavlova base all over the lined baking tray, and use your artistic license to pipe clusters of different meringue colours all
over the top of the base, then dot with gently baked strawberry & cherry pieces.

Bake for 1 hour at 100c.

Leave the pavlova to cool on the tray.

When you are ready to serve, whip up the double cream to soft peaks and fold through the freeze-dried strawberry powder. Add this to a piping bag with 6B
nozzle and pipe all over the pavlova.

Go wild, and decorate with some extra gently baked strawberries & cherries, and any fresh seasonal fruit, berries or kisses. What about a drizzle of chocolate?

Devour!

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 PINK PAVLOVAS WITH STEEPED SUMMER BERRIES AND FRESH CREAM, SERVED WITH A STRAWBERRY FRO-GIN DAIQUIRI

Pavlovas (makes about 10):

300g caster sugar
150g free range egg whites (about 5 eggs)
A few drops of natural pink food colouring
Disposable piping bag

Paint brush

Marbeled cream:
125ml double cream
A handful of squashed raspberries
A couple of drops of natural pink food colouring

Gin steeped summer berries:

A good glug of Gordons Pink Gin
A small punnet of raspberries & strawberries

To make the pavlovas:

Preheat your oven to 200c/gas 7. Line a small baking tray with baking paper, pour in the caster sugar and heat it in the oven for 7
minutes. Heating the sugar helps to create a glossy, stable mixture.

Meanwhile pour the egg whites into the bowl of a stand mixer and whisk them slowly, allowing small stabilizing bubbles to form, then increase
the speed until the egg whites form stiff peaks.

Take the sugar out of the oven and turn the oven down to 100c/gas 1/2 . With your mixer on full speed, very slowly spoon the hot sugar into the
stiffly beaten egg whites. Once you have added all the sugar, continue to whisk on full speed until you have a smooth, stiff and glossy mixture.

To make mini pink pavlovas, paint the inside of your piping bag with pink food colouring, then spoon your meringue mixture inside. Cut the tip
off the end of the bag to make a hole about the size of a 50p coin. Line a large baking tray with baking parchment, then pipe dollops
of pink meringue about the size of a mug rim. With the back of a teaspoon make an indent for the filling in the top. Bake at 100c for an hour,
until the base of the meringues are solid.

To serve:

Steep the berries in a glug of gin for 5-10 mins. Meanwhile, whip up the double cream to soft peaks, then ripple through the squashed
raspberries & natural food colouring to create a gorgeous marble colour. Fill the pavlovas, and top with the berries.

For the cocktail:

Makes 2
100ml of Gordons Pink Gin

A handful of strawberries
A handful of raspberries
A squeeze of agave syrup
Juice of 1/2 a lemon
A handful of ice

In a blender whizz all ingredients together. Adjust agave & lemon juice to taste.
Serve in a chilled cocktail glass, with optional pink raspberry macaron on the rim.
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LEMON SHERBET MERINGUE CHICKS

The cutest easter sweet treats that ever roamed the land!
This is our foolproof mother mixture. We use this method whenever we make our meringue kisses, giant meringues, pavlovas or decorative festive meringues –
and now our Easter Chicks!

Our mixture is so easy to remember a 2:1 ratio of sugar and egg whites.

Ingredients:

 300g caster sugar

 150g free range egg whites
 3 drops of lemon essence
 half a teaspoon of citric acid
 25g dark chocolate
 25g white chocolate
 0range food colouring
 yellow food colouring

Method:

Preheat your oven to 200c. Line a small baking tray with baking parchment, pour in the caster sugar and heat it in the oven for 7 minutes. Heating the sugar helps
to create a glossy, stable mixture. Pour the egg whites into a mixer and whisk them slowly, allowing small stabilising bubbles to form, then increase the speed until
the egg whites form stiff peaks.

Take the sugar out of the oven, and turn oven down to 100’c (leave the door open to help speed this up.) With your mixer on full speed, very slowly spoon the hot
sugar into the beaten egg whites, making sure the mixture comes back up to stiff peaks after each addition of sugar. Once you have added all the sugar, continue to
whisk on full speed until you have a smooth, stiff and glossy mixture. You should continue to whisk for at least 5 minutes once sugar has incorporated. Feel a bit
of the mixture between your fingers; if you can still feel the gritty sugar, keep whisking at full speed until it has dissolved and the mixture is smooth, stiff and
glossy.

We flavour our chicks with lemon essence and citric acid to make a sherbet lemon flavour- it’s a real winner.

Gently fold in the lemon essence and citric acid, being careful not to knock any of the air out.

