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My husband and I have been married 11 years this month. Time, slow down! This is a very special anniversary for us. Our first child is 5 and will be starting school this year. We didn’t go out of town to celebrate but we did go out to our favorite fancy restaurant and then shared dessert at home.
If you want to surprise your spouse and make dessert extra special, you should try this loaded berry pavlova. It’s light, airy and filled with all the best summer berries. It is crisp on the outside and marshmallowy soft inside. A sweet end to a sweet day!
Let me start out by saying the pavlova is EASY. Meringue is neither complicated or time consuming. It takes some time to bake/dry out in the oven, but your oven does all of the work.
Ingredients for Pavlova Cake:
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
2 tsp corn starch
1/2 Tbsp lemon juice
1/2 Tbsp vanilla extract
Ingredients for Frosting:
2 Tbsp granulated sugar
Ingredients for Topping:
1-2 kiwi fruit, peeled and sliced
How to Make a Berry Pavlova Cake:
Preheat the Oven to 250˚F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
1. Using the whisk attachment on your stand mixer, beat 6 egg whites and 1 1/2 cups sugar for 6 to 7 minutes on high speed, or until stiff peaks form. The mixture will be smooth and glossy.
2. Add 1/2 Tbsp lemon juice, 1/2 Tbsp vanilla extract and 2 tsp corn starch and continue mixing another 15 seconds or until well blended. Transfer immediately to a large sheet of parchment paper and use spatula to form a 10″ round ring, making a deep indent in the center to accommodate the cream and berries later. The center will rise so make a substantial well in the center.
3. Bake at 250˚F for 1 hour and 30 minutes. Then turn off the oven and with door closed, let it sit inside the oven another 1 hour until cooled. You can keep it in the oven longer to cool since the oven will be off and you might have dinner plans ;). Remove pavlova from oven and let cool completely to room temp then cover and let stand in a dry, room temp room up to 2 days or assemble and serve right away.
How to Make the Topping:
1. Beat 1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream with 2 Tbsp sugar on high speed 2-3 minutes or until frosting is stiff and spreadable but don’t over beat or it will become buttery. (note: you can make cream ahead of time, then cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to use).
2. Just before serving, spread whipped cream over the pavlova and top with plenty of your favorite berries. Refrigerate leftovers. It’s best served right away.
Berry Pavlova Cake Recipe
Ingredients
- 6 egg whites, room temperature (*see tip 1)
- 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
- 2 tsp corn starch
- 1/2 Tbsp lemon juice
- 1/2 Tbsp vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cups cold heavy whipping cream
- 2 Tbsp granulated sugar
- 4-5 cups fresh berries, blueberries, raspberries, small strawberries, blackberries..** see tip 2
- 1-2 kiwi fruit, peeled and sliced
Instructions
How to Make a Berry Pavlova:
- Preheat the Oven to 250˚F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Using the whisk attachment on your stand mixer, beat 6 egg whites and 1 1/2 cups sugar for 6 to 7 minutes on high speed, or until stiff peaks form. The mixture will be smooth and glossy.
- Add 1/2 Tbsp lemon juice, 1/2 Tbsp vanilla extract and 2 tsp corn starch and continue mixing another 15 seconds or until well blended.
- Transfer immediately to a large sheet of parchment paper and use spatula to form a 10" round ring, making a deep indent in the center to accommodate the cream and berries later. The center will rise so make a substantial well in the center.
- Bake at 250˚F for 1 hour and 30 minutes. Then turn off the oven and with door closed, let it sit inside the oven another 1 hour until cooled. You can keep it in the oven longer to cool since the oven will be off and you might have dinner plans ;). Remove pavlova from oven and let cool completely to room temp then cover and and let stand in a dry, room temp room up to 2 days or assemble and serve right away.
How to Make the Topping:
- Beat 1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream with 2 Tbsp sugar on high speed 2-3 minutes or until frosting is stiff and spreadable but don't over beat or it will become buttery. (note: you can make cream ahead of time, then cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to use).
- Just before serving, spread whipped cream over the pavlova and top with plenty of your favorite berries. Refrigerate leftovers. It's best served right away.
Notes
**Tip 2: Keep berries dry and chilled prior to use.
I hope you love this easy and wonderful Berry Pavlova Recipe!! 🙂
Natasha Kravchuk
Hi! I'm Natasha Kravchuk. Here you'll find delicious, trusted recipes with easy step-by-step photos and videos. 
Made this for my husband’s birthday. He was SO impressed and LOVED it! Thanks for sharing!
