The Guiltless Meringue

Preheat your oven to 500ºF.

Break the eggs and separate the yolk from the white. If your eggs are cold, let them sit until they are room temperature, because the egg whites will take longer to become stiff. Start a faster whip speed at first to break up the egg whites until you see a light foam, then add the cream of tartar and vanilla. Beat the whites with a wire whisk or electric mixer on medium-high to high until soft peaks form. Then slowly add sugar. Continue to beat whites until the sugar is dissolved and stiff peaks form. You can tell when you reach “stiff peakdom” when you can take a spoonful and turn it upside down and it will not fall off.

Here is the fun part! Now, you can either take the meringue and pipe it onto ice cream, or top a cup of coffee or hot chocolate with it. You can spoon it onto a cupcake—really, anything that is lying around. Make sure that the cups you put in your oven will be ovenproof though!

Bake your meringue-topped wonders for 3 minutes, or until you can get a golden brown color over most of the ridges of the meringue! Then serve, eat, and marvel at how you just made the most amazing thing ever!