Method

Preheat the oven to 140 °C. Line a baking sheet with thick baking paper (or use a silicone mat).

Place the egg whites in a large mixing bowl and beat with an electric mixer until stiff peaks form. Add the food colouring and continue to beat at high speed. Gradually add the 2 cups of castor sugar and beat until the mixture is smooth and slightly stiff.
Spoon the mixture onto the prepared baking sheet or silicone mat, forming an oval with a shallow hollow in the centre and ensuring that the sides are thicker than the centre. Bake for 1 hour in the centre of the oven. Switch off the oven and leave the meringue in it to dry for a few hours.

Meanwhile, heat the strawberries, blackberries and 2 tablespoons of castor sugar in a small saucepan over a medium heat and simmer gently until the sugar has dissolved. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool.
To make the mango mojito sauce, use a hand-held blender to blend all the ingredients together until fine.
Place the meringue on a shallow platter, spoon the strawberry and blackberry mixture into the centre and drizzle over the mango mojito sauce. Decorate with the slices of strawberries, sift icing sugar over and garnish with reserved slices of mango and mint leaves.

Tips: A little vinegar mixed into the meringue mixture will aid the setting process. Make a lemon-flavoured meringue by stirring 2 teaspoons of grated lemon zest through the meringue mixture after all the castor sugar has been added. Or make a chocolate meringue by adding 1 tablespoon of sifted cocoa powder to the meringue mixture after all the castor sugar has been added. (In either case, omit the red food colouring.) Decorate with berries in season.

Extracted from Taste the Little Karoo by Beate Joubert (Struik Lifestyle). Also available in Afrikaans as Proe die Klein-Karoo. Photograph: © Penguin Random House/Sean Calitz