Inspiring whimsical sweets & savory dishes

Oh my gosh, you guys. I am so lazy right now.

Seriously.

I mean, take this post, for example. It was supposed to go up two hours ago, and here I sit, just now typing it at a quarter past eleven in the morning.

Plus, I mean, just in case you didn’t notice, it’s the first food I’ve made for the blog in almost two weeks.

Things are getting ridiculous.

The closer it gets to the day of the Hubster’s return (THREE WEEKS FROM TODAY!!!!!!!), the more and more useless I become. You would think it’d make me more productive, seeing as how I’m pretty much gonna wanna spend about 7.35 months completely glued to his side.

Okay, maybe not that much, but still.

Anyway, the point of my rambling is basically to say I’m sorry for being such a non-baking, online shopping, Supernatural marathon watching, crafting instead of cooking, sappy miss my hubby, kinda boring, couch potato (except for Zumba) slacker lately.

I got creative for Memorial Day weekend and made red, white, and blue striped meringue candy cups to make up for it, and there’s a cupcake coming next week that has amazing, amazing things in. One of which is booze. You’re welcome.

Am I forgiven?

(P.S. Truly, I hope you all understand if I have a bit of a lack of motivation for a while still. I’m just so ready for him to be home…)

Okay, so meringues are pretty straight forward, and I’ve linked my recipe below, but to stripe your meringues with color, simply smear or drip gel color down each side of the bag, trying not to mix them. Then, just fill the bag with meringue.

To make the cups, pipe a spiral of meringue onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Next, pipe the sides of the cup by spiraling up around the outside three or four times. Try to keep them as straight as possible (I’m not very good at that, so mine are all crooked (: ).

For the base of the cup, you’ll make another flat spiral, about the same size as the first. Next, pipe a stem straight up the center by spiraling tightly three or four times. If you want, you can wet your finger and flatten any points, but you’ll have to trim the tops flat anyway, so I left them.

To assemble the two pieces, just gently flatten the top part of the stem by using a knife to shave meringue off. Next, place a medium size blob of royal icing on the stem, then center the cup on top. The cup should stay in place without any support. Allow to dry completely before filling and serving. These hold up pretty well to handling, but I still try to be relatively gentle.

I decided to fill my meringue candy cups with fresh whipped cream, raspberries and blueberries, and a couple of mini Nilla Wafers (ohmigah, so cute!).

Admittedly, these turned out to taste better than I anticipated. I don’t know why I had low expectations I love all of the elements separately), but I’m glad that I was wrong. These are really delicious. The combination of the fresh, tart fruit, cool whipped cream, crunchy cookies, and sweet meringue is absolutely wonderful. And perfect for a refreshing dessert on a warm Memorial Day weekend. Enjoy!

Meringue Candy Cups
Makes at least 1 dozen, depending on size

Ingredients

1 recipe meringue
1 recipe whipped cream
Fresh fruit of your choice
Mini Nilla Wafers (Do not use for GF)

Preheat oven to 175 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Prepare meringue as directed, using flavoring of your choice (or you can omit flavoring altogether). Stripe a decorating bag as directed above, or tint your meringue, using gel colors.

Pipe the meringue onto the prepared baking sheet in a circle about 3 to 4 inches across. Pipe the sides of the meringue cup spiraling around the outer edge of the circle three to four times, keeping the layers as straight as possible. Pipe the base of the cup by making another circle the same size as the first. Next, pipe the stem in the center in 3 to 4 swirls, going straight up.

Bake for 100 minutes (1 hour, 40 minutes), turn off the oven, and let the meringues cool completely in the oven (this takes several hours, so I usually let them sit overnight).

Assembly: Gently flatten the top part of the stem by using a knife to shave meringue off. Next, place a medium size blob of royal icing on the stem, then center the cup on top. The cup should stay in place without any support. Allow to dry completely before filling and serving. These hold up pretty well to handling, but you should still try to be relatively gentle.

Serve with whipped cream, fresh fruit, and cookies.

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