These mini pavlovas are for a picnic lunch on Saturday as Australia commemorates the 100th anniversary of the WWI battle at Gallipoli. I will attend the dawn service which starts at 4:50am and then I’ll have breakfast at the Mooloolaba Surf Club. I’ve never been to a dawn service before and to do it on the 100th anniversary will be very special.
Services are held at dawn to remember the time of the original landing. Gallipoli was a massive defeat where 8,709 Australians and 2,701 New Zealanders died. When the last British troops left, more than 44,000 had died. I met a soldier a while back and we were talking about ANZAC Day and he said it wasn’t so much a defeat as a ‘failure to meet their objectives’. I wanted to put my Southern on and say, “Do what??” I chose to stay silent.
Later in the day if the weather is still good, I’m going to meet friends at the beach for a picnic. ANZAC Day honors the anniversary of the landing and first military action by Australians and New Zealanders at Gallipoli in Turkey on April 25th, 1915.
ANZAC Day is much more than remembrance of Gallipoli, it’s also the day that the country remembers every service person who served and died in all wars and conflicts. It’s a special day for all Australians and New Zealanders, much like Memorial Day in the US where I grew up.
These mini pavlovas are really cute and not too much for a lunch dessert. Pavlovas are soft creamy meringue that’s baked until there’s a shell-like crust protecting an inner soft meringue. There’s always room for pavlova. I chose the this dessert for Saturday because both Australia and New Zealand claim it as their dessert.
I’ll bring the pavs, the whipped cream and the fruit and decorate them on the beach. My friend Carla and I tested these out after the photos were shot and both gave them the thumbs up.
- 3 egg whites at room temperature
- 155 grams caster sugar (3/4 cup superfine sugar)
- ⅛ teaspoon cream of tartar
- 1 cup whipped cream (directions on how to make chantilly whipped cream)
- 2 passionfruit
- 2 kiwi fruit
- Preheat oven to 120C/250F
- Whisk the sugar and cream of tartar in a small bowl
- Add egg whites to bowl of a stand mixer with the balloon whisk attached (you can use a hand mixer as well) and whisk at medium speed until the eggs begin to look foamy.
- Add the sugar mixture slowly at medium speed until all is incorporated.
- Increase the mixer speed to high and whisk until you can put a little bit of the mixture between your fingers and you don't feel the sugar crystals.
- Line a baking sheet with baking paper.
- Place mixture in a piping bag or plastic bag with the corner cut and place the tip near the paper and squeeze until you have a small mound. This mixture will make four small mounds.
- Then take a knife (I used a palette knife) and flatten the top and make swirls around the sides. The swirls help to keep the meringue upright.
- Bake for 30 minutes and then turn the oven off until cool.
- When cool, remove from the paper and place on serving plates.
- Top with whipped cream, then kiwi fruit and then passion fruit.
Any pav with passionfruit in it has my thumbs up. 🙂 Wishing you a good ANZAC Day with your friends.
Am I invited? I want a pav!
Always. Your place is always set at our table, Nagi.
Not so much a defeat as a “failure to meet their objectives?” Military speak for sure. “Do what?!” would have been a perfect response to that! lol
Lovely Pavs, my friend!
These pavlovas look absolutely gorgeous and I’ve always been wanting to try and make some. Maybe now’s the time, I love the fruits you chose to use. Oh and also learned a bit of history about Australia…something I know nothing of. 🙂
Those are so pretty, like little cute puppies If that makes any sense. Love them !
These mini pavlovas look amazing, Maureen! I would love to try this out soon.
That sounds like a wonderful tradition – the 100th anniversary. Wow.
Your pavlovas look just gorgeous too.
I hope you have a great weekend Maureen! And it was fun reading this post, it reminded me of history class in Bulgaria 🙂 These mini Pavlovas are beautiful and what a coincidence, I have a similar recipe that I’m posting in a few days! Pinned!
At first I thought these were served in some restaurant that you are covering…wow, they look picture perfect.
I am 5 lbs heavier, no kidding.
Maureen, what a special day! These pavlovas will be just the right thing to help celebrate. And you are so right, there is always room for pavlovas. Love your photos btw!
I do love mini pavs – they are so cute and yours are beautiful shape – Maureen. The perfect dessert for an ANZAC Day picnic.
The green and gold garnishes on that alabaster white pavlova … spot on.
