Peach Melba Pavlova Wreath

This pavlova Christmas wreath combines two beloved desserts - Peach Melba and Pavlova. It has a gorgeous burnt raspberry swirl with fresh raspberries and peaches with vanilla whipped cream. While this Peach Melba Pavlova looks fancy it is easy and can be baked ahead of time and best of all it is easy to serve-each is an individual pavlova that you can easily pull out of the wreath! Is this the perfect Christmas dessert? Maybe! This is a pushy recipe Dear Reader.

Pavlova is almost a given for Christmas desserts at least at our house. But I recently came across this glorious combination of burnt raspberry and peach and absolutely swooned over it. All you have to do to make burnt raspberry is to cook raspberries and sugar down until you start to catch at the bottom of a pan. You don't want it terribly burnt of course, just a bit of a caramel aroma. Trust me, it's delicious! Then once the pavlova is cooked, brush it with the burnt raspberry sauce and return it to the oven for a short time. These are not meringues that are dry inside, these have a fudgey, soft centre.

Tips For Making a Pavlova Wreath

1 - Make sure that your bowls and beaters are spotlessly clean. I dampen a paper towel with vinegar and just rub the bowl and beaters just in case. Any fat will prevent your meringue from reaching its full potential. Also make sure that your egg whites don't have any trace of egg yolk in them for the same reason.

2 - Cream of tartar is your best secret weapon to making sure that your pavlova sets firm and is easy to shape.

3 - Room temperature egg white whips up better than cold egg whites. But separating eggs is easier when the eggs are cold. I separate the eggs and place them in the bowl and cover it for an hour or two.

4 - This recipe makes 10-11 sections of pavlova. I always do an extra couple in case they break or one looks better than another haha!

5 - I always make pavlovas the day before and then decorate on the day that I serve it. I find it too stressful to bake them on the day especially as you want them to cool off in the oven slowly and at Christmas you usually need the oven for other things! A baked pavlova can keep at room temperature for up to 2-3 days.

6 - I make the raspberry sauce with frozen raspberries as fresh ones are so expensive. Save the fresh ones for decorating!

7 - To whip cream until stiff, place the bowl and beater in the fridge or freezer to ensure that it is chilled and make sure your cream is very chilled.

8 - Pavlova must be kept in the fridge until serving. I don't recommend transporting pavlova unless you are very careful and can keep it chilled. If I have to transport it, I put the cream and fruit on it when I reach my destination.

• A Christmas Tree Pavlova
• The Marvellous Merveilleux Reverse Pavlova
• Christmas Pavlova Cherry Trifle
• Triple Layer Mango & Passionfruit Pavlova
• White Cherry Pavlova
• Surprise Gift Pavlovas

We are so used to having a warm Christmas here and pavlova with fresh fruit totally suits our weather, even if it has gotten unbearably hot in the last few years. I have to confess to you that Mr NQN and I have been struggling with a big problem for this last year. And if you have an insect phobia do not read any further. With the warmer weather comes bugs and we've had everything. But enter the latest creature to invade us: moths. Those horrible, dusty, fluttery grey creatures that I'm sure exist as nightmare fodder and emblems of serial killers. And of course their arrival was perfectly timed as we had just gotten our walk in robes installed last year. The walk ins are open robes that Queen Viv calls my "Carrie Bradshaw's closet". Except if Carrie Bradshaw had moths.

One year ago I literally had one month of heaven where I would go upstairs at night and relax and watch tv and unwind in my bedroom but one day a moth appeared fluttering out of nowhere. Then another and another. We put up pheromone traps but that only captures the male moths with female moth pheromone and I still found myself killing 10, 20 and 30 moths and up to 100 A NIGHT. It was disgusting and overwhelming and my bedroom which had gone from being a perfect sanctuary was a war zone. I couldn't relax because once I did, one of those dreaded creatures would come fluttering into view from the corner of my eye and I would go chasing it trying to kill it. Moths are annoying AF because they are all up in your business and always flying at you!

"I JUST WANT MY SANCTUARY BACK!!" I screamed, frustrated. I literally hated our house and living here.

