Mari Williams' Strawberry Meringues and Cream

Decorated with pale pink rose petals, these are almost to pretty to eat. Almost, that is...

1. 1

   Set the oven to 80C fan/100C/ gas ¼.
   Put the egg whites in a large, clean, grease-free bowl with the cream of tartar. Whisk with electric beaters until the mixture forms soft peaks.
   Add the caster sugar, a tablespoon at a time, until the meringue forms firm glossy folds and is stiff enough to stay in the bowl if it is turned upside down.
   Line two baking trays with parchment and use a spot of meringue at each corner of the paper to stick down onto the tray (in a fan oven the paper flaps about and sticks to your meringues).
   Mould immediately into 6 round shapes 8.5cm (3¼in) wide, making an indentation to hold the cream and 6 smaller peaked meringues around 5cm (2in) wide to sit on the &#8232,top of the fruit like little hats. Cook the small meringues for 1 hour and the large ones for 1 hour and 10 minutes. Place on a wire rack to cool.
   Next, whip the cream until soft peaks form. Fill the large meringues with a little cream, then lay on half the strawberries and add a little more cream.
   Put the remaining strawberries in a small food processor with the icing sugar and whizz to a purée. Pass through a sieve to get rid of the seeds. Pour a little purée over each meringue and put the small meringues on top. Scatter some of the rose petals over each and serve right away with the extra purée in a bowl.