Eton mess...

So, this week’s blog is inspired by Wimbledon. A popular thing at Wimbledon is strawberries and cream, so I was going to centre this week’s bake around these two ingredients. Roughly 27000 strawberries and 7000 litres of cream are consumed at Wimbledon. Originally I was going to make a Pavlova, but as you can see I actually made Eton Mess instead. I’ll talk you through my failed pavlova then my very improvised Eton mess instead which I think turned out better anyway.

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The main lesson I learnt is to check the oven temperature you’re meant to use and whether the temperature you read is for the fan oven or not. Unfortunately everything was going great then I realised half way through I’d put the oven on too high. So meringues are something that are meant to be baked slowly so they can dry out properly. For the pavlova I started to make I used 4 egg whites and beat them until they were doubled in size and foamy. I then gradually added 250g caster sugar. Once it was glossy and held soft peaks I added some vanilla flavouring, 1 teaspoon of white wine vinegar and 1 teaspoon of cornstarch. On a piece of parchment paper I drew around a dinner plate. I spooned on the meringue and made the sides slightly taller. I was meant to bake it at 120 degrees for 1 hour because my oven is fan assisted. Instead I baked it at 150 and it therefore lost its white colour and went a pale brown. Which clearly isn’t ideal.

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Then it was time for plan B, what can I make where it doesn’t matter what the meringue looks like? Eton mess, was my answer. I already had strawberries, blueberries and raspberries along with some double cream. I whipped up the double cream and mixed in my crushed meringue. I chopped some strawberries and stirred them in. I even went to the shop to buy glasses to make them in along with a glass of Prosecco to accompany them. I cut some strawberries and layered them on the bottom. I then spooned on the double cream mix, not fully to the top of the glass. I cleaned the glasses and added a circle of blueberries and some raspberries. I sprinkled some crushed meringues on top.

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I wasn’t happy with how my pavlova hadn’t worked, but was happy with how the Eton mess turned out. They were such a quick dessert to make for any occasion, especially this weekend after Wimbledon finals this weekend. As if I hadn’t had enough of the meringues this week, I made some more meringue kisses yesterday. I was so happy with how they turned out compared to last time. I coloured them a pale orange and tried a new flavour to see how it worked in meringues, passion fruit. This flavouring was quite strong and didn’t require a lot, but after it baked it kept its flavour quite well. I was pleased with how they turned out and I’ll certainly be experimenting with them in the future.

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With this bake being Wimbledon inspired by dad thought it would be a good idea to put the Eton mess on tennis rackets. Let me know what you think of his idea. I personally think the glasses of Prosecco make the photo because if you don’t like the Eton Mess you’ve got a chance to like the alcohol. Next week’s bake will be cocktail cupcakes, I’m sure I’ll be having a couple this weekend for my birthday but we’ll see. Hope you have a lovely week!

Lots of love,

Hannah x