More than 1 hour
Serves 8-10
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Ingredients:
Meringue:
(You’ll need to make two batches of this for a tree with 7 layers)
- 6 egg whites, at room temperature
- Pinch fine salt
- Pinch cream of tartar
- 1½ cups (330g) castor sugar
- 1 tsp (5ml) cornflour
- 1 tsp (5ml) white or apple cider vinegar
Topping:
- 2 cans (385g each) Caramel Treat
- PnP edible gold or bronze dust and icing sugar, for decorating
- Raspberries and pomegranate rubies, for decorating (fresh stone fruit works well too)
Method
- Preheat oven to 140°C.
- Line 3 baking trays with baking paper.
- Whisk egg whites, salt and cream of tartar until medium-stiff peaks.
- Add sugar 1 heaped tablespoon at a time, whisking continuously until glossy and stiff peaks form – this can take about 12-15 minutes with an electrical whisk.
- Combine cornflour and vinegar and mix to create a paste, then whisk into meringue mixture when adding the last bit of sugar.
- Test if it is ready by rubbing a little mixture between your fingers to ensure all sugar is dissolved. The mixture should be quite stiff with a shiny almost velvet-like appearance.
- Spoon a few dollops onto prepared baking trays and spread out into various sized discs – we used 5cm to 22cm discs. (Meringue does puff up in oven slightly, so don’t place too close to each other.)
- Decrease oven to 100°C and place meringue in oven.
- Bake for 1½ hours until crisp outside and light, checking that bottom of meringue is also set.
- Switch off the oven and cool pavlovas for 20-30 minutes.
- Repeat process with second batch of meringues and then dry out all baked pavlovas in the oven for at least 2 hours, or overnight.
- Whisk caramel until smooth.
- Stack meringues from big to small to resemble a Christmas tree, spreading each layer with caramel.
- Finish off by studding with raspberries and pomegranate rubies, and dust with gold dust and icing sugar.
For more pro tips, click here to get to know your meringue.