We tried letting off bombs but they were undeterred. We had pest control people come. Some were hopeless, others were just spraying at everything. I was terrified every night. The only time we had a bit of a break was winter when they don't hatch. A few months ago our last pest control guy retired. I don't know if he retired from us but he told us he could no longer come. He recommend someone else, Nathaly from Pesty Girls in Marrickville. As soon as I spoke to her I knew she was the one. She was forensic and analytical and just a lovely person. She came in and assessed the situation and looked at it from every angle. Male pestys just came in spraying like Ghostbusters in their overalls and backpack but Nathaly wanted to find the source of the infestation because that's the only way we'd truly be rid of them. She found some under the house and removed them but a few still came back. "We're going to get to the bottom of it," she said walking around our bedroom examining any crevice or spot.

And then she cracked the case.

"It's almost as though they're being drawn into your house..." she said. And then we realised that the dozen or so pheromone traps that we had all over our house were actually drawing the little bastards into our house! Which explained why none of our neighbours had this problem, only us. Our house was like a huge pheromone bomb that was luring horny male moths into the promise of an orgy. So Mr NQN and I immediately disposed of all of the traps into tightly sealed a ziplock bag into a public bin far away from us. We wiped down all of the surfaces with lemongrass oil and they disappeared pretty much immediately. And Nathaly has also gone on to solve some of my friend's pesty problems too!

So tell me Dear Reader, have you ever had to deal with a pest infestation? What dessert or cake do you make for Christmas?

Peach Melba Pavlova Wreath

An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott

Preparation time: 30 minutes

Cooking time: 2 hours concurrently

Serves: 10 people

This recipe is best made over 2 days

For Pavlova

• 150g/5ozs egg whites (make sure there is no trace of yolk in them at all), room temperature
• 250g/8.8ozs caster or superfine sugar
• 1 teaspoon cream of tartar
• 125g/4ozs raspberries (fresh or frozen)
• 2 tablespoons white sugar
• 2 tablespoons water

For Peaches

• 2 yellow peaches
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup water

To Decorate

• 400ml/14flozs pure or thickened cream
• 2 tablespoons icing sugar, sifted
• 2 teaspoons vanilla bean paste
• 170g/6ozs punnet fresh raspberries
• small handful of redcurrants
• Fresh mint leaves to decorate
• I also used some Turkish delight and Raffaello chocolates

Step 1 - First ensure that your bowl and beaters are very clean. Preheat oven to 80C/176F fan forced. Line 2 baking trays with parchment. Whisk the egg whites until you get soft peaks. Turn off the beaters and add the cream of tartar and beat for 15 seconds. Then slowly add the sugar in a thin stream. take a spatula and run it along the sides to incorporate any sugar that has collected around the top of the meringue and then whisk on high until you get stiff peaks (you should be able to turn the bowl upside down and the meringue won't move).

Step 2 -Using two large serving spoons make ovals shaped meringues using the two spoons against each other to scoop them out on the parchment. Space each meringue an inch apart to allow for a bit of spreading and growing. Bake these in the oven for 2 hours. Then turn off the heat and allow to cool completely in the oven.

Step 3 -While the pavlova is baking make the burnt raspberry sauce. Add the raspberries in a small saucepan and bring to a simmer on medium to high heat. The raspberries should soften. Add the sugar and stir until you water mostly evaporates and it starts to catch on the base of the saucepan. Add 2 tablespoons of water and mix well. Strain the pips out and you'll get about 2 tablespoons of burnt raspberry sauce.

Step 4 -It's time to also make the peaches as you want them chilled. Place a small saucepan of water onto simmer and have a bowl of ice water ready. Cut an X across the peach seam and opposite and plunge the peaches in the saucepan for 30-60 seconds. Remove using tongs and plunge into the ice water. After a minute peel the skin off the peaches. Cut into small chunks. In a small saucepan over medium heat, dissolve sugar in water and boil for 5 minutes until syrupy. Once syrupy, add peaches in and cook for 3-5 minutes. Chill.

Step 5 -The next day brush the meringues with the raspberry sauce making patterns. Place in a 100C/212F fan forced oven for 10 minutes. Cool. Whip the cream with the sugar and vanilla bean paste until you get voluminous peaks. Keep in the fridge until needed.

Step 6 -Arrange the sections into a wreath shape on a large platter. Pipe or dollop the cream over each meringue and then decorate with fresh raspberries, peach, red currants and mint leaves. Keep in the fridge until serving.