Meringues Recipe

We love this easy, delicious meringues recipe. 

These light, sweet meringues are so easy to make, and a fantastic way to decorate cakes and cupcakes! This recipe for meringues is so simple, and I love their delicate appearance, especially when their shapes are piped! 

The options are endless when it comes to decorating cakes and cupcakes with meringues. The meringue can easily be tinted, piped through a piping bag with all sorts of piping tips from french and star tips to round tips and petal tips.

Whether you are piping ribbon roses roses, billowy meringue kisses, or simple stars, meringues are certain to take your cakes and cupcakes to another level!

You can find many recipes for meringues online and all are fairly similar. However, the recipe that we're sharing today is our FAVORITE! These meringues are light and crisp on the outside, and soft and slightly chewy in the  center.

We've tried recipes in the past that had a subtle yet noticeably bitter aftertaste from cream of tartar or meringue powder. Perhaps it was the brand that we were using, but we decided to experiment with this recipe as it does not contain cream of tartar. I've made this recipe several times now, always with good results! 

How to Make DELICIOUS Meringues

We started with egg whites which we whipped using an electric mixer and whisk attachment until foamy soft peaks formed.

Next, we slowly added our super fine sugar and clear vanilla, followed by powdered sugar and continued to beat until stiff peaks had formed.

Then, we tinted our meringue and baked at 175 degrees F for two hours. We then turned off the oven, leaving the meringues inside for another hour as they continued to cool.

We've created meringues for a couple of cakes in our Member Cake Video Tutorial Section. In our Pastel Drip Cake featured below, we created pastel meringues to add beauty as well as added dimension and color! 

Here's another fun cake with meringues and drizzles from our member cake video section. For added height, we attached the meringues to lollipop sticks with a little melted candy melts. Meringue Hearts with Ganache Cake 

In this cake tutorial from our member section, we decorated a simple tiered buttercream-frosted cake with lovely ribbon rose meringues! These are made with a simple petal tip but I love the look! Here's a link: Beautiful Meringue Roses Cake

Notes to Keep in Mind when Making Meringues

• Meringues are more difficult to make in humid climates. Rainy days or even steam from running dishwashers can cause the meringue not to whip up properly. 
• You must bake your meringues on the lowest rack of your oven to prevent browning. 
• We use clear vanilla in our meringues as real vanilla can give an off-white tint to the cookies.
•  If meringues are baked at a heat that is too high, they are more likely to brown. My recipe calls for baking at 175 F. When I baked at 200, my meringues had more of an ivory or cream-colored tint.

Thanks for stopping by! Don't miss our full collection of favorite cake, cupcake, and frosting recipes in our Recipes Section!

Don't Miss our Video of How to Make Meringues in this Free Monster Cake Tutorial!

Update: October 2019- Don't miss our cute Monster Meringues cake video tutorial! Watch as I whip up a batch of meringues using this recipe, and also how to pipe and decorate super cute monsters! Find the link to the free video tutorial here! 

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Meringues Recipe

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These Meringue Cookies are delightfully light and sweet, and make the cutest decorations for cakes and cupcakes!

Ingredients

• 4 egg whites
• Pinch of salt (we used popcorn salt because it is finer)
• ¾ cup super fine sugar - if you do not have this you can make your own by processing granulated sugar in a food processor or bullet blender.
• ½ teaspoon (2g) clear vanilla (real vanilla will change the color)
• 1 cup powdered sugar, sifted
• Coloring gel, optional

Instructions

You'll want to use the lowest rack position in your oven. Preheat to 175 degrees F

Line baking sheet with parchment paper.

It is very important that your mixing bowl & whisk attachment/beaters are completely clean & free of grease so that the egg whites whip up properly.

In your mixing bowl, beat the egg whites & salt at medium-high speed (using whisk attachment) until foamy and soft peaks form (about 50 seconds).

Gradually add the super fine sugar and vanilla while mixing at medium speed. Follow with the powdered sugar (reduce speed as needed to prevent a cloud of powdered sugar!). Return to medium high speed until stiff peaks form. ***See Notes section below

If you wish to tint your meringues, gently fold in your color.

Pipe the desired shapes onto parchment-lined cookie sheet.

Bake for 2 hours (lower rack of the oven) or until meringues are dry and easily moved. Turn oven off but leave the pan in the oven for an additional hour to cool.

Once they are completely cooled, store in an airtight container away from strong lighting or sunlight. Light could cause the colored meringues to fade.

Meringues can be kept at room temperature in an airtight container for 3 weeks, or longer in the freezer.

Notes

***In our Meringue Roses video tutorial, we folded in the powdered sugar after stiff peaks formed. We have since changed the recipe slightly to add the powdered sugar soon after adding the superfine sugar. Then beat until stiff peaks form. Although both methods will give great results, the updated method helps reduce the chance of deflating the meringue. (You can see this updated version in our Monster Meringues free video tutorial).