MAGGIE Beer shows how to make Australia's favourite dessert, writes Simon Wilkinson.
So what will you be putting on top of the pavlova this Australia Day? That magical circle of billowing white meringue is a blank canvas, as much at home with the wildly fragrant fruit of the tropics as the peaches, nectarines and berries of the southern climes or classically the passionfruit that's grown on a vine trailing over the back shed.
That expression of person and place is one factor that makes the pavlova an Aussie icon just as much as that other spectacular white structure on Sydney harbour. A meringue opera house now there's a thought.
The people who voted in our poll on taste.com.au certainly think so, declaring pav their choice of dessert for Australia Day, ahead of other frontrunners lamingtons and peach melba.
