Why is a pav always round? We don’t have the answer, but we do know it won’t ban you from family get-togethers if it’s not. So for Christmas … be bold and adventurous and take this quintessential Aussie dessert and turn it into a Christmas centrepiece!

It’s amazing what you can do with a pav. Forget round, and make a wreath, a Christmas tree, gingerbread man, or yule log. Check our basic pav recipe below, and just add a Christmas theme, a bit of colour and bingo!—the Christmas Pampered Pav!

What you need: 6 egg whites, 1.1/2 cups caster sugar, ½ cup white sugar, 2 tablespoons cornflour, 2 teaspoons lemon juice, plus cream and berries, or whatever else you want, for decoration.

What you do: Step one (and before doing anything else) is to place a sheet of baking paper on a baking tray, and draw the outline of the shape of the pav onto the paper, and pre-heat fan-forced oven to 180 degrees celcius*. Then … beat the egg whites until stiff shiny peaks form, and add the caster sugar, a spoonful at a time, to the egg whites and mix until mixture becomes thick and glossy. Mix the white sugar and cornflour together and gently fold the mixture and the lemon juice into the egg white mix. Spoon the mixture into the drawn shape on the baking paper, turn the oven down to 150 degrees, and bake for approximately 1 hour until dry to the touch. Allow to cool in the oven with the oven door slightly open. The meringue should be dry and crisp on the outside and slight soft and gooey on the inside. When cool, decorate with your choice of fruit, and cream or custard.

*Different recipes suggest different temperatures and timing, but we have used Nigella Lawson’s (aka The Goddess of Baking) temperature and timing.