Mrs KR has been making pavlova lately — it’s one of her newest dessert obsessions. She hasn’t made mini ones yet, but that’s on the horizon. 😉 Maybe we should make these for Memorial Day? Definitely an appropriate dessert. Although the reasons why we celebrate that day — and you, ANZAC Day — are so sad. 🙁
Now that is something I could never refuse. Love pavlovas and this is fantastic 🙂 Love the mini shaped ones.
Great choice of dessert, Maureen, and your mini pavs look really good. We’re also going to a dawn service – I do hope we can all manage to get out of bed at the required time and get down to Middle Head where our service is on. We won’t be having a day at the beach though as the weather is just too lousy xx
It’s pretty cold up here right now, so it will be interesting to see what the weather is like on Saturday. We might be picnicking at home. I’m not wearing a snowsuit to the beach. 🙂
This time I take my decision, I will do mini pavlovas ! I try it once but it wasn’t very nice! I will try it again, yours looks so nice and good ! Love your passion topping !
I hope they turn out well! 🙂
Oh Maureen, you will love the ceremony, the honour…& the celebration!
And you’ve picked the perfect dessert :))
They look so pretty, glad you enjoyed the sampling too lol
xxx
What a gorgeous dessert Maureen. And such a horrible day in history for Australians.
The perfect sweet treat to enjoy after what I expect will be a rather emotional ANZAC ceremony.
I’d love one of these mini pavlovas for my dessert after lunch today, please Maureen, do you deliver? Hopefully the weather will be kinder on Anzac Day… it’s been dreadful everywhere lately.
Did my comment go through?
Your little mini pavlovas are so dainty and adorable and to enjoy them on the beach will be wonderful. i love your dessert toppings and beautiful photos! I think I best stop off and get you some toothpicks for you eye lids and extra robust double caffeine to get you up and ready to go at 4:50am.
Maureen,
Thanks for sharing the story of ANZAC Day.
Enjoy your festivities, and thanks for the beautiful recipe!
Wishing you well,
Carol
Forgot my link!
Thanks,
Carol
What a perfect dessert. It is also common to make meringues for Passover, which I did for the first time this year. I was quite pleased and everyone liked them. For some reason we’ve never been big meringue people, except for my mother.
These are beautiful, Maureen. What an important remembrance.
I learned something new about ANZAC Day, Maureen. Thanks for sharing. This mini pavlovas are so adorable.
I learned something new about ANZAC Day, Maureen. Thanks for sharing. These mini pavlovas are adorable.
I learned something new about ANZAC Day, Maureen. Thanks for sharing. The mini pavlovas are adorable.
The perfect dessert for Anzac Day 🙂 I’ll be up at 520am on Saturday to help out at the Consulate – 400 people have registered to attend Dawn Service that’s pretty impressive isn’t it? It’ll be an emotional start to the day for sure.
Your pavs look great Maureen and the perfect dessert for Anzac Day!
You’re quite right there is always room for pavlova. I haven’t ever been to a dawn service either. Actually… that’s a lie! I played in the band at one when I was at school. I will definitely take the kids when they’re a bit older. What a lovely way to spend the day Maureen.
Your beautiful desert looks like the right offering for another 100 years of peace.
The remembrance day sounds like a beautiful way to honor the soldiers. It’s amazing that you had the opportunity to be a part of it. I’ve never had pavlovas, but they sound absolutely delicious.
These are a perfect dessert for a celebration! They look delicious and pretty.
I just love a pav with passionfruit!!! Yumm
These look absolutely perfect Maureen! Were you a famed pastry chef in a previous life? If not I reckon you’d make a good one now!
These really are exceptionally lovely pavlovas. I have always made a full-size version, but there is something about the daintiness of the smaller size that is very appealing. On a total tangent; I recently had ANZAC cookies for the first time and was enthralled by how unique they are as well as their history. Do you have a favorite recipe for them?
This is one of my favorite desserts ever for spring and summer. Yours look perfect divine!!
I will eat ANYTHING that takes passion fruit. It’s refreshing to see this here since I don’t see many American bloggers preparing recipes with passion fruit. It looks so scrumptious, Maureen!
I hope you had a great celebration remembering those who died for a cause!
These are adorable Maureen! I made a pavlova recently too-I’m a little obsessed with meringue at the moment. Just need to find something to do with the yolks 😛
lovely little pavs, and always room for them.
Thanks for sharing your beautiful dessert, Maureen! I’m sure everyone will really appreciate it following the ceremony.
Your dessert looks delish. I love pavlovas, but have never tasted passion fruit. One more thing for my bucket list.
Wow your pavs look amazing! I’ve always been very bad with making them so I’ve become afraid to try. I think my old oven wasn’t working properly, perhaps I should give it another go.
