Strawberry pavlova with honey cream
Serves
:
6
Course
:
Dessert
Cooking Time
:
1 hr
Prep Time
:
20 mins
Ingredients
4 large egg whites
200g caster sugar
1tsp white wine vinegar
1tsp cornflour
For the cream:
300ml cream
2tbs good quality honey
½ tbs vanilla bean paste
2 punnets fresh strawberries
Handful mint leaves for garnish
Marigold or forget-me-not flower petals for optional garnish
Preheat the oven to 120 degrees. Place a large sheet of parchment paper on a work surface and draw a large circle on the paper with a pencil (you could use a large round cake tin to draw around).
Put the egg whites in a mixing bowl and whisk with an electric whisk until soft peaks form. Gradually add in the sugar, continuously whisking, until stiff peaks form. Mix the vinegar and cornflour together with a small spoon, then add to the mix and fold it through gently with a spatula until evenly combined.
Place the marked parchment paper on an oven tray and spoon the mix into the circle. Use a palette knife to level off the top, then place in the oven and bake for one hour at 120 degrees. Then turn off the oven and allow the pavlova to cool to room temperature, leaving it inside the oven.
To make the honey cream, place the cream, honey and vanilla bean paste in a bowl and whisk together until the cream just forms soft peaks, then set aside.
To assemble the pavlova, spoon the honey cream on to the top of the cooled pavlova and level out with a spatula. Slice the strawberries lengthways, then neatly layer them across the top of the cream. Garnish with some mint leaves and optional marigold and forget-me-not flower petals.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Irish Times
5 hours ago
- Irish Times
Persecution of Irish Catholics led to foundation of Irish Francisan landmark in Rome
This week marks the 400th anniversary of St Isidore's College in Rome as an Irish Franciscan landmark and Ireland's national church in the city. On June 13th 1625, Waterford man and Franciscan priest Fr Luke Wadding signed a contract taking over the building and, during the following week his Irish brother Franciscans moved in. They've been there since. At the time, Catholics faced severe persecution in Ireland leading to a multitude of Irish Colleges emerging across Europe, including St Isidore's, to provide formation for exiled Irish clergy. St Isidore's origins are shared by Ireland with Spain, as reflected in the sculptures of two saints on the building's Rococo facade: St Isidore of Madrid and St Patrick of Ireland. READ MORE It began in 1622 when a group of Spanish discalced Franciscans founded a convent dedicated to the newly canonised Isidore, a farmer and holy man from the 11th century. However, they soon ran into debt and had to abandon their incomplete home, near Piazza Barberini. Fr Wadding, living in Rome at the time, offered to take over St Isidore's on condition he could turn it into a seminary to train Irish Franciscan priests for service in Ireland. In addition to completing the church, he enlarged the building – originally designed to house 12 men – to accommodate 60 friars. Within five years he had paid off debts accumulated by the Spanish, through donations from benefactors which included Pope Urban VIII. Although it retained the name of the Spanish saint from Madrid, Fr Wadding was keen to underline the Irishness of the new college, as evidenced by the frescoes of Ireland's patron saints – Patrick and Bridget – on either side of the entrance to the church, beneath old Irish script from an 8th century text. Restorers from the Italian Ministry of Culture recently discovered that the fresco of St Patrick was initially beardless, in keeping with early iconography of the saint. Current guardian of St Isidore's, Fr Mícheál Mac Craith, said adding the beard was Fr Wadding's way of presenting Patrick to the Vatican 'as an Irish Moses, a patriarchal figure. So, the beard added that necessary gravitas.' A large fresco in the college's Aula Magna depicts scholars at St Isidore's studying in the library, with a long Latin inscription underneath asserting that the Irish nation, destroyed at home by Cromwell, was being recreated in Rome through the scholarship of Irish Franciscan exiles. A recent five-month restoration of the Patrick and Bridget frescoes was completed just in time for St Patrick's Day last March, when the city's Irish community crowded into St Isidore's beautiful church. At Mass that morning, Fr Mac Craith paid tribute to Fr Wadding for his role in founding St Isidore's but also for his crucial part in establishing Ireland's national day in 1631. He noted how 'up to then St Patrick was just a local Irish saint. But Wadding insisted and prevailed on the Vatican to mandate that the feast of St Patrick be celebrated all over the world and not just at home: from Derry to Dubrovnik, from Limerick to Lesotho, from Roscommon to Rwanda.' Fr Mac Craith also pointed out that 'with its verses in Old Irish, St Isidore's is the only church in Rome that uses its vernacular language in its portico. It would seem that when Wadding came here, he wanted to make a very strong statement: `this is an Irish establishment'.' Prof emeritus of Modern Irish at the University of Galway, Fr Mac Craith believes the prominent depictions of Patrick and Bridget also served to make the point that: 'Ireland is a separate kingdom; it has its own saints and its own language: the Irish have come to town.' Fr