Yellow Cake with Lemon Buttercream

 I made this pale yellow cake using the recipe "All-Occasion Downy Yellow Butter Cake" from Rose Levy Berenbaum's 1988 classic Cake Bible. Instructions below aren't exactly as in the book.

It's a 9-inch two-layer cake. Each baked layer is about 1-1/4 inches high. It cuts nicely into 12 pieces.

I filled the layers and frosted the cake with Lemon Buttercream, piped a few flowers on top, and pressed the sides with toasted almond flakes. I was trying to replicate the amazing lemon buttercream almond-encrusted cake from the long-gone Edelweiss Bakery in Scarborough. 

My mom, who used to like the Edelweiss Bakery cake, pronounced my version as "Too sweet, the frosting is like lemon candy. Now I'd rather have a nice plain pound cake."

I really liked it. Next time I might try to pipe a ridge of buttercream on the top edge of the bottom layer and fill in the centre with lemon pie filling. The buttercream edging should keep the lemon filling from oozing out between the layers so I can frost the sides smoothly.

I hesitated to use this recipe for years because it uses 6 egg yolks and the instructions seemed unusual. You don't cream the butter and sugar first and then add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture, you add butter to the flour/sugar mixture. 

When I did it this way the flour-sugar-egg-butter made a clumpy dough before the milk and egg was added. All ingredients were at room temperature, I'd left the butter on the counter. I ended up mixing the batter longer than the instructions stated, but it still didn't look like the butter creamed sufficiently. I saw bits of butter in the finished batter when I poured it into the pans.

Since then, CBC Marketplace investigated butter due to consumer complaints that butter is no longer softening properly for baking. They found that farmers have started feeding palm oil to cows as part of their diet.

So for a perfect cake, you might need to use premium butter from grass-fed cows.

Happily, the cake baked nicely even though the batter had butter bits. It tasted so good, four of us ate the 12 servings in two days. And who knows, after the Covid Pandemic is over, I may get to go visit Amy, who is raising chickens right now, and may have lots of eggs.

Rose Berenbaum's Yellow Butter Cake

• 3.5 fluid ounces egg yolk (about 6 large egg yolks)
• 1 cup milk
• 2-1/4 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 3 cups sifted white cake flour (not unbleached or self-rising)
• 1-1/2 cups white granulated sugar OR 2 cups maple sugar*
• 1 Tbsp + 1 tsp baking powder
• 3/4 tsp  salt
• 6 oz or 170 grams unsalted softened butter (at room temperature)

Prepare:

1. Set out ingredients except eggs on the counter and let stand 1-2 hours to reach room temperature.
2. Separate the eggs when they are cold from the fridge. Since egg yolks differ in size, you need to put the yolks in a liquid measuring cup, stir them up and keep adding yolk until you have 3 1/2 oz. of egg yolk. Put the separated egg whites in a covered bowl in the fridge to use to make coconut macaroons later.
3. Grease two 9-inch by 1-1/2 inch cake pans.
4. Line the bottoms with parchment paper. Grease the paper.
5. Flour the pans, bottoms and sides.
6. Separate the eggs when they are cold and refrigerate
7. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Measure and Mix:

1. Combine 3-1/2 oz. egg yolk, 1/4 cup milk, 2-1/4 tsp. vanilla in a medium bowl. Set aside.
2. Sift the cake flour and spoon into a dry measuring cup, then level.
3. Put 3 cups cake flour into large mixer bowl.
4. With mixer on low speed, add 1-1/2 cups sugar, 1 Tbsp plus 1 tsp baking powder, 3/4 tsp salt.
5. Mix another 30 seconds to blend.
6. Add 6 oz softened unsalted butter and 3/4 cup milk.
7. Mix on low speed until the dry ingredients are moistened.
8. Turn stand mixer to medium speed (hand mixer to high speed), beat 1-1/2 minutes.
9. Stop and scrape down sides of bowl with a spatula.
10. Add a third of the set-aside egg mixture, beat 20 seconds, scrape down sides.
11. Add another third of the egg mixture, beat 20 seconds, scrape down sides.
12. Add the rest of the egg mixture, beat 20 seconds or until mixed in.

