Candied Popcorn and Pavlova

Photo Credit: Google Images

Since there were some delays to preparation, we decided to postpone the baking until next week. Coincidentally, the coming week will be the week before winter break so we decided to bake a combination of two different types of dessert to celebrate the holiday season. Our plan is to bake the desserts in the middle of the week and share it to our friends and classmates on Friday.

Corn is most known as a light and fluffy low-calorie snack that is commonly eaten while watching movies. Not only are kernels popped for consumption, but it is also used for festive holiday decorations. You’ve probably seen strings of popcorn wrapped around the Christmas tree in every family movie. Why you may ask? Well, it is mainly because back in the day (such as the depression era) families were unable to afford ornaments due to the hard times, so they would make everything homemade or from scratch. Inexpensive foods like popcorn and cranberries were strung onto long lines of string and hung up. Popcorn was also specifically used because as it was dated to American colonial introduction by Native Americans, trees were originally decorated outside. The birds and animals would be able to eat the popcorn on the trees, so people wouldn’t need to clean up after the holidays were over (win-win situation). Since we thought that it was a bit weird to bring in strings of popped kernels, we decided to make candied popcorn to represent the seasonal value of popcorn.

Photo Credit: Virginia Pasley

Our second dessert is the pavlova. This dessert consists of a soft meringue base or shell that is filled with whipped cream and fruit on top. As New Zealand and Australia both claim credit for inventing pavlova, the origin is remains unclear. Despite having a rather simplistic procedure, this dessert can have a multitude of variations such as the base or the type of fruit we decide to use.

Photo Credit: Bree