Meringue kisses are such beautiful, delicate things to decorate a cake with, and they are deceptively easy to make!
I loosely followed a Good Food recipe, but once you have whisked the sugar and eggs whites in, you can really make these your own by adding different flavours and colours to the mix.
Ingredients:
-75g Icing sugar
-75g White caster sugar
-Pink food colouring gel
-3 Medium egg whites, at room temperature
Method:
1) Heat the oven to 120C / 100C fan / gas 1/2.
2) Line two large baking sheets with baking parchment. In a small bowl, mix both sugars together.
TIP: Once you have made the meringue mixture, spoon a small amount onto the corners of the baking sheet. This helps to stick down the baking parchment.
3) In a clean, grease-free bowl, whisk the egg whites until they form stiff peaks, using electric beaters or a tabletop mixer. Add about a third of the sugar, whipping for 1 minute or so, until stiff and glossy. Gradually add the remaining sugar until you have a glossy meringue that holds stiff peaks.
4) Optional: Divide the mixture into a number of bowls to add varying amounts of food colouring for different looking meringue kisses.
5) Squeeze out some pink food colouring on a plate and using a pastry brush or teaspoon, paint 3 or 5 lines (depending on how close you want them) of the food colouring from the top to almost the end of the bag. Next, carefully fill with the meringue mixture and twist the end to close.
6) Holding the bag vertically over the tray, apply enough pressure to create a base, then quickly draw the bag upwards to create little points. The food colouring will give the meringues a stripy pattern as they pass through the bag.
7) Bake in the oven for 1 hour. Do not open the oven, but instead, simply turn off the oven and leave the meringues to cool with the door closed. You must ensure the oven has cooled completely (this takes a number of hours), otherwise the meringues can crack.
Store in an airtight container of a plastic food bag.