Bake:

1. Scrape the batter into the prepared pans, filling each half full.
2. Smooth the surface with the spatula.
3. Place pans on centre rack of preheated 350 degree F oven and bake 25 to 35 minutes.
4. Check after 25 minutes: cake is done when a tester inserted near the center comes out clean and the cake springs back when pressed lightly in the center. Cakes should start to shrink from the sides of the pans only after removal from the oven.
5. Let cakes cool in the pans on racks for 10 minutes.
6. Loosen the sides with a small metal spatula and invent onto greased wire racks.
7. Reinvert so that the tops are up to prevent splitting.
8. Cool completely.

Keeps, wrapped airtight, 2 days at room temperature, 5 days refrigerated, 2 months frozen.

Texture is most perfectly moist the day it is baked.

*Maple Cake Variation: Use 2 cups of 300 grams maple sugar. Frost with maple buttercream and encrust sides of cake with coarsely chopped toasted walnuts.

Lemon Buttercream: see the recipe on this blog.

Muffin Pan Panettones

Make individual small panettones in muffin tins to give as gifts at holiday time.

For this Chatelaine magazine (Dec. 2011) recipe, you need a stand mixer with paddle attachment and 12-muffin baking pan.  Make a day ahead because double rising takes about 20 hours total.

The recipe specified Sultana raisins but my family doesn't like them so I would substitute Thompson raisins. 

• 2 Tbsp dark rum OR orange juice
• 3-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp active dry yeast
• zest from 1 orange
• 3 large eggs at room temperature
• 1 Tbsp honey, warmed
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1-1/4 cups unsalted butter, cubed, at room temperature
• 1/3 cup candied chopped orange peel
• 1/3 cup candied chopped citron peel
• 2 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted

1. Stir raisins with rum or orange juice and 2 Tbsp water in a small microwave-safe bowl.
2. Microwave uncovered 1 min. Stir.
3. Cover with plastic wrap. Set aside.
4. Combine flour, sugar, salt, yeast and orange zest in the bowl of a stand mixer.
5. Mix, using the paddle attachment, at low speed.
6. Whisk eggs with 2/3 cup lukewarm water, honey, vanilla.
7. Gradually pour into flour mixture.
8. Increase mixer speed to medium-low and continue beating.
9. Add 1-1/4 cups butter, 1 tbsp at a time, till blended.
10. Increase speed to medium-high.
11. Beat dough till smooth and elastic, 10 minutes.
12. Remove paddle, keeping dough in bowl.
13. Drain raisins. Discard liquid.
14. Add raisins to dough with orange peel, citron peel, 1 tbsp melted butter.
15. Gently knead fruit and butter into dough with hands till combined.
16. Cover bowl with plastic wrap.
17. Let rise in a cold oven till doubled in size, 12-15 hours.
18. Remove plastic wrap.
19. Lightly sprinkle top of dough with white flour.
20. Turn out onto floured counter.
21. Dust dough with a little more flour.
22. Fold edges into the centre and place seam-side down in the same mixing bowl.
23. Cover with a thin, damp cotton kitchen towel (not terry cloth) and let rise at room temperature till doubled in size, about 5 hours.
24. Position oven rack in lower third of oven.
25. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
26. Transfer dough onto floured cutting board.
27. Divide dough into 12 equal portions.
28. Place dough portions in paper baking cups or ungreased non-stick muffin tin.
29. Dough will be about even with the top edge.
30. Brush tops with remaining 1 tbsp melted butter.
31. Bake in lower third of oven 30-35 min or till a skewer inserted into centre of a panettone comes out clean.

Lemon Whipped Cream Angel Food Cake

An easy recipe (use a purchased Angel food cake) that makes a quick but nice dessert at Easter time. It might have originated with the people who make Shirriff pudding and pie mixes because the written ingredients say to use a package of Shirriff lemon pie filling.

• 7-1/2 oz. package Shirriff lemon pie filling
• 2 egg yolks
• 1/4 cup cold water
• 2-1/4 cups boiling water
• 1 tbsp butter
• 1 angel food cake
• 1/2 cup whipping cream
• toasted coconut (optional)

Prepare pie filling as instructed on the package. Cover and refrigerate.
Slice angel food cake into 3 layers. Spread half of the pie filling between the layers.
Whip the cream, fold into the rest of the lemon pie filling and use this to frost the sides and then the top of the cake.
Refrigerate 4-5 hours before serving.

