Cotton Candy Meringue Cookies

    Hello hello!!!

    Today I've got a lovely and simple recipe for you! I first made it for my middle daughter's birthday, because her theme was "teal" (yes, just the colour teal!), and I wanted to have something besides just the cake for her and her friends. I was also aware of the fact that the cake I had made was not gluten-free, and therefore my Caleb couldn't have any. Mind you. he's 11 years old and "technically" wouldn't have been invited to the party if it weren't for the fact that he is the birthday girls' brother! But, he's 11 with autism, so, that does change things. And besides, I want to let him have a special treat at a birthday too!  

    So, as per what often happens to me, I thought I had a brilliant idea.....only to Google it and realize someone else had already done it! I think that still counts as my idea though because I thought it up not knowing it had already been done! : )   
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   Ok, well, at one of the grocery stores I go to, they had Duncan Hines flavour packs on clearance for $0.10! Woot woot! I love when things are on clearance! I grabbed a bunch, not having an exact plan for them, but knowing I would be using them (they are great to add to homemade buttercream icing, btw!)

   Anywhoooo, these tasty little bites of sweetness are delightful, pretty simple to make, and BONUS, last for quite a while in an airtight container! After my initial batch for the birthday I made a double batch (using the less pretty colour, but delicious flavour of caramel), and crushed some to put with buttercream into the middle layer of a chocolate cake I had made. Yummm-o x 10000! Anyway, I had too many and just had the extras in an airtight container for, oh, I dunno, a month, with the kids and I just having one here and there. They tasted just as nice at the end as they did in the beginning, so, that's just a little FYI. 

​   So, let's get on with it, shall we!?! 

Meringue Cookies
From Duncan Hines


Ingredients:

• 1 packet Duncan Hines Cotton Candy Flavour Mix
• 4 egg whites (it's best to separate eggs while they are cold, then let the whites come to room temperature before beginning making the cookies)
• 1/4 Tsp salt
• 1/4 Tsp cream of tarter
• 1 1/3 Cup white sugar

Method:

1. Set oven to lowest possible temperature, between 170-200
2. Line large baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside
3. Using an electric mixer (if you have a stand mixer, use that, if not, you'll just have a slightly tired arm like me!), beat egg whites at medium speed until white and foamy
4. Add in cream of tarter and salt while continuing to beat
5. Continue beating on medium until soft peaks form
6. Here comes a bit of a slow part...set timer for 7 minutes. Change mixer speed to high, and slowly sprinkle in sugar taking almost the whole 7 minutes to do so (this is important as it helps give the sugar time to work into the egg whites and dissolve)
7. Once mixture forms hard peaks slowly add in Duncan Hines Cotton Candy Flavour Mix (or whatever flavour you've chosen!), and beat for another 1-2 minutes
8. Fit a piping bag fitting with a large, round tip (a 2A, I believe is the size I used), or another tip that has a large opening
9. Fill the piping bag with your meringue and pipe meringue into little cotton candy-ish swirls, no taller then 1 inch
10. Bake in middle of oven for 1 1/2 hours until they are dry
11. Let cool before gently removing them from the baking sheet
12. Enjoy! :) 

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   I loooves me some good clearance!
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    So, what do you think? Cute, right?! And although this recipe involves beating egg whites, slowly adding sugar, piping and a long bake time, everything is simple, right? Does that make sense? Maybe it's not simple and I'm delusional? Please do let me know if I am delusional and you think this recipe is the worst! Be nice about it though. : ) 

   Wanna see Abby's enormous teal cake I made for this birthday? 
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    It was a triple layer cake with a simple (though moderately time consuming) swirly/flowery buttercream frosting. Abby said it looked like a hat......and I was inclined to agree.  : )   It was clearly not a thing worth sharing about in a post (poor hat cake), well, unless I was sharing about not-so-great piping skills! Seriously, I'm not that great at piping. But it was delicious, and that's important! 


   Well, today we have another birthday party, only for our youngest! She couldn't decide on a theme (she literally changed her mind everyday!!!), so we finally landed on cupcakes as a theme! The common thread in all her birthday ideas was decorating food (it made sense since coming off Christmas where they were decorating gingerbread houses & gingerbread people, and gingerbread trees, yadda yadda). So, her friends are decorating their own cupcakes! I'll make one special one for her to have a candle on to blow out, but other than that, I haven't anything else to fuss over! I love making and decorating cakes, but I am also more than happy to not to! : )  So, I've got decorations to put up while the kids are at school, veggie tray to put together, cupcakes to pull out of the freezer, buttercream to make, and a ridiculous amount of candy to have ready for cupcake decorating! Seriously, I bought waaaay too much candy! Wait, is "way too much candy" even a real thing? Silly me.

    Happy weekend to all!