These are gorgeous! I’ve wanted to try my hand at making pavlovas for a while now, and of course the weather here will not cooperate! Once we get over the ‘monsoon’ season, I’m gonna try this for sure!
Next time your making these babies, invite me pretty please Maureen! 😀
These are so beautiful!!!!!! I want oneeeee! 🙂
This is definitely a passionate dessert 🙂 I always like how pavlovas look so chic and elegant, I like serving them, my grandmother always makes tons of mini pavlovas, and as a child I used to always have a stash and eat my way thru them. Haven’t made them myself in a while, but I have to do it! Love the kiwi and passion fruit addition, so beautiful and interesting, unusual flavors.
Whenever the Aussie blogs I follow post a pavlova recipe, I always feel a bit envious of the billowy meringue and whipped cream topping. These minis are just lovely!
Oh hello beauties! If there was such a thing as a FOOD RUNWAY, these babies would be struttin’ their stuff!
Oh Maureen…I want to come to the party just so I could have one of these pavs!!! Love the pictures!!
Maureen, you’ve outdone yourself with these beautiful pavlovas! I learned about ANZAC Day with this post, a day of remembrance for Australia and New Zealand. Thank you for sharing.
Maureen this mini pavlovas look DIVINE! The passion fruit caught my attention- I love Passion fruit!! -Can’t wait for the season here in the U.S.
These pavs look delicious. Have a great time at the ANZAC picnic, Maureen!
Maureen, you did a beautiful job making these look dreamy. 🙂
You’re so right, there’s always room for pavlova Maureen! I’d give this a two thumbs up. It sounds fantastic!
I love pavlovas and especially the tropical (are passionfruit and kiwis tropical?) fruits you’ve included here. So pretty! I had no idea you grew up in the US. From where do you hail? How long have you been in Australia? Do you ever come back to the US? Looking forward to getting to know each other better. 🙂
Yes, I have a sister in New York, a brother in California and Boston and children in Washington, DC and Atlanta. 🙂
These are gorgeous. I love the bright yellow-green of the passionfruit-kiwi combo!
You know what a sucker I am for a meringue and then you go and top it with passion fruit…..HEAVEN! These look almost too pretty to eat Maureen. Great shot!
How pretty! I love the shape you baked them in. I’ve tried pavlovas once and they turned out hollow 🙁 I’m going to have to try your recipe.
I’ve done that too and that was from baking too long. These little ones take 30 minutes until the outside is hard and dry. Try it, these were great. 🙂
Elegant desserts for a day (starting at dawn) to honor those brave souls who gave their lives at Gallipoli. Love the honoring of Australia and New Zealand with your mini pavlovas <3 …Someday maybe wars will cease and countless thousands will not be lost <3
War is hell, no doubt about it.
The perfect Aussie inspired dessert to commemorate ANZAC day with Maureen! These pavlovas look beautiful.
That’s what I thought, Thalia. On this day nobody worries which country invented the pavlova. 🙂
A dawn service… sounds exciting .. and decorating those babes by the beach, what a fun day you must have had Maureen. I though Pavlovas are sort of a Russian dessert!!! may be the name made me feel so :). I was thinking of making a big one but these small little gyms looks more appealing to me. Can’t wait to try this.
I usually make a big one but I wanted to take them on a picnic. It was a gorgeous day today – definitely picnic-worthy. 🙂
Thanks for the great recipe! but i have never eaten it before. i am sure is going to be delicious .
I completely agree there is always room for pavlova’s especially mini ones 🙂 There have been a lot of commemorations over here in the UK too, we to haven’t forgotten the sacrifices of our Commonwealth friends.
My dear Mom saw good old Martha Stewart share her recipe for Anzac Biscuits about 20 years ago and that was the first time I’d heard of this special holiday. We have Remembrance Day on November 11, but we don’t get a day off. At the 11th hour, we take a minute to remember!
I adore anything meringue (you know I’ve been making Macarons like crazy) so these individual pavlovas would be perfect for me.
It’s so Australian that our national day of remembrance is a day of total disaster and incredible loss. For a very young country to lose nearly 9,000 of its young men was tragic.
these are so pretty! i bet they tasted divine too. we went to the local service at a civilised time of 9am:) The poor cadets had to stand in the hot sun for over an hour. they had very red faces poor darlings.
I want to make a group of this mini’s and serve them individually as one might do cupcakes–how can I serve them as a handheld dessert–in a cupcake liner which I use to bake–or do I need to put them in a little dish to serve–display on a birthday buffet – many thanks! Simple, easy, portable is what Id like!