If you’re looking to make something a little different this year for Easter, then this is the recipe for you (and it’s gluten free)! It’s not just a pretty cake either, it’s absolutely hands down delicious too! I don’t know about you but I just love desserts like this- it’s light, simple you can make the entire dessert well in advance (just put it together the same day); not to mention it’s perfect to end an Easter feast!
This is a simple vanilla pavlova shaped into mini baskets then filled with homemade coconut cream, dolloped with whipping cream and topped with chocolate eggs! You can have fun and fill the baskets with chocolate shavings or anything you please.
The nice thing about this dessert, once you cut the individual pavlova baskets you can have your guests add more of the toppings if they’d like. The recipe makes extra coconut cream too.
Ingredients
- Eggs
- White wine vinegar
- Instant sugar (also known as extra fine sugar, caster sugar)
- Icing sugar & granulated sugar
- Full milk
- Unsalted butter
- Unsweetened coconut
- Whipping cream/heavy cream
- Mini chocolate eggs (Cadbury mini eggs are my favourite)
- Cornstarch
- Pure vanilla extract
- Salt
Why Make This Easter Pavlova?
Pavlovas are great because you can make them well in advance, meaning you can get your desserts out of the way and focus on cooking your Easter meal, saving you time and stress! You can make your pavlova up to 3 days in advance. You can also make your coconut cream in advance too, making this the perfect ‘make ahead’ dessert!
This dessert is best for a large crowd. If you don’t plan on having a large crowd for Easter then just make individual baskets (not touching) and you can serve the pavlovas separately, saving the other baskets.
Be Warned (Shelf Life of a Filled Pavlova)…
The down side to pavlovas is the shelf life once the baskets are filled. The moisture from the coconut cream and whipping cream end up seeping into the crisp pavlova making it eventually go soft or even soggy. Some people like the mash-up the next day, but I’m not one of them. The good news is the actual pavlova (unfilled) will last at least 2 weeks! So if you know you aren’t going to finish all of the baskets, only fill the ones you want to eat and save the other baskets for another day.
Tips for a Successful Pavlova
- Make sure to use room temperature eggs whites. This will help the egg whites whip up and double in volume.
- Use a stand mixer with the whip attachment. Making a pavlova takes a lot of whipping and at a high speed, so your stand mixer will do the best job!
- Use a clean dry bowl and make sure there is no grease in the bowl. Any grease or moisture can prevent the egg whites from whipping up properly.
- Gradually and slowly add sugar to your egg whites while whipping. If sugar is added too quickly it can collapse the meringue.
- Bake the pavlova low and slow and don’t open the oven door! The idea is too slowly dry out the exterior of the pavlova while keeping the exterior marshmallowy. Opening the door while baking will cause cracking in your pavlova.
- Cool the pavlova slowly! It’s common practice in the baking world to make a pavlova at night, and once baked you turn the oven off and leave the pavlova in the oven to cool slowly and the next morning you’ll have a perfectly baked pavlova. The idea is to let it cool down slowly inside the oven as this will help prevent cracking.
How to Make a Coconut Cream Easter Pavlova
Step One: Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, draw an 8″ circle in the middle of the paper, then flip the paper over. Whip your meringue and transfer your mixture to a piping bag fitted with a star tip. Now, using the circle stencil on your baking sheet as a guide, start piping baskets/circles on the line. Make sure the circles attach to each other. You should have approx. 10-12 baskets depending on the size of baskets (mine were approx. 2 inches). Place in the oven and bake for 2 hours.
Step Two: Meanwhile make your coconut cream then cover with plastic wrap; pressing the plastic right on top of the coconut cream creating a seal. Refrigerate for approx. 2 hours.
Step Three: Once ready to serve assemble your dessert. Fill each basket with coconut cream, whipped cream and mini chocolate eggs. Pull your coconut cream out of the fridge and let it come to room temperature. Serve within 1 hour.
Special Easter Desserts
Here are a few more fancy Easter dessert recipes that you’ll love to treat your family and friends to. They add a special touch to the ending of any meal.