Now to pipe out your cute little chicks. Turn your piping bag inside out and paint with yellow food colouring, then spoon your meringue into your disposable
piping bag and cut the tip off (about a 50 pence size hole). Pipe out your kisses by keeping the bag tight, straight and directly above your baking tray. Squeeze
from a 2cm height from the baking tray and then let go before pulling up to form the lovely peaks.
Bake for about 35-45 minutes or until the meringue bases come off the parchment paper clean.

Leave your chicks to cool. In the meantime, melt your dark and white chocolate in separate bowls. Mix a drop of orange food colouring into the white chocolate,
this will make your chick’s beak and feet.

Once the chicks are completely cool, take a paint brush and draw on a pair of eyes with the dark chocolate and then beak and feet with the coloured white
chocolate.

There you have it, a flock of lemon sherbet Easter chick meringues!

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 MARSHMALLOW ROPES

MAKES 1 LONG ROPE

For the marshmallow dusting; to stop everything sticking:

  100g icing sugar
 50 cornflower

For the marshmallow mixture:

 70g free-range egg whites (approx. 2 large eggs)

 a pinch of table salt
 350g caster sugar
 12 leaves of gelatine
 1 tbsp liquid glucose
 150ml cold water

For the colouring:

 a few drops of natural pink food colouring

 a few drops of natural blue food colouring
 a few drops of natural yellow food colouring

Equipment:

 Sugar thermometer, piping bags, toothpicks

These marshmallow ropes are super fun to make. Marshmallows are made exactly the same way as an Italian meringue – adding hot sugar syrup to stiff egg whites
– but with the addition of gelatine to make them set. We suggest making this with friends, as the marshmallow mixture sets quite quickly and you need a few
hands on deck to pipe the ropes before it does. Good messy fun.

Prepare yourself:
Mix the icing sugar and cornflour together in a large bowl. Place a very long sheet of baking paper along your work surface. Using a sieve, dust very generously all
over the baking paper with the icing sugar and cornflour mixture, reserving some of it for use later.

To make the marshmallow mixture:

Put the egg whites, salt and 1 tablespoon of the caster sugar into the bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with the whisk attachment, or use a clean glass bowl and a hand-
held whisk. Don’t start whisking yet.

Put the leaves of gelatine into a shallow bowl of cold water and leave them for 5 minutes to soak and become soft.

Meanwhile, put the liquid glucose and the 150ml of water into a heavy-based saucepan with the remaining caster sugar. Place over a medium heat and stir with a
heatproof spatula to gently dissolve the sugar (this takes 5–10 minutes). Once the sugar has dissolved, turn up the heat and bring to the boil. Attach a sugar
thermometer to the pan and continue to boil without stirring until the syrup reaches 120°C. Take the pan off the heat.

Now turn the mixer on to a medium speed and whisk the egg whites until stiff peaks form. Meanwhile, take the leaves of soaked gelatine out of the bowl and
squeeze the excess water out, blotting them as dry as you can with a clean tea towel. Add to the hot sugar syrup and stir until the gelatine has completely dissolved.

Once the egg whites are at stiff peaks, crank up the whisk to a high speed while you add the hot syrup in a steady stream. Be careful to add the syrup directly to the
egg whites, without it touching the side of the bowl or the whisk on the way down, otherwise it will cool before it hits the eggs.

When all the sugar syrup has been added, continue to whisk on high speed for 5 minutes, until the mixture is cool and the bowl feels hand temperature. The
mixture should be glossy and doubled in volume.

To colour:
This is a bit of a two-woman job. Very quickly, divide the mixture roughly between three bowls. To one bowl, add the pink colouring; to the next, add the blue;
and to your final bowl, add the yellow. Stir quickly to evenly combine the colours, then transfer to three disposable piping bags.

Cut off a 1.5cm tip with scissors at the end of each bag (there is no need for a nozzle), and quickly get piping long straight ropes of marshmallow on to the dusted
baking paper. Leave to set for 5 minutes, then lightly dust with a little more of your icing sugar and cornflour mixture. Leave the ropes to set until they are no
longer sticky to the touch, and are easy to handle without breaking apart. This will take about 45 minutes to an hour. Don’t leave them for too long, or they will set,
becoming hard to twist, and may crack.
To twist those fancy flumps:
First, dust your hands with some of the remaining icing sugar and cornflour mixture. Now roll one rope of each colour back and forth in the mixture so that they
are completely coated. Lay the three colours of rope side by side and skewer all three with a toothpick at one end. Carefully twist (or plait!) the ropes tightly, then
skewer the other end with another toothpick to hold the twists in shape.

Repeat with all the ropes. They can be eaten immediately, but won’t hold their twisty shape unless you let them set at room temperature for 24 hours to dry
completely. The next day, remove the toothpicks and the twists will miraculously stay in their lovely shape.

The ropes will keep fresh for 1 week in an airtight container.

Full recipe & many others like it in Meringue Girls Everything Sweet – a signed copy can be bought here.

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