Happy Birthday Pop!

It is cake making time! Pop's birthday in addition to minding my nephew for a few hours created the perfect excuse for some cake making. Being that we have a "gluten-intolerant" family member I am constantly on the lookout for recipes which accommodate everyone's dietary requirements. So when my Norwegian/Los Angeleno friend posted a photo of a pavlova cake she had made it ticked all the boxes - though it is ironic that I received a Norwegian recipe for an Australian cake. Thankfully the recipe came in both Norwegian and English.

What fun we all had making Pop's birthday cake - and eating it!

 

Pavlova with Mascarpone Cream and Raspberries
The ingredients:
4 egg whites (room temperature)
1 1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp white wine vinegar (I used apple cider vinegar as that was all I had)
1 tsp cornflour (the gluten-free variety)
1 tsp vanilla extract
255g mascarpone 
3/4 cup double cream
2 tbsp icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla sugar (I used a vanilla bean and 1 tsp extra icing sugar)
285g fresh raspberries

The recipe:
Preheat the oven to 150 degrees Celsius. 
Draw a 22cm circle on a baking sheet.
In a large bowl, whisk the egg whites until stiff peaks are formed, add the sugar, a tablespoon at a time, until the mixture resembles glossy shaving foam (We used the Kitchenaid for this step - so easy! I love my Kitchenaid).
Whisk in the vinegar, cornflour and vanilla extract together.
Line a baking tray with the marked baking paper.
Spoon the meringue inside the circle making a slight dip in the centre of the meringue so that the outside edge is higher than the centre.
Bake for 1 hour. 
Turn off the oven and leave the meringue inside to cool with the door just ajar.

Whisk the mascarpone with a wooden spoon until soft.
Whip the cream with 1 tbsp of icing sugar until soft peaks form.
Mix cream with the mascarpone, a little at the time.
Add the rest of the icing sugar and the vanilla.
Taste to see if you need more sugar.
Spoon cream onto the top of the cooled pavlova.

Use a fork to lightly mash half of the raspberries and pour over the cream topped pavlova.
Scatter the other half as garnish on top of the pavlova.

The result:
Gorgeous. Delicious. Decadent. I may have overwhipped the cream and I fear it was more butter-like than was desirable, but it was still delicious.

Happy Birthday Pop!

Do you have any favourite recipes that cater for certain dietary requirements?