Christmas dessert wreath – no baking required

This Christmas dessert wreath is a joy to both make and eat. And it’s so much simpler than it looks. There’s no baking required whatsoever, so if you’re short on time, or baking is not your thing, this dessert wreath is for you. It’s made from supermarket bought components, that you get to just put together.

And of course, it also looks spectacular, and tastes simply delicious.

In New Zealand, many of us travel to bachs for our summer holidays / Christmas. And as a holiday home, some of these bachs have limited kitchens, and cooking equipment. So this Christmas dessert wreath is also perfect for you, as you don’t need any fancy equipment. Just a quick trip to the grocery store will have you covered.

This wreath plays on the traditional downunder Christmas dessert of pavlova.

I’ve combined pavlovas (in a mini form), with two other quintessential ‘Christmas’ treats – meringues and brandy snaps. This creates the most stunning smorgasbord, with something for everyone.

Now although I will happily munch on a ‘naked’ meringue or pav, most people love them with cream. So I’ve created three sauces to go with the treats. I love raspberries, so made a delicious raspberry coulis for one of my bowls, whipped up some cream for another, and for the third, I opened up a jar of dulce de leche. Melted chocolate would be another great option, but my love of caramel actually trumps chocolate, so dulce de leche it was for me.

What would you choose for your ‘sauces’? Oooh, I can see lemon curd being another fab choice!!

No Christmas platter downunder is complete without delicious summer fruits. Use whatever is in season. For me, preparing this early (so you’ve got time to plan), that was the first of the summer strawberries and blueberries. I had to add kiwifruit – both for the green element, and hey, I’m in NZ! And I’ve finished off with a few sprinkles of pistachios, for a great ‘crunch’ element, and more green. What’s not to love!

Best of all – you can buy all of these items ready made, so it’s simply a matter of putting it all together on the day. I used the Southern Kitchen meringues and mini pavs from Woolworths, and a pack of brandy snaps.

Assembling your wreath dessert

To serve it as a wreath, you will need a flat round ‘dish’. That can be a board as I’ve used, or just a plate. Use a size that works for the amount of people you’re serving. That’s another great thing about this dessert wreath – you can modify it for any size group.

To put it together, start with your bowls. Put these in a triangle formation.

Next, add your largest items. For me this was the mini pavlovas, and then the meringues. Make sure as you lay these out, that you’re creating a wreath (circle) form. For the best impact, you want to create a little depth in the wreath, so create at least two items deep.

Now add in your any other key elements – here’s when I added the brandy snaps.

Now we get to add the key decorative element – the fruit. To pretty this up, you can try cutting your fruit in different ways. As an example, some of my kiwifruit pieces are peeled and are cut in quarters, and others are just halved in the skin. Likewise, you could add whole strawberries and / or cut ones.

Embellish! Add any small finishing pieces – I added blueberries, pistachios, a few little gold sugar stars, and a dusting of icing sugar.

And voila! One beautiful Christmas dessert wreath that is sure to impress on all levels!

I hope this has inspired you to take some of the stress out of your Christmas meal this year, and simply serve this stunning dessert wreath. No one will know how simple it was!

Merry Christmas, Megan

PS. Of course, you can take it to any pre-Christmas barbie as well!