Easter has to be one of my favourite holidays as it not only encourages eating a lot of chocolate and hot cross buns (my favourite), but we get an extended long weekend off work! I also like using it as an excuse to stuff Easter eggs in a variety of baked goods which you can see here.
This year, my brief was to create something easy and pretty using Easter eggs. And I think this recipe meets both those needs. Swirls of meringue form the base for these Easter “nests”, which are then filled with pastel tinted whipped cream and topped with these gorgeous speckled chocolate eggs I found in the grocery store.
If you wanted to up the colour level of these desserts you could even add in a few drops of food colour to the meringue mixture before you bake, however I quite loved the duck egg blue and pastel pink cream against the stark white meringue.
Ingredients
Meringue Nests
- 4 egg whites room temp
- 1 cup caster sugar
- 3 tsps cornflour
- 1 tsps white vinegar
To Decorate
- 250 ml thickened cream
- 2 tbsp icing sugar
- Food dye
- Easter eggs
Instructions
Meringue Nests
- Preheat oven to 150°C and line a baking tray with parchment paper.
- Using an electric mixer, beat egg whites until soft peaks form.
- Gradually add the sugar, beating well until the mixture is glossy and the sugar has dissolved.
- Add the cornflour and vinegar and fold through.
- Transfer mixture to piping bag with a nozzle attached and pipe round nest shapes around 10cm in diameter onto the parchment paper.
- Place in the oven, reduce the heat to 120°C and cook for 20 minutes.
- Then turn the oven off and allow the meringues to completely cool in the oven.
To Decorate
- Divide the cream and icing sugar into 2 separate bowls along with a few drops of food dye (I used pink and blue).
- Using an electric mixer, beat cream and icing sugar until soft peaks form and the right colour is achieved.
- Top each pavlova with the pastel whipped cream and a few Easter eggs.
You can make the meringues ahead of time as long as you store them in an airtight container, but just make sure you spoon the whipped cream in right before serving – no one wants a soggy meringue!
I think it would be super cute and tasty to add coconut flakes around the edge of the cream to add to the nest effect like I did in my Pocky Easter Nest Cake, but these are pretty perfect on their own too.
I hope you all have a relaxing Easter break! What are you baking for Easter?
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