As many know I love to cook, and I love watching Masterchef.

I enjoy Masterchef Australia, and am looking forward to Masterchef South Africa starting next week.

One thing I've always wanted to do is create one of the amazing desserts seen on Masterchef Australia. So God help me, I'm going to be attempting one of the most intricate desserts I've ever seen - Peter Gilmore's Snow Egg (see pic below).

I’ve eaten the Snow Egg at Peter Gilmore’s Quay restaurant in Sydney before, so at least I have an idea what it should taste like.

If any of you feel brave enough (or stupid enough ) to join me in this challenge, here is the recipe. You should probably allow four to five hours to make your dessert.

The Making of the Snow Egg

For the Guava snow egg

Poached Meringue

• 300 g egg white

• 300 g sugar

Firstly you will need a 6cm diameter half hemisphere silicon mould sheet. Whisk the egg whites in a machine until they form soft peaks and slowly add in the sugar. Once the sugar has dissolved and the meringue forms firm peaks spoon the meringue into the half hemisphere moulds. Cook the meringue in a water bath large enough to hold the silicon mat in a pre-heated 120 degree oven for approximately 15 minutes. Allow the meringues to cool down. Then unmold the half hemispheres onto a tray lined with silicon paper and store in the fridge until needed.

Maltose tuilles

• 200g liquid maltose

• 100g sugar

• 20g flaked almonds

In a pan heat the sugar and maltose together until it caramelizes. Add in the flaked almonds to this mixture and immediately pour the mixture onto a silicon mat and allow to cool down completely. In a food processor, process the hard caramel to form a fine powder. Sieve the praline mixture using a course sieve onto a silicon mat in a fine layer. Melt this mixture in a moderate oven until it forms a clear liquid paste. Remove from the oven and allow to cool but before the praline becomes too hard cut into a 15cm diameter circle using a metal circle cutter. When each circle is hard store between silicon papers in an air tight container. This is to prevent them from breaking easily.

Guava puree

• 175g sugar

• 250ml water

• ½ vanilla bean

• 375g of strawberry guava flesh

In a pot combine the sugar and the water, add in the scraped vanilla bean and bring it to boil. Lower the heat and add the guava flesh. Cook on simmer for 10 minutes. After that take the pot off the heat and remove the vanilla pods. Drain out the liquid from the flesh and place the it in a blender to process. Add just enough of the cooking liquid to process into a thick guava puree. Use a fine sieve to pass the puree and set aside in the fridge until needed.

For the Guava granita

• 500ml water

• 100g sugar

• 400g of peeled guavas

• 100g fresh strawberries

Roughly dice the guavas and strawberries. In a large saucepan, combine the water and the sugar, bring to the boil then lower the heat to a slow simmer. Add in the fruits and simmer for 10 minutes. Take the pan off the heat and bring down to room temperature for about 2 hours. Pass the liquid through a muslin cloth and discard the solids. Pour out the guava syrup into a ceramic or stainless steel container to a depth of 5cm. Place it in the freezer for about 12 hours. Every 2 to 3 hours remove from the freezer and scrape with a fork to form the granita crystals.

Custard apple ice-cream

• 6 egg yolks

• 200g sugar

• 200ml milk

• 300ml clear custard apple juice

• 100ml single cream

First whisk the egg yolks and sugar together. Boil the milk and pour on to the mixture while whisking.

Pour this mixture into a stainless steel bowl and cook over a pot of simmering water while whisking for about 10 minutes. Cool the sabayon over ice. Meanwhile using extremely ripe custard apples scoop the flesh of approximately 1 large custard apple into a double muslin lined chinoix. Gather the muslin cloth at the top and squeeze the ripe custard apple flesh tightly to obtain a clear juice. When you have 300ml of clear juice whisk it into the sabayon with the 100ml of single cream. Place the mixture into an icecream machine and churn until ready. Place the ice-cream in a container in the freezer until needed.

Vanilla Custard base

• 400ml single cream

• 3 egg yolks

• 1 whole egg

• 80gm sugar

• 2 vanilla beans

Split and scrape the vanilla beans, add it into the cream and heat. Bring to boil and remove from the heat. Whisk the eggs, egg yolks and sugar together in a stainless steel bowl. While whisking the eggs slowly add the hot vanilla cream. Mix well and remove the vanilla pods. Pour this mixture into 4 large dariole moulds to a depth of 5 cm, place the dariole moulds into a tray of water bath. In a pre-heated 150 degree oven place the tray and cook the custard as you would a crème brulee for approximately 25 minutes until the custard is just set. Remove the custards from the water bath and refrigerate for approximately 5 to 6 hours until fully chilled and set.

Vanilla cream

• 100 gms vanilla custard base

• 100 gms double cream

• Whisk the cream and custard together to form soft peaks.

• Guava fool

• 400g of guava puree

• 200g vanilla cream

Place the guava puree in a small bowl and fold in the vanilla cream gently to form a rippled effect. This is to be done just before you are ready to assemble the dessert.

To Assemble

Take a half hemisphere poached meringues and remove a small scoop from the centre with a teaspoon being careful not to break through the outer edge. In the hole you have created place a small scoop of custard apple ice-cream. Scoop a small hole in another half hemispheres and invert over the ice-cream filled meringues to form a complete sphere. Place a maltose biscuit on top of the sphere and using a blow torch gently melt the biscuit over the sphere. Dust the sphere with icing sugar. In a serving glass, add a generous spoonful of the guava fool at the bottom. Top the fool with the guava granite, and then place the custard apple ice-cream poached meringue sphere on top of the granite.

And voila your snow egg is ready! (sounds so bloody easy doesn't it )