Pavlova? An unexpected origin!

Over the weekend, I prepared a pavlova with mixed berries (I tried with raspberries and blueberries).

For the ones who love meringue, this is the ideal dessert.

But you have to be very patient as you need at least 4 hours of preparation (to cook a large meringue, it takes approximately 2 hours and 30 mins…)

But do you know what is the origin of the Pavolva?

Without doing any research, the name made me think about “Russia”. It is believed to have been created to honor the the ballerina Anna Pavolva during her tour to Australia and New Zealand in the 1920s.

If you want to know more about Anna Pavlova… here are some short videos.

The origin is a dispute between Australia and New Zealand for many years and has even a nickname ‘the pav’. It is served during holidays and family reunions but is not specifically associated to a time period of the year… (that does mean you can eat it all year!). It seemed there were similar recipes of this cake since 1906 in Australia but at that time, it was called a “cream cake”.

Recipes with meringue in it were found in the 1920s. To learn more about it, please read this article – click here

Any recipe?

I selected this video if you would like to try one.