Gotta love a quiet weekend. Much as I enjoy catching up with friends over lunch or cocktails, I savour weekends when time is slow and I can do whatever I feel like doing. Baking falls under that whatever-I-feel-like-doing category. Simple and not overly complicated treats like this lemon curd pavlova. My son is a big fan of pavlova so when he saw Nigella Lawson made a lemon curd pavlova on last season of MasterChef Australia, I knew his next line would be “can you make it, please?”  I said yes of course and told him I can bake the base and will just get a jar of lemon curd from the shop to which his reply was, “no…no…no…no supermarket curd because I know you can make the lemon curd from scratch” When I made this first, MasterChef has not uploaded the recipe yet on their website so I just used my ever dependable pavlova base recipe and searched the internet for a lemon curd recipe. This one is from taste.com.au and it could not be any simpler than this. Very good results as well. I know it was good based on my son’s reaction the moment he had a spoonful of this pavlova topped with whipped cream, lemon curd and toasted slivered almonds.

Ingredients:

For the pavlova

• 4 egg whites
• pinch of salt
• 1 cup caster sugar
• 2 teaspoons cornflour
• 1 teaspoon white vinegar

For the lemon curd

• 2 eggs, plus 2 egg yolks
• 3/4 cup caster sugar
• 80g chilled unsalted butter
• zest and juice of 2 lemons

For topping

• 1/2 cup slivered almonds, toasted
• 1 cup thickened cream, whipped

Method:

For the pavlova

1. Preheat oven to 150C degrees.
2. On a baking paper, draw a circle by tracing a plate or round baking pan. I used a 10-inch plate as a template. Place paper on a baking tray.
3. In a large dry mixing bowl, beat egg whites and salt with an electric beaters until stiff peak forms. Add the sugar gradually, beating constantly after each addition. Beat until mixture is thick and glossy and all sugar has dissolved.
4. Fold in the vinegar and cornflour using a metal spoon.
5. Transfer mixture on prepared baking paper with circle template. Spread mixture filling the circle, then even out top with a palette or spatula.
6. Bake the pavlova for 40 minutes, or until it is pale cream in colour and crisp.  Reduce the heat to a very slow 120C degrees and bake for further 10 minutes. Please take note that oven temperature varies. You may need to adjust baking time depending on your oven.
7. Turn oven off and leave pavlova to cool inside, leaving oven door ajar with a wooden spoon.
8. Meanwhile, cook the lemon curd.
9. Once pavlova has cooled completely, remove from oven. Do not worry about little cracks, it is normal.

For the lemon curd

1. Whisk whole eggs, yolks and sugar in a saucepan until smooth, then place pan over a low heat.
2. Add the butter, juice and zest and whisk continuously until thickened. Strain through a sieve.

Assembling the pavlova

1. Place pavlova on a serving dish. Spread whipped cream on top. Spread the lemon curd on top of whipped cream.
2. Sprinkle with toasted slivered almonds.