Granny's Raisin Bread (Pyragas)

When she was little, Lauren always wanted to know more about what it was like when my mom Marilyn, her grandmother whom she called Nama, was little. Nama lived with her parents, aunts and uncles in her grandparents' house and was looked after by her Granny.

Lauren always wanted to hear stories about "Baby Nama and Granny."  (Scroll down below the bread recipe for the "Baby Nama and Granny at Easter'' story.) As a little girl in the 1930s, Nama (my mom) liked to help Granny knead the pyragas (raisin bread) she baked for family celebrations.

Granny didn't learn to bake as a girl and according to my mom Nama, she was never much of a baker. She'd taught herself to be "a good plain cook." She used a recipe from the original Purity Cookbook for her first attempts at raisin bread and mom said Granny didn't think it was as good as her friend Mrs. Daukas' bread.  Mrs. Daukus gave Granny the recipe.

When Granny grew older and was no longer hosting family dinners, my dad Arthur would drive Granny to our bungalow in Don Mills for holiday meals made by my mom.  Granny always brought a gift of her homemade raisin bread, (Mrs. Daukas' recipe for velykos pyragas), wrapped in a clean cotton dish towel.

Granny passed away at age eighty-four, about thirty-five years ago. My mom started to make the pyragas every Christmas and Easter. She adapted the recipe to use dry traditional yeast instead of the fresh cake yeast Granny used.

Granny and my mom didn't have baking thermometers, so when proofing the yeast, they'd test the temperature of the milk by putting a drop on the wrist.

Mom had a convenient way of cooling hot pots of milk or sauces at winter holiday times when the fridge was full.  Our 1960 bungalow had a milk box, a wooden receptacle with a small door in the side of the house where the milkman would leave a glass bottle of milk, delivered in the morning. When household milk delivery was stopped, the milk box was where the mailman put our Canada Post deliveries. And later in the day, or on winter weekends, my mom put hot pots of pudding there to cool, or the butter and milk mixture for pyragas. 

Until recently, mom gave my sisters and I a loaf of homemade pyragas every Christmas.  I liked having a slice with butter on Christmas morning. Well, more than one slice. Now that I'm an old grandma, I'm hoping that that one of my children will invite me for Christmas dinner at their house and I'll bring a loaf made from Granny's friend Mrs. Daukas' recipe, wrapped in a nice new cotton dishtowel. 

Update: 92-year-old Nama now stays home on Christmas Day and other holidays. She says it's too much trouble to leave her house. I took her a loaf of her grandmother's raisin bread, in a cotton bread bag. She said it tasted exactly like the bread she used to make as a little girl with her Granny. If you like it, feel free to share the recipe with a friend and maybe they'll start their own family tradition.

Granny's (and Mrs. Daukas') Pyragas

Makes 3 loaves baked in 8" bread pans. If you use two 9" pans the bread will mushroom over the top of the pans as it bakes.

• 2 cups milk
• 1/2 lb. butter
• 2 cups raisins
• 2 packages traditional active dry yeast (4-1/2 tsp)
• 1 Tbsp sugar
• 1/2 cup warm water
• 3 large eggs, beaten
• 1 cup white granulated sugar
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1 tsp salt
• 4 cups sifted all-purpose flour

1. Prepare Raisins

Rinse 2 cups dark brown raisins in a colander first with very hot water, then cold. Drain and leave in a dishcloth to dry.

2. Prepare Milk

In a small pot, scald 2 cups milk.

Remove from heat.

Stir in 1/2 lb. butter to melt.

Let mixture stand to cool to lukewarm.

3. Proof Yeast

In a small bowl, stir 1 Tbsp sugar in 1/2 cup hot water until sugar dissolves.

Let cool to lukewarm.

Sprinkle 2 pkgs (or 5 tsp) traditional dry yeast on top.

Push down any loose yeast sprinkles into the water.

Let stand 10-15 minutes to proof the yeast.

4. Sift Flour

Measure out 4 cups.

Measure out 3 more cups.

5. Prepare the Egg Mixture

In a small mixing bowl, beat 3 large eggs.

Add 1 cup sugar, beat slightly.

6. Mix the Dough

In a large bowl, mix the egg mixture, lukewarm milk mixture, and the yeast mixture.

Stir in 1 tsp vanilla and 1 tsp salt.

