Triple almond pavlova stack with dessert wine figs

Iteration 1

This dessert is based very loosely on Donna Hay's Almond Pavlova Stack with a few tweaks.  It is one of the easiest/simplest desserts I have ever made and a huge hit.  My Dad, the dessert-hater, had seconds and scraped the bottom of the serving platter.

This has been through 2 iterations and I think the second one is a winner.

For both iterations I cut the sugar back to 2/3 cup (I can't stand sickly sweet desserts).  I subbed the peaches for figs because it's coming into winter and there are no peaches at the supermarket.  I used about 4-5 figs.  I found a hand mixer was better and faster than the electric mixer but the electric mixer does work if you don't have a hand mixer.

For Iteration 1 (don't laugh) I couldn't find a corkscrew to open the bottle of dessert wine so I made a brown sugar syrup instead.  It was a decent substitute but Iteration 2 with dessert wine had much more of a kick.

For Iteration 2 I made 3 meringue discs instead of 2 (I prefer thinner and more layers) using the same 4 egg whites and also spread 3 layers of cream.  Belissimo!

Iteration 2

PS - these 2 pics go to show how much of a difference lighting and background make to food photos