#6 PAVLOVA

I've recently had a huge craving for pavlova. I haven't had it in ages and I love the mixture of textures that you can taste with each mouthful. As part of my summer bucket list I thought I'd give it a try. I've heard that making meringue is quite difficult but it was surprisingly easier than I thought it would be. Anyway, here's how I made it in case anyone wants to try it.

Ingredients for the meringue:

• 4 egg whites
• 250g of caster sugar
• 1 teaspoon of cornflour
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla essence
• 1 tablespoon of lemon juice

- Start with whisking the egg whites using an electric whisk until you get a foam-like appearance.

- Slowly start putting in the sugar little by little. The mixture should now thicken and have a glossy appearance. Once you've finished adding all of the sugar, add the vanilla essence, cornflour and lemon juice.

- Once you're happy, pour the mixture out onto a baking tray. You're supposed to use baking paper rather than foil but I forgot to buy it so I had to make do with aluminium foil!

- Put the tray into the oven (which is at 150 C) and bake for an hour.

Ingredients for the topping:

• Double cream as required + caster sugar as required
• Strawberries, blackcurrants, raspberries and redcurrants
• 5 tablespoons of sugar

- Whisk the double cream along with the sugar until the mixture is as thick as whipped cream

- Mix the fruits along with the sugar on the hob until the sauce has been reduced.

- Once the meringue is done, put the whipped cream on top of it along with the fruit mixture

And voila!