The Great Pavlova Debate

No craft related stuff here today, just me rambling! Read on if you're game!

I mentioned in my Australia Day post here that DD18 and myself are Kiwis (well, Kiwaussies, technically!) and so we always celebrate Waitangi Day (or New Zealand Day) as well as Aus Day. Waitangi Day is coming up on Sunday, Feb 6th.

The main dilemma about celebrating both is that our cuisines are so alike and so having different menus for the two national days is not always easy! There are a number of items in the culture of both countries where there is much debate over "who had it first" and the friendly (?) rivalry between NZ and Aus has waged for many a decade!

One such of these is where Pavlova was invented. For those of you who may never have heard of a pav, it is a meringue dessert which has a crunchy outer crust but is soft, chewy and marshmallow-like on the inside (photos above). Usually it is covered with whipped cream and fruit, quite often kiwifruit (which admittedly, is something Kiwis nabbed from the Chinese, but it was renamed at the insistence of the US importing firm and not by us!) Both countries claim "ownership" of the delicious concoction - although there is no dispute over the fact that it was named after ballerina Anna Pavlova, who had visited both countries during the late 1920s. I'm not going to wade into the argument but if you're interested in reading about the pavlova's true origins, take a wander over here.

Anyways, we had a pav on Australia Day cos the rest of the family just looooooove a pav, so I wanted to use a different dessert for Waitangi Day. DH put in a special request for Marshmallow Surprise (aka Marshmallow Delight or Ambrosia), which is equally delicious and very easy to make. So I thought I'd share with you my own recipe for this no-cooking dessert (NO COOKING! gotta love that, right?!):

Marshmallow Surprise

500 ml fruit flavoured yoghurt (I use Fruit of the Forest)
300 ml cream
425 g can fruit (I use boysenberries)
1 packet marshmallows
Cadbury's Flake


Whip the cream, add the yoghurt and drained fruit. Cut the marshmallows in half and add to bowl. Mix well. Crumble the Flake over the top. Refrigerate. I guess you could add more fruit as a topper if you wanted. Serves 8-10 people.

That's all there is to it! You can change the flavour of the yoghurt and fruit to suit your taste (eg) apricot, passionfruit, etc. It's REALLY good if you make it a few hours ahead of time and let the marshmallows begin to "melt" into the rest. Mmmmmmmmmm! It's quite rich so you only need a small serving - I said need, not want! LOL!

OK, so I'll be back to my regularly scheduled programme later in the week - and yes, there WILL be a card for Waitangi Day! And yes, it features owls!

Thanks for dropping in.

Cheers
Kez