You’re welcome, Marina! I’m happy you enjoyed that!
Quick questions. Can I make this using the egg whites from a carton? Also, making it as a Father’s Day dessert for my hubby with high cholesterol so I want to skip the cream topping. Thinking of making a thick fruit compote for the top. Any thoughts?
Hi Iris, we found this doesn’t work that well with carton eggs. I think the fruit compote sounds delicious!
Yes I made this with egg whites only and if you follow the recipe it will be brilliant.
I’ve used low fat vanilla yoghurt and it’s worked well.
Thank you so much for sharing that with us, Beth! I’m glad that worked!
Hi Natasha
would you please add metric system to this one also, like your other recipes;
and the possibility to adjust the measurements.
Thank you.
Hi Sam, We are currently working on adding metric measurements to all of our recipes but it is taking some time as we have to add them one at a time. Thank you so much for being patient! In the meantime, check out our post on measuring which should help.
My first Pavlova!! Thank you Natasha!!! I received rave reviews.
I love all your recipes
Elaine T.
Awww that’s the best! Thank you so much for sharing that with me. I’m all smiles!
This looks delicious!! I’m going to try and make it this weekend for an upcoming event but was just wondering, is there a substitute for the cornstarch? Any suggestions that won’t ruin the pavlova? Thank you in advance!
Hi Bianca, we have found the best results with corn starch. I haven’t tested any different starches like potato starch so I’m not sure on that but the starch does help form the correct consistency inside the pavlovas.
How many persons does this Pavlova feed? I have to make dessert for 30 and everyone loves Pavlova!
Hi Trish, I’m so happy you found our recipe. If you have another dessert, this will do for about 8-10 people (depending on how big you slice it). If this will be your only dessert then two may be best for everyone (8-10 people) to have a generous slice. I hope that helps.
what do I do?! my me rang ifs not stiffening or becoming glossy !!!
meringue*
Hi Mimi, it could be due to using cold egg whites. Make sure they are at room temperature or it will take longer to beat.
When I read the recipe I wondered about the instructions re meringue. It didn’t work for me to just beat sugar and egg whites together without first beating just the egg whites until stiff and then slowly adding the sugar.
May i reduce sugar? I want less sweet for pavlova
Hi Rai, this ratio does work really well for pavlova and helps the meringue to form so I haven’t experimented with less. Maybe someone else has tried with good results? If so, please let us know and thanks in advance!
With a dessert such as a Pavlova the use of excess sugar is to create structure for the cake. If you were to reduce the sugar by significant amounts it would negatively affect the outcome of the cake and your Pavlova would probably collapse.
I love Pavlova and but I also dislike how sweet it can often be. The only solution that I’ve found to work is to add 1/4 tsp of KOSHER (Diamond Crystal brand) salt to every cup of sugar in the recipe. The addition of salt, put in after the egg whites have become foamy stage really helps with cutting through the sweetness of the cake.
That is a great tip about the salt. Thank you for sharing.
My husband doesn’t use sugar in the cream topping. That reduces the sweetness substantially without affecting the meringue. He always gets raving comments about his pavlovas.
Replying a few years later haha oh well, but yes I make this with one cup of sugar instead of the 1.5 cups and it turns out great, I just bake it maybe 10 mins longer.
Hi
I agree pavlova tends to be so sweet. I try to balance that by adding less sugar to the whipped cream as well as a dash of fresh lemon juice. And…if you really want to balance the sweetness, try Natasha’s lemon curd on the side! .
I have made your recipe for pavlova 2 times and both times they turned out perfect! I followed your recipe except I used vinegar instead of lemon juice because I remember my mother using vinegar when she made pavlova 40 years ago. Thank you for sharing your recipe, delicious!
I’m so happy you enjoyed that, Edy. Thank you for sharing that with us!
Did you use the same amount of vinegar as required lemon juice?
This recipe looks great! I would like to do minis, how long do you think the bake time should be reduced to?
Thanks in advance!
Britney
Hi Britney, I have instructions for mini palvovas here. I hope you love the recipe
Was looking for a great Pavlova recipe. Looks like I found it! Can you tell me the serving size for your recipe? I plan to make it for 10 adults & am wondering if I need to make 2 separate pavlovas. Thanks.
Hi Sue! I’m so happy you found our recipe. If you have another dessert, this will do for that many people (depending on how big you slice it). If this will be your only dessert then two may be best for everyone to have a generous slice.
