Make Mother’s Day extra special with a delicious, fresh and fruity dessert

Probably the best thing you can do for your mother on Mother’s Day is to give her a day of rest. If you have neglected (through laziness or because you forgot) to reserve a table for dim sum or a hotel brunch, it’s probably too late – all the best options will be fully booked by now. Ditto if you want to take her out for dinner. So, as a break, let your mother spend the day how she wants while you whip up this easy dessert.

Fresh berry verrines with honey-vanilla mascarpone and vanilla meringues

Make the meringues first, so they have time to bake and dry out. The rest of the dessert takes only a few minutes of work. I like to macerate about half of the berries with sugar, which softens them and creates a light sauce, and leave the rest “fresh”.

For the meringues:
80 grams egg whites, at room temperature
½ tsp fine sea salt
180 grams granulated sugar
1 tsp cornstarch
A 2.5cm-long piece of vanilla bean

For the berries and honey-vanilla mascarpone:
1 punnet raspberries
1 punnet blueberries
1 punnet blackberries or mulberries
1 small basket of strawberries
8 cape gooseberries (also called physalis)
Granulated sugar
About 10ml fresh lemon juice
250 grams mascarpone
25 grams honey
A 6cm-long piece of vanilla bean
Unsweetened cocoa powder
Fresh mint leaves

Preheat the oven to 90 degrees Celsius. To make the meringues, put the egg whites in a heatproof bowl, add the salt, sugar and cornstarch and whisk immediately. Pour water in a saucepan to a depth of about 3cm and heat until simmering. Turn the heat to very low and place the bowl holding the egg white mixture over the pan. Whisk constantly until the mixture is very warm to the touch (about 45 degrees).