I had the privilege of attending a friend and fellow author‘s citizenship ceremony this last month, which was an amazing thing to see. Those of us who are born into it don’t think enough about the privileges we take for granted. The individual liberties, freedoms, and responsibilities we bear. It is our solemn duty to vote, in the smallest of elections, not just the ‘big important’ ones. This is our country, we should be responsible for it, just as a homeowner makes sure the roof doesn’t leak and the foundations don’t crumble.
Becoming an American citizen doesn’t mean abandoning your own culture, as the judge said during his speech before administering the oath. It means incorporating what is important to you into your life here, while adopting fully the good parts of what being an American are: freedom, responsibility, and the rights protected by our Constitution. After the ceremony, as my little family was congratulating Kate and preparing to finish our journey home, Kate asked me, “Did you ever make that Pavlova?”
I hadn’t. We’d talked about it, when I did her ETWYRT recipe, but although I loved the idea of the Australian confection, making a whole one for just the First Reader and I seemed silly. However, with the three Geeky Kids to help us eat it up, suddenly it was not only more reasonable, but a perfect way to celebrate Kate’s becoming an American with a little Australian flavor.
A Pavlova, which was named for a famous ballet dancer, is essentially a meringue cake, topped usually with whipped cream and fruit.
Ingredients
- 4 egg whites (at room temperature preferably)
- 1 c sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp white vinegar
- 1/2 tbsp cornstarch
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 250 deg F
- Beat egg whites until white and frothy, but not completely opaque.
- Sift cornstarch into the sugar.
- Slowly add in the sugar, about four portions of it, fully incorporating it each time you add a portion. Add the sugar while you are beating (the stand mixer really is terrific for this).
- Once the sugar is fully incorporated, add the vanilla and vinegar slowly as you are beating.
- Continue to beat the mixture at a high speed until the eggs for a soft peak and are a glossy, opaque white.
- Carefully pour the meringue onto parchment paper laid out on a cookie sheet. You will want to work it into a rough circle, with the center lower than the edges, as this will contain the whipped cream later. Don’t make it too thin – I created about a 12″ diameter circle with mine, and it was about 2-3″ deep.
- Bake at 250 for 75 min. Open the oven door a crack, turn the oven off, and let it cool gradually.
To finish the cake, simply whip about a cup of heavy cream with 1/4-1/3 c sugar. Spread this on the meringue, and arrange your fruit on top of that (although I think it could easily be meringue, fruit, and then cream, too.) I had planned to make a peach pavlova, but all my nice ripe peaches disappeared (the Peach Princess strikes again!) so we did strawberries instead. Had I been thinking there would have been blueberries, too, for an American theme.
I think that you are supposed to keep it from breaking in any way, but transferring it from parchment paper to serving plate wasn’t easy, and the edges cracked a lot. It didn’t affect the taste, though.
We wound up enjoying the pavlova as night fell, in the cool of our backyard, after a sushi dinner (prepared largely by the Otaku Princess). It was everything it was supposed to be – light, fluffy, sweet, just a little crunch from the meringue and the tartness of the berries offsetting the sweet of the cream and cake. The children loved it, as did a friend who happened to drop by with perfect timing. It was all eaten up…
The pavlova wasn’t terribly complicated to make, and it’s a really different cake – more a confection. Kate’s right, it’s incredibly sweet and feels rich. And I’m very glad that I took the time to make this Australian dish for my all-American kids. Teaching them about our country, being able to take them to see Kate become a citizen, and then feeding them a sweet from another land, that’s how to make a lesson stick. We live in the land of the free, and we are rich beyond belief in our freedoms and liberties we take for granted.
Comments
2 responses to “Pavlova: A Sweet Cloud Confection”
Cedar, I definitely saw a fork in that hand.
Note to self, do not have MY children around if I ever meet the Sanderson clan in person…
Of course there’s a fork?