Everyone knows Christmas is a busy season, right? But the thing is – every season is busy now, busier than 10, 20 or 100 years ago. We have so many obligations and what’s worse – so many things we want to do. And it is so difficult to keep balance between all your plans and time you have. I’m always trapped like that: oh, tomorrow is a deadline of these three projects, I also need to write a new post for a blog and put the updates to facebook and it is a family dinner tomorrow and I am supposed to make a cake…

I believe there are people in the world- very organized and disciplined  who never allow this situation happen in their very organized lives. But I’m completely opposite kind of person and it happens to me all the time. For example I have only 3 days before the Christmas Fair, and I don’t have enough felted stuff in stock, so I need to be felting from sunrise to sunset, but oh, it’s my husband’s Birthday and oh, I need to make pics of my kids cooking for a magazine and oh, I’m going to attend a bloggers’ meet up.

So this time it is about making something impressive for the celebration table, that doesn’t take much time and attention. Actually all you need is 15 minutes to make preparations and 1 minute to interrupt your work and turn off the timer and the oven. Oh, well, the next day you’ll spend 5 minuted to whisk cream and cut fruit. 21 minute of involved cooking is a good timing, isn’t it?

To make a Pavlova cake you need:

4 egg whites (about 160 g)
300 g caster sugar
300 ml double cream
1 ripe mango
400 g strawberries
some leaves from your garden  or just normal mint or rosemary to make it more impressive.

Whisk egg whites in a clean and dry bowl (you need a big one) to stiff peaks. Add sugar little by little, about one tablespoon at a time. Whisk thoroughly after each spoon until sugar is fully incorporated. When the mixture is nice, fluffy, glossy and makes firm peaks – spoon it to a lined baking tray to form a circle, make the middle a little lower. Bake in a warmed oven at 80-90° С for 2 hours (set a timer). Then turn off the oven and leave meringue inside to cool completely (I prefer to do it overnight).

An hour before your guests come- whisk cream to soft peaks and spoon it over meringue. Cover with fruits and decorate with leaves.

Enjoy!