Pavlova & Hazelnut Daquoise

In my first Advanced Bakeshop class, we made Pavlova and Hazelnut Daquoise. The Pavlova is a meringue based dessert named for the ballet dancer Anna Pavlova, when she visited either New Zealand or Australia in the 1920s. We first made a Vacherin, which is the base. We did this by preparing a meringue and piping it in a circular pattern to create a well; this then baked. We next prepared a vanilla flavored chantilly cream and cut strawberries and oranges to use in our final product. We were given the freedom to create our final Pavlova any way that we liked; I tried to make something that looked like a butterfly, as shown here:



To make the Hazelnut Daquiose, we first made the dacquoise layers; this required piping meringue in circular discs which were then baked. We next prepared a praline Italian buttercream for the filling. We then candied hazelnuts to be used as garnish. To assemble, we piped a layer of praline buttercream between the two dacquoise layers, and then decorated each with confectioner's sugar and candied hazelnuts. The final product looked like this:



And here's a photo of each of my final products: