Hello everyone! It's Emilie and I’m back with the May edition of Playing With Food. Thank you for your warm response to my first post, it’s wonderful to see the joy that food brings! I believe food is all about sharing. I’m glad to see you think so, too.

Today I decided to work on two desserts, both based on French meringue.

I love working with this stuff. You can create all kinds of shapes, it’s sweet, decadent and easy to colour ! I’ll start by showing you how to make little meringues that you can make for a gift (or eat yourself!). As with my first Playing with food post, I’ll just give you the broad sweep rather than step-by-step instructions. Please feel free to ask me any questions you have in the comments below! I whip my egg whites into peaks with castor sugar, and then fold in icing sugar with a spatula to stiffen up my meringue nicely.

I then spoon the meringue, that I’ve colored with a bit of powdered colorant into five exquisite pastel colors, into little pots. (Make sure you don’t get your pots mixed up!) Add more colorant to make your colors brighter.

I make my meringues using a piping bag and put them in the oven on a very low heat for about one hour and 30 minutes. The result: a delightful assortment of crunchy and pretty pastel-colored meringues!

I arrange my meringues in a little box lined with a doily, and close it with a charming piece of string, a colorful card and little pompoms. What a deliciously boxed gift!

The second dessert is a pavlova. Ohhhh.... Pavlova! This dessert is truly decadent! With meringue at the bottom, velvety cream in the middle, sweet gariguettes garden strawberries (one of the best varieties in France, yummy!) on top, and a bit of coulis, it is simply divine! It’s crunchy, melt-in-your-mouth and fresh – everything I love!

Makes you wish it was teatime, doesn’t it? I hope you enjoyed reading this post! I’ll be back next month with new treats! - Emilie

(images: emilie guelpa)