- Easter Chocolate Lemon Cups
- Lemon Crepe Cake
- Spring Vanilla Cake
- Raspberry Tea Cakes
- French Lemon Tart
- Chocolate Coconut Cake
Coconut Cream Easter Pavlova
This make ahead coconut cream Easter pavlova is light, delicate, fresh and the whole family will fall in love. It has a chewy crispy texture on the outside and a soft and marshmallowy centre. It’s filled with coconut cream, fresh whipped cream and topped with mini chocolate eggs! Bonus it’s also gluten free!
- Prep Time: 30 mins
- Cook Time: 2 hours
- Total Time: 2 hours 30 mins
- Yield: 12 1x
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: Australian
- Diet: Gluten Free
Ingredients
Pavlova
- 4 large egg whites at room temperature (keep yolks for coconut cream recipe)
- 1 teaspoon cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon white wine vinegar
- 1/2 cup instant sugar (also known as extra fine sugar)
- 1/2 cup icing sugar, sifted
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Coconut Cream
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 4 Tablespoons of cornstarch
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 1/2 cups full milk, at room temperature
- 3 egg yolks
- 1 Tablespoon unsalted butter
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 cup unsweetened coconut
- 1 cup whipping cream
- 40–50 mini chocolate eggs, approx. (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 225ËšF.
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, draw an 8″ circle in the middle of the parchment paper and then flip the paper over so the ink won’t transfer to your baking (you should still be able to see the ink through the parchment paper. You can use an 8″ round cake pan as a stencil). Set aside.
- In a large bowl add your egg whites, cornstarch, and vinegar. Using the whisk attachment on your stand mixer beat on medium high speed until frothy and double in size.
- With the mixer still running, slowly (I mean slowly) add your instant sugar, approx. 1 tablespoon at a time. Raise the speed to high and beat until stiff peaks form.
- Turn the mixer to low and slowly add icing sugar, raise the speed back to high and beat until stiff and shiny.
- Add your vanilla to combine.
- Transfer your mixture to a piping bag fitted with a large star tip. Using the circle stencil on your baking sheet as a guide, start piping basket-like circles on the line, approx. 2 inches in size. Make sure the circles attach to each other, creating one large circle. You should have about 10-12 baskets depending on the size of baskets you pipe. Note: if you have any extra meringue in your piping bag, use the extra space on the baking sheet and pipe individual baskets.
- Place in the middle of the oven and bake for 2 hours. Do not open the oven and check on them! Once baked, turn off the oven and leave them in the oven to come to room temperature.
Make your coconut cream
- In a large saucepan mix sugar, cornstarch and salt until combined. Whisk milk into dry ingredients on medium heat. Slowly heat mixture until warm. Do not boil!
- In a separate bowl whisk egg yolks. Add 1/2 cup of your warm milk mixture to the eggs and mix well. Now transfer the yolk mixture to the saucepan and whisk, this is to ensure you won’t cook the eggs. Bring to a boil, whisking consistently. Once the mixture has come to a boil, lower heat and mix for another 60 seconds or until the mixture is a pudding like consistency. Be careful not to burn the mixture as this can happen quickly.
- Remove from heat and add butter, vanilla and coconut. Stir to combine.
- Place your coconut cream in a glass bowl. Cover with plastic wrap; pressing the plastic on top of the coconut cream creating a seal, so no air can get through. Refrigerate for approx. 2 hours or when ready to use.
Assemble your dessert
- Pull your coconut cream out of the fridge and let it come to room temperature.
- Whip whipping cream until soft peaks form. Add 1/2 cup of whipping cream to your coconut cream and fold into mixture. Save the rest of the whipping cream for topping your baskets.
- Fill each basket with coconut cream, a dollop of whipping cream and a few chocolate eggs.
- Serve within 1 hour.
Notes
When separating your egg whites, keep your egg yolks and set aside for your coconut cream.
I got my chocolate eggs at the bulk barn, you can also find them at any variety or grocery store at this time of year.
Store your unfilled pavlova in a dry, dark place (cover with tin foil).
