The Great Boohoo Bake Off

Dust off those sieves, break out the baking paper, it is officially Bake Off season! We love the annual pilgrimage to the sofa with a cup of tea in one hand and a baked good in the other (impossible to watch it without something to eat), providing our own commentary (sorry) and tweeting mid bite. It's the perfect evening in!

boohoo sent us a couple of dresses and a challenge - to bake something beautiful to celebrate the return of the Great British Bake Off. The only rules? It had to look absolutely fabulous, have boohoo written on it (otherwise it's just a cake...) and absolutely no soggy bottoms. There is a sa-weeeeeeet prize for the best bake, so we got those eggs cracking (oo-er), those whisks whisking and turned that oven up baby.

We went with a special from my (Flic's) Mumma - Mrs B's pavlova. It is without a doubt my favourite dessert ever and you can leave out the cream if you're lactose intolerant like Lauren. Here's how we got on...

Ta dah! Here's our beautiful boohoo pavlova. Enjoy with a glass of something sparkly on a Summer evening. Recipe and instructions below!

For a large pavlova, you will need:

3 large eggs
9oz caster sugar (golden if you want a warm cream hued meringue, white if you want it... white)
Tablespoon of vinegar (malt if you want it golden, white wine vinegar if... you get the idea)
Teaspoon of vanilla essence (you can swap out for something else if you fancy. We like rose, too)

Double cream
Fruit of your choice

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 1 (140c) - ovens vary, so keep an eye as it can burn quite quickly if the oven is too hot.

2. Line a flat baking tray with greaseproof paper. Draw a circle in pencil as a rough guide and flip it over, so you have no pencil-ly flavours on that base. Set aside.

2. Separate the egg whites from the egg yolks. You can save the yolks and make custard, we were bad and chucked them away.

3. Whisk the egg whites in a mixing bowl until stiff peaks form. That means you can hold the bowl over your head without anything falling out - no slipping or folding, we don't want a soggy meringue!

4. Add the caster sugar, a tablespoon at a time, whilst whisking to keep the mixture stiff. Once it's all added, keep going until it's stiff again. Upside down bowl test optional.

5. Spoon that gorgeous meringue mix on to your circle, to create a big round dome of sticky goodness.

6. Bake for 1 hour. Ideally, if you have an event, make the meringue the night before and leave in the oven to cool slowly.

7. When the meringue is completely cool (no rushing!), whisk the double cream until you've got stiff peaks. Spoon onto the meringue in a decorative fashion (we recommend doing this just before serving, to keep it fresh).

8. Arrange the fruit artfully. Et voilà!  Pavlova.

Fingers crossed we win! We posted our entry on instagram too, go give it a cheeky like if you're feeling sweet! Thanks to boohoo for the challenge and the dresses (Lauren wears May, Felicity wears Sana).

Felicity & Lauren