Meringue Kisses

These pretty meringue kisses are delicious enjoyed on their own or as colourful decoration to a cake. You can use any colours and make them stripy or all one colour, mix it up and see what colour effects you can make.

Kids will also love making this fun recipe and will enjoy piping these colourful mini meringues. These sweet treats are super easy to make and they will last for up to a week in an airtight container, stored between layers of nonstick baking paper.

Any birthdays coming up? Theses meringues are also a wonderful edible gift to share with friends and family, package up in complementary coloured tissue paper in a pretty box and you have an original personal gift.

Ingredients

200g caster sugar

3 large egg whites

hundreds and thousands, to decorate

purple food colouring gel

yellow food colouring gel

Equipment

Piping bag and nozzle for each colour

Method

- Preheat the oven to gas 6, 200°C (fan 180°C).

- Line 2 large baking trays with nonstick baking paper.

- Put the sugar in a small roasting tin and heat in the oven for 5 mins.

- Put the egg whites in a bowl with a pinch of salt, whisk on medium speed until they form soft peaks.

- Remove the sugar from the oven and tip into egg white mixture in the bowl. Whisk on high speed for 8 mins or until the mixture is stiff.

- Reduce the oven temperature to gas ½, 130°C (fan 110°C).

- Using a small paintbrush, apply three stripes of colouring gel to the inside of the piping bags, from the nozzle to the opening, spacing the stripes evenly apart. Use a different colour for each bag.

- Fill the piping bags with meringue mixture, twist the top of the piping bags to stop the mixture leaking out of the top.

- Hold the piping bag vertically and pipe kisses on the trays by squeezing the mixture out into evenly sized 'blobs' leaving a peak at the top of each one. Sprinkle with hundreds and thousands.

- Repeat until all the meringue mixture is used up.

- Bake for 40 mins, swapping the shelves half-way to ensure both trays cook evenly. Leave to cool completely.

Tips

- I used different shaped nozzles for different shapes and styles of meringues, a star nozzle is particularly effective.

- Use different colours in one piping bag, have fun with multi-coloured meringues!

- Add a few drops of vanilla essence for a bit of extra flavour