I have no excuse. I knew weeks ago that we were going to a have dinner with friends at the farm and I was assigned the desert. I knew well in advance that I would take Pavlova because it appeals to young and old transports OK.
There is an unwritten law that a real Australian woman makes scones for morning tea and Pavlova for BBQs.
Pavlova has it's own set of laws too.
Did I make them the day before...Noooo...first rule broken.
I got up early in the morning to madly whip them up and bake off before we had to be at country football watching Izaac play.
I have my eggs at room temperature.....CHECK
I crack one egg and separate at a time into a small dish....CHECK
Each egg white goes into a clean glass bowl......CHECK.
I wonder if I can do a double batch in the Kenwood.....?
From here it is all downhill and the rules fly out the window.
4 egg whites...I double the mix to 8.
I've already got soft peaks forming, now for the castor sugar....I only have plain sugar.
It'll have to do at this stage, fingers crossed.
Next, cornflour....I only have custard powder.
Surely that is just cornflour with vanilla flavour and colour? I'll just omit the vanilla.
And now the white wine vinegar....I only have white verjuice.
Oh well, I've broken so many rules, why not!
So onto the trays of paper and into the oven (pre-heated to 180 CHECK) and turned down immediately to 150 degrees and patiently wait for them to bake for 1 1/4 hours so I can turn them off, leave them in the oven to cool while we are at football.
BUT....I'm so anxious, I break the BIGGEST rule of all....
Halfway through the cooking time I
open the oven....NOOoooo
and take a peek
I break the biggest rule of all!
And I get away with it.
Thank goodness they turned out fine.
Perhaps they had a very faint cooked vanilla flavour but a bit of cream and fresh banana, mandarin and kiwi and they went down a treat...
AND THAT...Mrs Gleason (my Gr 8 Home Ec teacher) is how I managed to foil you every time. Every second lesson she used to watch me cook and then clap her hands over her head for attention and say loudly "Now gells, this is what you ought NOT do. Come hiar and look at Tanya's...."
I know it made her burn when my marble cake came out the best with text book distinct tri-colour swirls.
YES!!!
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This is dedicated to my friend Kat who has been known to say "Oh my poor girl, you cook like me!" but I could only aspire to some of the amazing creations and techniques this girl gets up to and you read about her monthly challenges here.
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