FEATURE RECIPE
Meringue, banana and passionfruit curd cake

Meringue, banana and passionfruit curd cake

This deconstructed pavlova, with passionfruit and banana, is simply to-die-for.

Serves 8

Cooking Time Prep time 30 mins, cook 1 hr (plus cooling, chilling)



For brushing:   melted butter
2 tsp   cornflour, plus extra for dusting
6   eggs, separated (yolks reserved for passionfruit curd)
2   eggwhites
330 gm   (1½ cups) caster sugar
1 tsp   white vinegar
2   bananas, thinly sliced
To serve:   pulp of 2-3 passionfruits
Passionfruit curd
250 ml   passionfruit pulp (about 12 panama passionfruit)
55 gm   (¼ cup) caster sugar
150 gm   salted butter, coarsely chopped, softened
300 ml   thickened cream


1 Preheat oven to 120C. Line two oven trays with foil. Brush with melted butter, dust with cornflour, shake off excess and set aside.
2 Whisk eggwhites in an electric mixer until soft peaks form, gradually adding sugar until thick and glossy and sugar dissolves (4-5 minutes). Add cornflour and vinegar, whisking until just combined. Spread half the meringue into a 19cm x 28cm rectangle on one lined oven tray and smooth top with a palette knife. Repeat with remaining meringue on other tray and loosely peak top. Bake for 30 minutes, then reduce heat to 100C and bake until meringue is dry and cracks when lightly pressed (30 minutes). Turn off oven and cool in oven with door ajar.
3 Meanwhile, for passionfruit curd, process pulp in a food processor to release pulp from seeds, then strain through a fine strainer to yield 250ml juice. Transfer to a heatproof bowl, add reserved egg yolks, sugar and butter, whisk to combine. Stir continuously over a saucepan of simmering water until thickened (3-5 minutes). Cover with plastic wrap, set aside to cool, then refrigerate until firm (2-3 hrs).
4 Lay banana slices on top of flat meringue. Whisk cream until soft peaks form, then fold in curd and spoon mixture over meringue base. Top with remaining meringue and serve drizzled with extra passionfruit pulp.


RECIPE Lisa Featherby PHOTOGRAPHY Chris Chen STYLING Emma Knowles


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