FPE Industrial Cooking Equipment Specialist, Geoff Nugent, is back – his recipes have now become a series! And with Australia Day coming up fast, it’s time for the next instalment.
While lunch is sorted with Geoff’s roast pork with crackling recipe, you need something sweet to finish off – and what better to serve up than a pavlova! As Geoff says, “there’s a lot of chemistry going on when making a meringue…”. So let’s get stuck into this Australia Day pavlova recipe.
Overview:

Ingredients:
Meringue (base)
- 7 egg whites
- 1 ½ cups caster sugar
- 2 tsps cornflour
- 1 tsp white vinegar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tbsp boiling water
Topping
- 300ml thickened cream (whipped)
- Chopped fresh fruit e.g. mango, kiwi fruit, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, passionfruit pulp
Prep Time | 45 mins |
Cooking Time | 1 ½ hours |
Serves | 8 to 10 people |
Resting Time | 4 hours |
Australia Day pavlova recipe: instructions
- Preheat the oven to 110oC.
- Separate egg whites into a clean glass or stainless steel bowl. After separating, leave at room temperature for 20 mins (always whip egg whites at room temperature)!*
- While you wait for the egg whites, line a baking tray with baking paper. Draw a 24cm circle with a cake pan as a guide and turn the paper upside down on the tray.
- Transfer the egg whites into a mixing bowl.
- Whisk egg whites on a high speed with an electric mixer until soft peaks form.*
- Keep mixing on a medium speed. Add sugar slowly (1 tablespoon at a time). Wait until the sugar dissolves each time before adding in more (it should take around 5 minutes to add all the sugar). Save 1 tablespoon of sugar.
- Add the cornflour to a small bowl with the last tablespoon of sugar. Then add to the egg whites.
- To check if the meringue mixture is ready, rub a little of the mixture between your fingers. If you can’t feel any sugar granules and it’s smooth, it’s ready for the next step.
- Add vinegar, vanilla and boiling water and mix for 1 more minute.
- Spoon the meringue into the circle on the baking paper, smoothing the sides. If you would like little peaks, lift the spatula up as you touch the meringue (until you are happy with the shape).
- Place the meringue in the oven and bake for 1 ½ hours.
- Once cooked, do not open the oven door. Turn the oven off and let the meringue cool for at least 4 hours to avoid the pavlova collapsing.
- Whip the cream in the meantime and prepare the fruit.
- Time to add the toppings! Transfer the pavlova onto a serving plate, peel off the baking paper and top with the whipped cream and fruit of your choice.
Australia Day pavlova recipe: tips & tricks
Egg whites
- Whip egg whites at room temperature; they incorporate the air better and create a lighter meringue.
- Never use plastic bowls or whisks when whipping egg whites and make sure there is no yolk in the egg white or it will not whip.
- Soft peaks take around 15 mins of whisking at a high speed. When you pull the whisk out of the egg whites, they will cling to the whisk and slowly sink back down.
Serving
- Serving plate – because you’re cooking at such low temperatures, you could cook the pavlova actually on the serving plate so you don’t have to transfer it from your baking tray and worry about breaking it.
Mini pavlova base recipe
- Smaller, individual pavlovas can easily be made using our Australia Day pavlova recipe. Just reduce the cooking time to 50mins, but always leave them in the turned off oven for at least 3 hours (or overnight). Geoff says, “Don’t forget they are in the oven before you turn it back on, like I have done before!”
Pavlova recipe FAQs
Can I make pavlova the day before?
Absolutely! Once cooked, Geoff recommends leaving the pavlovas to set in the oven overnight.
How do you tell if a pavlova is cooked?
Your pavlova should look pale, crisp and dry on the outside. It should also lift off the baking paper easily.
Should meringues be chewy inside?
It’s all personal preference. Geoff’s Australia Day pavlova recipe will give you a crispy outer coating and marshmallow middle. If you want a firmer, chewier pavlova, add 1¼ cups of sugar – you might also find this is easier to slice.
And that’s it – just 14 steps to the best pavlova recipe you’ve ever tasted! Whether it’s delicious dessert advice or food processing equipment, FPE can help. When you order with FPE, you receive comprehensive customer support, including spare parts supply, equipment training and maintenance. And if you sign up to the FPE newsletter, you get access to even more mouth-watering Geoff recipes!