Crispy Sweet Meringues
Addictive much? These crisp, sweet Swiss meringue kisses crush gently into sugary cotton candy air on the tongue. I couldn’t get enough of popping them into my mouth! Ahhhhh I was so relieved to finally learn how to make meringue kisses. Honest to Gad, this was my fifth attempt. Each time I sucked worse than the last – instead of dense, thick clouds of meringue, mine would swoosh and bubble like tepid soup. Instead of piping perfect blobettes, mine would slump down like a teensy snowman in the sun. ARGH!
So wuh happened? What happened was this: I ended up making swiss meringue buttercream for this raspberry brownie cake and a little Chinese lightbulb went off in my head. Right before you add the butter, the meringue looks just as you would hope a meringue kiss would look: perfectly pipe-able, durable, thick, sticky and glossy. So I rolled with it.
It’s not the conventional or popular method to make meringue kisses but it worked for me so well! Anyone else had some meringue fails out there!?
Meringue kisses just add such a power blast of FUN. I used them in my recent peanut butter chocolate cake recipe birthday post as whimsical, brightly coloured cake toppers. You can serve them in cute vintage dishes at a party or wrap them up as wedding favours! Crushed, they add beautiful texture to an ice cream sundae.
Swiss Meringue Kisses Tips
You will need three piping bags with piping tips. I used a plain open circle tip for the hot pink blobette look (classic “kiss” look), a small multi-pronged open star tip for the blue kisses and a jumbo open star tip for the pale pink. Another hot tip: if you hate separating eggs or are fearful of getting yolk in your egg white, you can try using purchased egg whites at the grocery store, though usually you tend to have more luck getting a fluffier more voluminous meringue with freshly separated eggs, I have used the store bought canisters with mostly success! So here you go: my how to make swiss meringue kisses recipe!
Meringue Kisses
ingredients
For the meringues
- 4 large egg whites
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
instructions
Make the meringue
- Preheat the oven to 180 degrees F. Line three baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Pour the egg whites and sugar into a heatproof bowl. Place it on top of a double boiler over a pot of simmering water. Whisk continually until the mixture reaches 150 degrees Farenheit or the sugar crystals have dissolved.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer beat the mixture on medium speed until soft peaks form. Raise it up to high speed until stiff, glossy and durable – about 3 minutes.
- Divide meringue into three separate bowls.
- Gently fold in a small amount of gel food colouring until you get the desired results!
- Fill piping bags with the coloured meringue and pipe kisses on parchment paper covered baking sheets.
- Bake for 1 hour in the oven; turn off oven and let them dry out for another hour. If you find they are still seeming sticky, leave them in the oven with the oven turned off for 2-3 hours more (but be careful they don’t end up browning).
- Tip: Do not open the oven while the meringues are baking. Any variation in temperature can make the meringues crack. Store meringues in an airtight container for one week.
cynthia
Oh MY I am in LOVE with these!!!! Ahhhhh they are too too too cute. And I’m so impressed that you just went with your gut and forged your own meringue-path — major props, Lyndsay! This is why you’re a badass. Love these!!
Lyndsay // Coco Cake Land
hehe! thanks so much cynthia! I AM A MERINGUE BADASSSSS! i love it!! XO
faithy
You are so smart! I’m so going to try your recipe!!
Lyndsay // Coco Cake Land
faithy!! gosh it’s so nice to hear from you! please let me know how it works out for you! ^__^
Michelle @ Vitamin Sunshine
I never would have thought of cooking the egg whites first– glad to know it helps the merengue hold up better. These are so beautiful– and as you pointed out, could be used as garnishes for so many things!
Lyndsay // Coco Cake Land
thanks michelle!! it was a happy mistake – if you try it, let me know how it goes! ^__^
Lillian
These are so adorable and stylish! I’ve been looking for ways to decorate cakes without just piling on more icings and this seems a perfect solution! They would look so cute on cupcakes. Awesome job. :)
Lyndsay // Coco Cake Land
hooray! thanks so much lillian – they would look totally cute on cupcakes!!
Nancy @ gottagetbaked
You’re amazing, Lyndsay! The cuteness is almost too much for me to handle! One day when I’m feeling brave, I’ll try making these meringue kisses. I’m the worst at making anything stylized so hopefully I won’t mess up!
Lyndsay // Coco Cake Land
aw thanks nancy! i hope you try them – let me know how they turn out if you do!! ^__^
Millie | Add A Little
These are too cute Lyndsay!! I love the colours and I can’t get over the little patterns – you’ve got so much skill girl!
Lyndsay // Coco Cake Land
aw hey thank you millie! ^__^
movita beaucoup
Swiss meringue is my most favourite meringue – you can eat it from the bowl, bake it, or turn it into buttercream. A trifecta of AWESOME!
Lyndsay // Coco Cake Land
hooray hooray! thanks rachael – i am so excited about the trifecta!! (yes, i ate a little from the bowl… hehe!)
Dana
Hi Lindsay,
I’ve tried so many meringue recipes, and I always end up with cracked meringue kisses but these came out looking absolutely perfect!! Thank you so much for the recipe! Just one question, although I turned the oven off after an hour to let them dry they still came out very very sticky. They were literally sticking to everything. I tried air drying them and then I tried freezing them but nothing is working. What do you think I did wrong?
Lyndsay // Coco Cake Land
Dana, I’m happy to hear these worked for you! I made them again recently and found they were indeed extra sticky because it was a warm day – I’d suggest leaving them in the oven even longer to really dry out. Just be careful that they don’t “brown” (this has happened to me). I’m going to add a note to the recipe – thanks!
Samantha @mykitchenlove
These are great Lyndsay! I made a batch yesterday. The only thing was that the baking changed the colour of my meringue kisses (my purple went to grey). Have you found that you need to have quite deep colours for them to stay true? It’s for my twins birthday cakes this weekend and I’d like to nail the colours.
Marlene
Hello, thanks for the recipe!
I am going to try this out but I don’t want to make quite so many. If I cut the recipe in half, do you think it will work? (2 egg whites & 6 tbsp sugar)
thanks so much!
MICH
From #1 instruction, do you need to cool it before proceeding to #2?
it looks really awesome.