I have been very busy over the past week and still have mountains of work ahead of me, but I just *had to* post something short and sweet. Very sweet.
It seems like I've gone meringue crazy ever since I posted last week's financiers, and remembered just how much else there is to make with egg whites other than macarons. And since Bruce and I both love the stuff, I've been making them in all shapes and forms.
Next week I'll be shooting my first wedding of the year and I'm very excited. I'm slightly nervous as it's for a dear friend of mine called Donna, who's getting married to Donna (yes, you did read that right!) and I hope I can capture some great moments for them both. I promise to post the pictures here once they're ready. Wish me luck!
I've also got 7 other massive projects that I'm currently working on, most of which I can't discuss, but let me tell you, they're taking up a lot of my time and keeping me up at night with excitement & dread (most of them are on a tight deadline). The ones I can discuss are the presentation I'm working on for Food Blogger Connect (oh my gosh - I'm so nervous!) and trying to design a new header and the right side bar of this blog - the details of which are very time-consuming.
Expect a lot more pink.
I also had some great news today: remember last week I was nominated for the Awesomest Food Blog award on the I Am Mommy blog? Well...
I can't believe it! I'm so happy and I'd just like to thank each and every one of you that took time out to vote for me - I really, really, REALLY appreciate it!
As a *personal* thank you, I thought I'd run a little giveaway:
I recently discovered a stunning gem of a book that I now carry around everywhere with me. It's called Lazy Days & Beach Blankets, and I absolutely *adore* it. The images are breathtaking (I've highlighted about 50 so far!), the recipes are mouthwatering and the mood the book leaves you with is one of pure happiness. It's become one of my favourite cookbooks by far and so I went out and bought 3 copies to share with you because happiness like this just needs to be shared.
All you have to do to be in with a chance to win is leave a comment below. Open worldwide. Giveaway ends Sunday 16th May 2010.
Pink Meringue Butterfly Kisses (printable version)
6 egg whites
400g caster sugar
1. Preheat the oven to 210˚C. Line 2 baking trays with parchment paper.
2. Spread the sugar over one of the trays and place in the oven for roughly 5 minutes, or until the sugar starts caramelising slightly around the edges.
3. While the sugar is in the oven, place the egg whites in a free standing mixer. Start whisking the eggs on a high speed just before you take the sugar out of the oven.
4. Lift the parchment paper containing the sugar up from the tray and slowly start pouring the hot sugar into the mixing bowl. Allow to whisk for 8 minutes. Place the used parchment back on the tray. Turn the oven temperature down to 90˚C.
5. Place mixture in a piping bag and pipe small rounds (roughly 5cm) onto the two baking trays. You should have some meringue left in the bowl, save this for later.
6. Place the tray in the coolest part of your oven (mine is at the lowest level) and bake for roughly 2 hours, or until the meringue is quite hard to the touch. Turn the oven off and allow the meringue to cool in the oven. This helps in drying them out further.
7. Once the meringues have cooled to room temperature, place a dollop of the soft meringue (you can add some colouring to it, I used some drops of fresh raspberry juice) that you saved in the bowl, onto the bottom of one meringue and place another meringue on top of that. Press gently together. Serve on rose petals.