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 Basket w/o Chocolate Eggs
- Calories: 151
- Sugar: 19,2g
- Sodium: 98mg
- Fat: 6.2g
- Saturated Fat: 3.6g
- Unsaturated Fat: 0
- Trans Fat: 0
- Carbohydrates: 20.8g
- Fiber: 0
- Protein: 3.8g
- Cholesterol: 70mg
FAQ’s
Yes, pavlova is gluten free as it’s made with egg whites, sugar, cornstarch, and vinegar which do not contain gluten. However, it’s important to check the ingredients used for the pavlova and the toppings to ensure that they do not contain any gluten.
Depending on the filling you can assemble a pavlova 1 to 2 hours max. If the filling has a lot of moisture, like whipping cream, it will seep into the crisp pavlova making it eventually go soft or even soggy.
An unfilled pavlova can last up to one week stored in a cool, dry place.
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Leave a Rating and Comment!
I love hearing from you! Leave a comment with any questions or how your recipe turned out (your email address will not be published)!
Alex all of your recipes are wonderful, and look so good. I have several people in my family who can not have gluten, so the Easter wreath is just perfect for them.
The wreath is such a wonderful idea and would definitely be a beautiful ending to my dinner. I also think that the little bunnies would be something that the children would really enjoy.
Keep up the wonderful blogs as they do inspire me to do more.
Thank you.
Thank you Bernice! I’m so glad to hear you are enjoying the blog! I hope you and your family enjoy the Pavlova for Easter 🙂 Let me know how it turns out.
I don’t normally leave comments on recipes, I’m pretty sure I’ve never done it before but I just had to on this one. There must be a typo or something. Baking the pavlova for 2 hours can not be the right time. I took mine out after 1.5 hours when I realized that they were all burnt past the point of being edible by then. I could tell some where burning but I also know my oven is a bit finicky so I was determined to leave them in for the full time without opening the oven. But after 1.5 hours I just couldn’t leave them. I had even turned the oven down after 10-15 minutes
And I realized the ones I thought were okay really weren’t. I looked up other recipes and some had as short as 15 minutes listed for the baking time. The longest I found was 60 minutes. I should have just trusted my gut and turned the heat off at the 15-30 minute mark.
I’ll follow a different recipe when I try again tomorrow. I’m still hopeful that we can have coconut cream filled pavlova after our Easter dinner.
I guess I can add that the coconut cream filling turned out beautifully and is delicious.
Hi Katrina, thank you for taking the time to write to me, I’m so sorry to hear your pavlova didn’t turn out. I’m not extacly sure how the pavlova’s could burn at such a low temperature. The idea is to bake the pavlova’s at a low temperature for a long time as this dries them out (it should never burn them). I’ve never baked any pavlova less than an hour, and have been making them for over 10 years. I also googled the top pavlova basket recipes and none of them are under an hour (keeping in mind that this recipe has the pavlova’s all attached not separate – this will also change the bake time). So I am a little confused about a 15 minute bake time. Regardless if you use my recipe or someone else, I’d make sure your oven rack is in the middle of the oven and maybe get a temperature gage to put inside your oven too make sure the temperature is correct. The pavlova should be nice and thick as well, if they are small and thin they will bake much quicker than recommended time. I hope your second attempt is a success. I will also go back and test the recipe again as this is very upsetting for me to read.
Alie, I’m so sorry for my first comment. I was frustrated that the pavlova didn’t work but it turns out I’m a complete idiot and the fault is 100% my own. I made a second batch today and they turned out perfectly. I baked the first ones at the wrong temperature. I don’t know I misread the recipe and how I didn’t think to double check that when I double checked the time to bake them. I’m so sorry for my negative review. I swear I’m usually a really good baker and am even know for my desserts among friends and family. I guess yesterday was just a bad day and I’m sorry to have blamed the recipe when it was my own fault.
Hi Katrina, I really appreciate you writing back and letting me know. I’m also so happy to hear that everything turned out in the end! I did rebake the pavlova today with success so I was a little confused and you had me stumped. I can only bet you are a great baker more of a reason why you were upset that it didn’t turn out the first round. Happy Easter