Beating with a wooden spoon until smooth after each addition, gradually stir in the 4 cups sifted flour.

Add the raisins and then stir enough flour to make a stiff dough, about 3 more cups.

7. Knead the Dough by Hand

On a lightly floured board, knead the dough by hand for 30 minutes.

Lightly grease a large bowl with butter.

Place kneaded dough in the bowl to rise. Cover.

(Granny used a cloth but using greased plastic wrap is easier.)

8. Double-Rise the Dough

Let rise in a warm place at 76 degrees F until doubled, about 1-1/2 hours.

My  mom would preheat her oven to warm (80 degrees F) then turn off the oven. She'd let the bread rise in the warm oven with the door closed and the light on to maintain the temperature. Use an oven thermometer to check the temperature. 

Punch down the dough, divide and shape into loaves.

Put in greased and floured loaf pans.

Let the dough rise again in the pans (about 1/2 hour.)

Remove the loaves from the warm oven if they have been rising in the oven.

9. Bake the Bread

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Bake the loaves at 350 degree F. oven for about 35-40 minutes.

Smaller loaves will take less time to bake.

If more than 40 minutes baking time is needed, cover the top with aluminum foil so any raisins on the top do not burn.

Remove baked loaves from the oven to cool in pans on a wire rack.

Mrs. Samalavicius' Pyragas

This recipe is from another Lithuanian friend of Granny's, Mrs. Samalavicius, who with her husband built a small house next door to Pop and Granny's cottage up the road from Lake Simcoe. 

    

1. Mix 3/4 cup warm water with 1 Tbsp white granulated sugar. Sprinkle on 2 Tbsp traditional dry yeast. Let stand 10 minutes.

2. In a saucepan, scald 2 cups milk. Add 1 cup butter, stir till melted. Take off heat and leave to cool.

3. In a large bowl, beat 3 large eggs, 1 cup sugar, 1 tsp. salt, 1 tsp. vanilla.

4. Stir yeast mixture into egg mixture.

5. With a wooden spoon, stir in 4 cups flour.

6.  Stir in 1 to 2 cups raisins.

7. Add more a little more flour if necessary to make a soft dough. Knead 10-15 minutes.

8. Cover and let rise until doubled.

9. Punch down dough, shape into loaves in greased and floured loaf pans, then let rise again.

10. Bake bread in a preheated 375 degree F oven for 20 minutes or more until done.

Kaledu Pyragas (Christmas Bread)

This recipe is from a page torn from my mom's Lithuanian recipe book. She has never made it but she gave it to me to try.   

• 1 yeast cake or 1 pkg (2-1/2 tsp) traditional dry yeast
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1-1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 cup scalded milk
• 1/4 cup cold water
• 1 large egg
• 1-1/2 cups white raisins
• 1/4 cup poppy seeds + more for sprinkling
• 3 cups sifted all-purpose flour
• honey

1. Dissolve yeast in 1/4 cup lukewarm water.

2. Combine butter, sugar, salt, milk and cold water.

3. To the butter mixture add: egg, raisins, poppy seeds and dissolved yeast.

4. Add sifted flour and mix well until blended thoroughly.

5. Grease a 9x5x3 inch pan and pour mixture into it.

6. Cover mixture with a clean dish towel and let rise in a warm 85 degree F place for about 1-1/2 hours until risen.

7. Bake in a moderate oven 50-60 minutes.

8. In last 5 minutes of baking remove from oven, brush with slightly warmed honey and sprinkle with poppy seeds.

9. Return loaf to oven and bake about 5 minutes more, being careful not to let the honey get too dark.

The Story of Baby Nama and Granny at Easter

Nama remembers that every Easter morning, she'd wake up to find that the Easter bunny had left her a big, beautifully decorated chocolate Easter egg, nestled in a box of shredded pastel-coloured paper. 

Granny didn't let anything go to waste, so after Nama finished the egg, Granny set the box out on the back porch, thinking she would use the shredded paper as mulch in her flower garden. But when Granny went to empty the box, she found a nest of baby mice inside.

Granny waited until Nama came home from school to show her the little mice. Then, after telling Nama to wait in the kitchen, she carried the box with the mice inside and upstairs to the second floor.

When Granny returned with the empty box, Nama asked her where she'd put the cute little mice. Granny finally admitted that she'd flushed the tiny mice down the toilet.

