There was nothing but blue skies today, blue skies and sunshine. It was like a perfect English summers day. My grandmother used to make pavlovas almost every weekend during the summers, decorating them with berries from her garden.  These berries I'm afraid were from the supermarket but they still tasted glorious and I was reminded of the English countryside and Sunday lunch at Grandmas. Pavlova's have definitely stood the test of time!  My children now adore this, well everybody does really.  It's a very easy dessert to make, in fact it's one of those rare occasions in life when minimum effort yields a fabulous result.  Grandma was nobody's fool.

Berry Pavlova.

6 egg whites

1 1/4 cup of superfine white sugar (I'm sorry but there's just no substituting this!)

1 tablespoon of white wine vinegar

8 oz of heavy whipping cream

1 tablespoon of vanilla extract

1 tablespoon of confectioner's sugar

Heat the oven to 300 F

The secret to making a great meringue is to keep everything very clean.  Meringue's worst enemy is fat.  If your whisk is greasy your egg whites will flop so just make sure the bowl and whisk are squeaky clean.

Whisk the egg whites on high until stiff.  Add the sugar, one tablespoon at a time, the mixture will become beautifully shiny.  Add the tablespoon of white wine vinegar and whisk until combined.

Line a large baking tray with wax paper.  Spoon out the meringue and shape into a circle with a dip in the middle, building up the sides.

Place into the oven and cook for 1 hour. After an hour, turn off the oven but leave the meringue inside with the door closed for a further hour.  When the times up, remove from the oven and allow to cool to room temperature.

Meanwhile whip the cream, confectioner's sugar and vanilla extract until it has reached the soft peaks stage.

Peel off the wax paper from the meringue disk, place it on a serving plate, fill with whipped cream and top with berries.