I love pavlova but have a couple of issues with it when I bake it. The main issue is that it sometimes turns out all spongy, not crispy on the outside. Don’t know where I go wrong. The second issue is concerning the colour of the Pavlova, it doesn’t turn out as white as yours. My oven is fan assisted and in centigrade. I preheat the oven on 140 C and bring it down to 130 C when I bake the pavlova. Would really appreciate it if you can give me some suggestions to overcome these issues. Thanks
Hi Nargis, pavlovas are supposed to be marshmallow soft and spongy as you described in the center and crisp on the outside. That is a normal result. 🙂 With the color, I suspect the oven temperature is the culprit especially if you are using a convection setting – you might try reducing the temp to get the color you want and be sure to bake in the center of the oven.
In the recipe description I read that it says you can make it up to two days ahead and keep it covered but while reading the comments I read that you recommend serving right away? Is it still okay to make it ahead of time?
Hi David, with this particular cake, it really should be made and served the same day. Also, once you add cream, it should be enjoyed within a couple of hours as the cream starts to soften the cake. I make the bases of my mini pavlovas a couple of days ahead but this larger cake is best enjoyed the same day.
Probably too late for a reply but a convection oven (one with a fan to evenly distribute heat) is always 25F hotter than the temperature stated on the oven. IE 250F in a convection setting is actually 275F. So in America if I had convection setting I would put my oven at 225F which converts to 107C. If my oven has a choice I do not use the convection or fan assist if I am baking anything delicate(has lots of air in it) or that needs to rise, like cakes. The force of the air can cause baked goods to be lopsided. My information is garnered from culinary school and baking professionally.
Thank you so much for sharing that with us Kegan!
my pavlova stuck to the parchment paper and fell in the center any idea why
Hi Hilda, are you certain you used parchment paper rather than wax paper? Also, be sure to beat the mixture adequately for it to bake up properly, otherwise it can start to “melt” at the base and can stick in that case – this can also happen if it is baked at too high of heat so be sure to bake in a conventional oven (not convection) and if your oven runs hot, you may need to reduce the heat. I hope that helps to troubleshoot.
Thanks for the recipe for pavlova.Very easy to make.I love it .
I’m so glad you enjoyed it! Thank you for the wonderful review!
Hy Natasha this is really delicious, I wanted to ask how many days can I store it? I need to bake a pavlova for 40 people, it’s for a Saturday lunch so can I start to bake it on Thursday? If I need to let it cool in the oven for at least 1 hour it takes time to bake all these quantity. What do you suggest me? And What is the best way to store it? Thanks a lot
Hi Novella, It’s best if used the same day it is made because of the soft center. You can make it in the morning and leave it at room temperature until the evening and just before you serve it, add the cream and toppings. The mini pavlovas work better as a make-ahead dessert to feed a crowd; you can make the meringues up to 3 days ahead of time and store loosely wrapped in a plastic bag then frost and assemble just before your event.
Hi Natasha – I’m at the cottage and don’t have my Kitchen Aid mixer. Can I use a hand blender for the meringue? How long should I beat the egg whites? Thanks!
Hi Aldona! That would depend on how powerful it is! I would recommend mixing it a while longer than the recipe calls for, until you get those firm stiff peaks!
Thanks. I did just that. It’s in the oven. Since it is peach season here in Ontario, I’ve carmelized peaches with honey for the topping. Thanks so much for your advice.
You’re welcome!
I am not sure what happened but in about 40 minutes in the oven some liquid started coming out of the meringue at the bottom. Any reasons why that happened?
Hi ALex. The oozing usually happens because the sugar is not thoroughly dissolved during the beating process if you are using a sugar that is not fine enough, possibly. It could be an oven temperature issue since those vary so often. Once it is done you should be able to just break off the dry sugar pieces.
This is outstanding! Thanks so much for sharing your wonderful recipe! I am not great at making dessert and my family loved this!! It is beautiful too!
I’m glad to hear the recipe was such a hit! Thanks for sharing your wonderful review Sandee!
Is there any possibility to add only one cup of sugar instead of 1 1/2 cup cause I don’t want it to be too sweet or is it just going to mess the pavlova ingredient ??? Thank you
Hi Hind, this ratio does work really well for pavlova and helps the meringue to form so I haven’t experimented with less. I’m not sure if cutting it down that much would affect the outcome.
Maybe someone else has tried with good results? If so, please let us know and thanks in advance! 🙂
You should do a video for this cake!
I will keep your suggestion in mind Tonya!
So mine cracked on the sides. Any reason why?
HI Tonya, it is normal for it to have some cracking on the outside since it is a crisp shell with a marshmallow soft center and the weight of the cream and berries can cause it to crack.