Valentines rose meringues

as you know, i have been experimenting with meringues this week for this sunday's up and coming market. because valentines day is coming up i thought it would be nice to give them a romantic theme. i spotted some cute rose shaped ones on google and decided to give them a go. unfortunately i don't have the exact right piping tip and because i am far to impatient to go out and buy one, i decided to make one myself. i am so pleased with the result and am excited to share my recipe with you!

to make your own tip:

make a cone shape by cutting up a plastic water bottle,

tape it so it stays in shape.

it needs to be at least twice as big as a regular piping tip.

cut the tip of so you have about a 5mm hole. 

divide it into 4 equal sections and with scissors, cut 4 deep v shapes about 15mm deep,

take a sturdy plastic bag,

cut small corner out and insert tip, tape securely with tape.

now for meringue recipe:

3 room temperature free range egg whites,

1 cup caster sugar,

flavoring and colouring if you like, i used rose water and

red food colouring.

(some people add all sorts of things like cream of tarter and vinegar, as you can see you don't need it!)

all you do is:

beat the egg whites until stiff.

add about 2 table spoons of the sugar and beat till very thick and glossy, (about half a minute).

add another couple of spoons and the flavouring and colouring and beat for a little bit,(15 seconds)

now add rest of sugar, mix gently till it's all nicely combined.

you should have a lovely stiff glossy mixture to pipe.(if it's runny you have mixed it too long!)

now pipe roses starting from the center and moving around till desired size, it's easy i promise!

bake in oven slowly for about an hour, don't be tempted to speed things up they will become brittle and collapse,

IMPORTANT:
only use very clean metal utensils and bowl, NO plastic!

only have oven on about 100 degrees or even a bit less! if they go brown it's too hot!

place backing paper on trays.
use room temperature eggs.

let me know how they turn out!