Lime and blueberry pavlova

I am not a big dessert person and I rarely make one unless I am entertaining and sometimes not even then.  But I had some lime curd left over from making the coconut lime cake last week and it seemed a pity to see it go to waste.  Cooking for an appreciative audience is always a pleasure and I knew if I made a meringue based dessert I would have an appreciative audience in Nancy who loves meringues and pavlovas.

And so a dessert is born

4 egg whites
1 1/2 cups icing sugar

Lime or lemon curd, you could buy this if you did not want to make it.

1 small carton of whipping cream whipped

Preheat oven to 250. Place the egg whites in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat until stiff peaks form. Gradually add the sugar, when it has all been added beat for 5 minutes until the mixture is thick and glossy. 

You could just dollop this on to a parchment paper covered cookie sheet, or, as I did pipe it into two equally sized oblongs. I had marked out shapes on the paper and then turned it over.

Bake for 25 minutes or until meringues are crisp to the touch. Turn oven off and allow the meringues to cool in the closed oven for 1/2 an hour.

Mine did not stay white but turned a very light caramel colour, I am OK with that, as I am always a little suspicious of those very white meringues that look (and can taste) of Styrofoam.

Turn one over and carefully spread the lime curd over it.

Place the other piece on top.  Then just before serving top with whipped cream and tumble (as Nigella would say) some fresh berries on top.  

Any fruit would really do, but I found these very out of season for very fresh large plump blueberries at the local store.

This was delicious and not too fiddly or time consuming to make. My son and Nancy were both very appreciative, which is all a cook can ask for.