Pavlova: and my kitchen nightmare

I like to cook -- the reward is amazing. In my real job I get critiqued and analyzed and evaluated and argued with. It's fun.
But when I set food in front of friends, they are silent. In awe. Saliva pooling under their tongue.
This week we had a little baby shower at our house. I'm not really a dessert person. I'm about rich barbecue sauce and flavours layered into soups and sauces. I'm into grilling rubs and salts and convection tricks for increased flavour. Dessert -- well, it seems that it's less of an art and more of a science. Because precision requires attention, my little creative adhd brain rebels.
But I offered (for some weird reason) to bake.
So, on Tuesday night I got home and pulled out the stand mixer. Just because I don't like to bake doesn't mean I don't like the gadgets.
My overall goal was to create a Pavlova.
Basically, Pavlova is a meringue -- except it's not on the top of a lemon pie.
The recipe is simple.... 1/2 cup of egg whites (about 4); 1 cup sugar, teaspoon of vinegar, tablespoon of cornstarch, a schlucks of vanilla.
One would think I had all those ingredients in the house. Well, I knew I didn't have cornstarch, but I had lept over that hurdle successfully the week before.
I know that all of you have been taught that you should set all the ingredients you need on the counter before you start baking. That would make sense -- and it's likely that I wouldn't have had the egg whites already reaching soft peaks before I discovered I didn't have any white sugar. I'm smart enough to understand that white sugar and brown sugar, while both sweet, in baking have different textures and mess with the final product. But I have little fear of messing with final products. So I dumped in (One tablespoon at a time, as recommended) brown sugar. I was not at all surprised that the meringue did not have the lovely soft white colour of the picture in the recipe book.
Then I realized I didn't have any cornstarch.
That's a little harder. Flour seemed an unlikely candidate. Then, brainwave, pudding mix is pretty much cornstarch -- so I threw in a tablespoon of custard powder. I had everything else. So I slipped it into the oven and let it do its thing.
The next evening, I layered it with a rich custard, raspberries and blueberries and topped it with whipping cream. I noticed when I cut it, it seemed a little stickier than I thought, but, seriously, who in that crowd was a Pavlova expert?
It was amazing. The brown sugar transported it to a slightly toffee taste and texture.
I brought the dessert out. Served my guests. I had made lots --enough for everyone to have a generous piece.... OK, I probably made two times as much as reasonable. That night, even the skinny ladies who only eat sunflower seeds and cantaloupe were licking the platter with the rest of us.