Aussie Pavlova

First things first, I don't want to hear any New Zealanders carrying on about how the Pavlova was their invention!  I think we can all agree that no-one really knows for sure who did it (seeing as they appeared around the same time in both countries).  I don't have any emotional investment in it being exclusively Australian so if anyone can prove it either way, hooray!  (For everyone else, this is quite a heated debate in Antipodean parts.....)

Now, moving right along!  I actually made this back in January but forgot to blog about it so thought better late than never.  This is what is known as a marshmallow pavlova (ie. it is hard and crunchy on the outside but nice and soft and chewy in the middle).  A very simple dessert that is truly delicious.  Pavlova base, whipped sweetened cream on top of that, fresh fruit on top of the whipped cream.  This is also the very first pavlova I have ever cooked myself (having enjoyed other's efforts on many an occasion).  So, that just goes to show how easy they are.  I used the recipe out of an iconic Australian cookbook series (the Australian Women's Weekly 'Sweet Old Fashioned Favourites') and, not wanting to infringe on their copyright, have provided a link to another website who have the recipe published.  Click here for the recipe (and further details about the debate! ha ha).

Just one note, I also decided to add a raspberry sauce to mine to up the presentation (and flavour) factor.  This was sooooo easy to make.  Just push a punnet of raspberries through a sieve (this isn't hard at all) until you have all the lovely seedless juice in a bowl underneath and then mix in a little powdered sugar (icing sugar) to sweeten.  Raspberries can be quite tart so the powdered sugar really makes it.