I feel a bit like I’ve lost my cooking mojo recently; bad news and tiredness have a way of impacting on what I eat (I most certainly did not eat a whole bag of crispy calimari with garlic mayo for dinner last Wednesday… ahem…). We are dishwasher-less at the moment and after cooking a meal the last thing I want to do is washing up, so with Will (my dish washing man) working away I’ve been eating a lot of things-on-toast.

However, my kitchen counter and storage space will increase threefold when we move back to Nottingham so I’m looking forward to getting stuck back into my cooking, and I will certainly have no excuse with the welcome return of a dishwasher. I decided to ease myself back into the kitchen this weekend, my parents came to visit to help us with some packing and I thought a pavlova for pudding would be a nice treat after a good old Pizza Express take-away.

I forget how utterly easy pavlovas are to make; only 6 ingredients and I was able to leave the meringue to cool in the oven whilst I took a nap.

Easy Pavlova

5 medium egg whites
250g caster sugar
1 teaspoon white wine or malt vinegar
1 teaspoon cornflour

400g fruit (I used 300g hulled and chopped strawberries and 100g frozen raspberries)
350ml double cream

1. Set the oven to 160 C (fan), mix together the vinegar and flour to form a paste. Lightly oil baking parchment on top of a baking tray and set to one side (I use vegetable oil).

2. Whisk the egg whites in a very clean bone-dry bowl until they form stiff peaks. Add the sugar 2 tbsp at a time, whisking all the while. Use an electric whisk, it’s not worth the hand cramp otherwise.

3. When the mixture is lovely and stiff and shiny, whisk in the flour and vinegar paste until combined. Spread the mixture onto the baking sheet into a circle approx 20cm in diameter. Make a shallow well in the centre and use a tablespoon to make peaks around the outside.

4. Put in the oven and turn down to 140 degrees. Bake for 50 minutes to an hour.

5. Turn the oven off and open the door a crack. Leave to cool completely while you nap (not necessary but it’s my preferred method!).

6. When the meringue is completely cool, whisk the cream until stiff and spread in the shallow well. Scatter the fruit on top.

Tastes really good for breakfast the next day!