Christmas Tree Pavlova

by Jessica Nguyen
A six tiered, show stopping festive dessert inspired by my own Christmas tree this year in reds and pinks. 
It’s surprisingly not as difficult as it looks, it’s the same meringue and process for my traditional pavlova recipe I shared last year, but the piping and assembly takes a bit longer and requires a bit of patience and steady hands.
 I decorated mine with raspberries and gooseberries, some raspberry jam and dusted in some crushed dehydrated raspberries for an extra hint of pink.

 

Serves- 6-8

Ingredients- 7

Cooking Time- 40 mins prep, 1 hour cooking time (bake the day before)

Skill Level- Easy

 

Ingredients

  • 210g (approx 6 eggs needed) egg whites. I use 700g Honest Eggs and the egg white from each egg is 35g
  • 1.5 tsp of lemon juice or vinegar
  • 1.5 cup (375ml) of caster sugar
  • 500ml of thickened cream
  • ½ cup of your choice of berry jam with a dash of warm water combined for a cheat’s coulis.
  • 2 cups (2-3 punnets) of your choice of berries: strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, cherries, blueberries, gooseberries etc
  • 2-3 dehydrated raspberries, crushed or 2 teaspoons of icing sugar for dusting.

 

Method

Always bake your pavlova the day before so it has time to dry out and cool. Baking a day ahead also means you don’t have to stress out about baking the day of and can just assemble and decorate just before serving.

  1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees celsius. 
  2. Line two baking trays with baking paper. Use a protractor or round vessels from around the house to trace the following circles in diameter on the respective trays. The largest (17cm) is the base and the smallest (4cm) is the tree topper.
    • 17cm- Tray 1
    • 14cm- Tray 1
    • 11cm- Tray 2 or 1
    • 8cm- Tray 2
    • 6cm- Tray 2
    • 4cm- Tray 2
  3. Make sure both your mixing bowl and whisk attachment is clean and dry. Place egg whites and lemon juice into the mixing bowl and whisk for 5 minutes or until soft peaks form.
  4. Gradually add sugar into the mixture until stiff peaks form and the meringue holds its shape when the bowl is turned upside down. This should take about 10 minutes.
  5. Use a spatula to place a cups worth into a piping bag with a star nozzle (1.5cm).
  6. Pipe the meringue bases one at a time in descending order. To pipe, start from the outer edge of the circle template, pipe and pull the meringue into the centre. Repeat all around the circle until there is no space left. It should look like a ridged star with multiple points. For the smaller circles, you will only have space for a 5 point star.
  7. Turn down the oven to 140 degrees celsius and place Tray 1 with the larger bases on the higher rack of your oven and Tray 2 on the lower rack of your oven. The larger bases will take longer to cook so elevating them higher than the smaller bases should mean they will all cook evenly, depending on your oven. Bake in the oven for 1 hour. Then turn off the oven and continue to leave the pavlova in the oven overnight with the door slightly open. This process allows the meringue to completely dry out giving you a nice crispy texture. If you haven’t baked this the night before, you will need to allow 3 hours for the meringue to cool completely. 
  8. Whip your cream until medium peaks form and the cream maintains its shape when spread. Set aside. Wash all of your berries and set aside.
  9. Assemble the pavlova, by placing the largest base onto a platter and use a bamboo skewer to pierce and push down into the centre of the base until you reach the platter and it sticks upright on its own. This will help reinforce the tree once it has been built and prevent it from toppling over. Layer the pavlova components in the following order:
    • Base first
    • Spread some cream in the centre of the base, 
    • Place berries around the perimeter and centre of the cream
    • Drizzle over some of the berry jam sauce
    • Take the next smaller base and spread a little bit of cream onto the base. Gently skewer the smaller base so that it sits on top of the ingredients and holds.
    • Repeat with the remaining bases

Once you reach the final base, garnish the very top with an inverted raspberry. You can also add some cream inside the raspberry to help it stick to the meringue top.

10. Dust the Christmas tree pavlova with optional dehydrated raspberries or icing sugar.

11. Serve and enjoy immediately.

 

Watch The Process 

 

 

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