Wadding can also take credit for St Isidore's church being home to stunning examples of 17th-century Italian art, achieved by hiring the best Roman artists of the day with financial assistance from Spanish patrons. As part of a long-standing tradition, the St Patrick's Day Mass in Rome is presided over each year by the rector of Rome's Irish College, which Fr Wadding founded in 1628 for the training of diocesan priests. He accomplished all of this within a decade of arriving in Rome in 1618, at the age of 30, following studies in Lisbon. His arrival in the Eternal City came about after King Philip III of Spain chose him as theological adviser to a delegation sent to petition Pope Paul V to define the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception, that Mary was born without original sin on her soul. The mission failed and the royal delegation returned to Spain, but Fr Wadding stayed on in Rome where he would spend the rest of his life. He also never lost sight of the reason for his original mission and his work would prove fundamental to the eventual definition of the Immaculate Conception as a dogma of the Catholic Church in 1854. Fr Wadding, who served as rector at St Isidore's for 30 years, was also Ireland's first ever accredited ambassador. In 1642, the Confederation of Kilkenny appointed him as their representative in Rome. He died on November 18th 1657, aged 69 and is buried in the crypt at St Isidore's. Andy Devane is editor of the monthly magazine Wanted in Rome. This is an edited version of an article he wrote and published in the magazine to mark the 400th anniversary of the Irish Franciscans at St Isidore's.
Irish Times
5 hours ago
- Irish Times
‘How can I make my wisteria and clematis-clad wall look less bare in winter?'
We have an east-facing gable wall, covered in wisteria and clematis. It looks stunning from April to October with blooms and foliage. However, for five months of the year it looks pretty dismal. The wall badly needs painting. Are there masonry paints we can apply after pruning that will not adversely affect plants? P Duffy Ornamental climbers are a wonderful way to soften bare walls, adding many months of interest as well as helping to integrate built structures such as houses and sheds into the garden and wider landscape. But as you point out, the struggle is providing year-round interest, with many of these climbers being either deciduous (like wisteria) or herbaceous (examples include many but not all kinds of clematis). Introducing some evergreen species is one solution, such as the very vigorous Clematis armandii, which will cope quite well with an east-facing wall so long as your garden is mild and relatively sheltered. Other suitable candidates include the evergreen Trachelsopermum jasminoides and Trachelospermum asiaticum, both of which prefer a sunny spot but will also cope with a shady wall so long as it's a relatively mild, protected garden, or the shade-tolerant, evergreen Hydrangea seemannii and Hydrange serratifolia. Traditional climbers aside, you could also consider ornamental evergreen shrubs suitable for training against a wall, including the wonderful Itea ilicifolia, Azara microphylla, Garrya elliptica, and varieties of Mahonia x media. All the above will do an excellent job of cloaking the bare masonry and minimising the need to paint the wall. Ornamental varieties of ivy are another option but do bear in mind its tendency to romp, as well as to probe small gaps in masonry walls, fascia boards and guttering unless regularly pruned to keep it firmly in shape. READ MORE As for painting your wall, I highly recommend the Little Green Company's range of environmentally friendly, water-based, intelligent masonry paints ( ). These are relatively odourless, quick-drying, long-lasting, and available in a range of colours.
Irish Times
6 hours ago
- Irish Times
Why you're serving your white wine too cold and your red wine too warm
The internet is full of suggestions on how to get the most out of your wine. Some are useful, others pointless and long-winded. I dislike rules in wine but the 20- or sometimes 30-minute rule is simple and something I do most days. I just didn't realise it was a 'rule'. The idea is straightforward: take your white wine out of the fridge 30 minutes before serving and pop your red wine in the fridge for the same period. Why? Most people and most restaurants serve their white wines a little too cold, and most of their red wines a bit too warm. A very cold bottle of white wine will smell and taste of very little. Let it warm up a while and you will get so much more flavour. Six to 10 degrees is perfect for fresh light whites and sparkling wines, 10-12 for richer white wines. A fridge is usually about two to four degrees. A red served too warm will seem alcoholic and sometimes a bit soupy. Serve it too cold and it taste a little harsh and astringent. Somewhere around 16-18 degrees is about right. When books mention serving a red wine at room temperature, they are referring back to Victorian times when rooms did not have central heating and were distinctly cooler. If you are lucky enough to own a cellar or wine fridge, you could take the bottle out 15 minutes before serving. There was a fashion for leaving cold red wines beside a roaring fire. This is not a great idea as the wine would end up tasting horrible. Instead, put it in a plastic bag, and immerse it in a basin or sink of lukewarm water.
