MERINGUE EASTER NESTS

I came back from London just in time to celebrate Easter with my family. This year I wanted to do something a bit creative. Inspired by Sweetapolita, I decided to make my own easter nests, made out of meringue. Something about edible easter nests appealed to me. And I filled them with chocolate goodies from London.

My new favorite Easter sweets are Malteaster bunnies and Cadbury eggs! I wish we could get them in Vienna.

Ingredients:

6 egg whites at room temperature (organic)

300 g superfine caster sugar

A pinch of cream of tartar

Gel food color(s)

1. Preheat the oven to 80° C, or to the lowest temperature possible, depending on your oven.

2. Separate your eggs, putting your egg whites in a large bowl. Make sure that the bowl is not greasy and that there are no bits of egg yolk in the egg white mixture.

3. On low speed, mix your egg whites for about one minute until they turn white and frothy. Then add the cream of tartar.

4. Increase the speed of your mixer to high and beat the egg whites until peaks form. Then add the sugar

5. Keep mixing on high speed until the peaks are stiff and you are able to hold the bowl upside down over your head. If you are good to go, add your gel food color. I used tiny drops of blue and green gel color from Wilton to get a nice pastel mint color for the nests.

6. Fill your meringue in a piping bag with a large star tip attached to it. On a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, you can now start piping your nests. Start piping from the middle to the outside, swirling about 2 to 3 rings atop one another, depending on how deep you want them to be.

Now if your nests don’t look like the ones from Sweetapolita, don’t be discouraged! Mine sure didn’t :) As you can see for my first baking sheet I still needed a bit practising! But the nests you don’t find pretty enough to give away, you can always eat them yourself ;) I piped a few little star shaped meringues between the nests, so that I could try the meringue myself.

7. Once you are satisfied with your product, pop them in the oven to dry for about 1 hour 30 mins, but make sure that your nests don’t get brown on the edges. Once they are done, take them out and let them cool completely.

8. Now you can fill them with your favorite sweets. I used little Lindt bunnies and Cadbury eggs, but you can use whatever you fancy. Finally, I wrapped them individually in gift wrap cellophane and tied them up with a bow.