In honor of our Blessed Mother's birthday, I wanted to come up with something special that would be gluten-, casein-, and nightshade-free, AND delicious. I checked out Catholic Cuisine's page for some ideas: clearly, this day called for something white and blue in honor of Mary's purity and her mantle, respectively. But a cake wouldn't fit our dietary needs. That's when a little angel whispered in my ear: blueberry pavlova. I didn't even really know exactly what a pavlova was when the idea came to me, but it turned out to be the perfect things to make for Mary's birthday: light, white, blue, and delicious.
There are many great recipes for pavlova on the web, so I won't recreate them here. I'll just say that I substituted tapioca flour for the corn starch called for in the meringue and it worked just fine.
As for the topping, I made two variations: one gluten-free, and one gluten- and casein-free. For the first, I took 2 cups of frozen blueberries, 1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 Tbsp lemon juice, a pinch of cinnamon, and 1/8 cup of minute tapioca, and cooked them in a pot over medium heat until the sauce was thickened nicely. I let this cool, and then spooned it over the cooked meringue.
For the second topping, I simply followed the tradition route of piling on whipped cream and blueberries on top of the cooked meringue.
Now the table is set, the meal is in the oven, and all that awaits is for the family to come home and enjoy this very special occasion. Happy birthday, Blessed Mother!
