I can't for the life of me find it now, but I read in a book somewhere about making sugar sticks, and it suggested not using fresh egg whites as the sugar sticks would be sitting around for a while. I dutifully ordered some meringue powder (cost me $22 for a small tub!), but now I have been told that meringue powder is not the same thing as dried egg whites. Oops.

So now I'm wondering, how can I use my expensive meringue powder? What is it for?

Hey, is that the Wilton one? I use mine if making royal icing ... 4C icing sugar to 2T meringue powder and then about 7T water. Seeya

hiya, no this is the CK products brand. I just got it out to check the brand for you, and noticed a royal icing recipe on the side. It calls for 1/2c cold water, 1/4c meringue powder and 4 cups icing sugar. yikes!! that's quite different to your ratios, I wonder if it varies by brand?

Nice to see another kiwi, btw

I use the Wilton recipe 4 cups sugar, 3 tablespoons meringue 5-6 tablespoons water. If using a stand mixer mix on low for 7 minutes. You can make royal icing decorations such as the little pony deco I made for one of my cakes in my photos. Ginger bread houses, flowers and some people use it in their butter cream. I don't like using it in butter cream though. Meringue powder has a long shelf life.

oh my gosh... that's more than I imagined doing with royal icing, I alwasy think it's just for piping lines and letters I can't believe how good that looks. Is that what's called run out icing...? I tried doing that with chocolate recently, it was not successful... lol