When I told my now 91-year-old mom (Nama) that I was going with my two-year-old grandson to a farm for an egg hunt and to see baby animals on Easter Sunday, she told me the story about Granny and the mice again. She wondered why Granny had waited to dispose of the baby mice until after she'd seen them.

She thought that she must have begged to keep them as pets, and Granny probably regretted waiting to show them to her, and just did what she felt had to be done. Yesterday, my mother said, she didn't hesitate to eliminate a very long centipede she found in her sink. "Sometimes," she said, "you just do what you have to do and you can't think too much about it." 

Sugar Cookies

Marilyn's Sugar Cookies

Made with cream of tartar, these cookies have a bit of a "tang" so this isn't my personal favorite sugar cookie dough recipe.

Before Christmas and Easter, my mother tied on her grandmother's handmade apron and made these sugar cookies.Her children and later her grandchildren liked choosing which of the old metal cookie cutters to use to cut the shapes from rolled dough. Mom's favourite was the sturdy bell, I liked the Christmas Angel the most.

She helped the little ones roll the dough with her heavy wooden rolling pin.

Even the youngest could help, dipping their fingers into the tinted sugar and sprinkling sugar on the rolled-out cookies.

This recipe requires 1/2 hour - 4 hours "chill time" so while the dough is in the fridge, do the dishes together, read holiday stories, play outside in the snow, walk the dog, or take a nap.

• 1 cup softened butter (left to sit out until room temperature)
• 1 tsp real vanilla extract
• 1-1/2 cups sugar
• 3 eggs
• 3-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tsp. cream of tartar
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• pinch of salt (1/2 tsp)
• Topping: blend 1/4 cup of granulated sugar in a blender with a few drops of red or green food colouring till the colour is evenly distributed. If you want two colours of cookies, blend 1/8 of a cup sugar with green and 1/8 of a cup sugar with red. If you do not have a blender, stir to tint the sugar with food colouring in a small bowl, using the flat bottom of the spoon.

1. Use electric mixer to cream the butter and vanilla.
2. Add the sugar to the butter mixture gradually. Cream till light and fluffy.
3. Add the 3 beaten eggs one at a time.
4. Sift the flour with the cream of tartar, baking soda and salt.
5. Add flour mixture to the butter mixture gradually, by spoonful. Mix.
6. Divide the cookie dough into 4 pieces and flatten each like a big pancake.
7. Wrap each "cookie dough pancake" well in wax paper or plastic wrap.
8. Chill half an hour in the fridge.
9. Undivided dough will have to be chilled 3-4 hours.
10. 
    
11. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
12. Use a lightly floured rolling pin.
13. Roll out the dough on a well-floured surface or parchment paper till about 1/8th inch thick.
14. Nama makes her cookies quite thin and crispy at the edges.
15. Cut into shapes with cookie cutters.
16. Lift onto your ungreased cookie sheets with a spatula.
17. Gather up the dough scraps into a ball and roll out again.
18. Repeat till you have rolled and cut out all the dough.
19. Sprinkle with colored sugar. (See instructions in recipe #2 below)
20. Bake in a 375 degree oven for 6-8 minutes, depending on the thickness of your cookies.

Gail's Sugar Cookie Recipe #1

A sugar cookie without cream of tartar. It requires a two hour chill time.

• 1 cup unsalted, softened butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1 tbsp. real vanilla extract
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• Sugar topping: blend 1/4 cup granulated sugar in the blender with a few drops of red or green food coloring, but if you don't have a blender, just stir in a small bowl until the color is evenly distributed.
• Alternate iced topping: blend 1 cup icing sugar with 2 Tbsp milk till smooth, add drops of red or green food coloring if you like. Add candy sprinkles if desired.

1. In mixer, cream softened butter and sugar till light and fluffy.
2. In a small, separate bowl, beat eggs, add vanilla.
3. Pour egg mixture gradually into the butter mixture and mix.
4. In another bowl, sift flour with salt and baking soda, mix.
5. Add flour mixture by the spoonful,  into the butter/egg mixture. Mix.
6. Form the cookie dough into a ball, cover with plastic wrap.
7. Chill in fridge, 2 hours.
8. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
9. Use a lightly floured rolling pin.
10. Roll cookie dough on a lightly floured surface or parchment paper till about 1/8 inch thick.
11. Cut into shapes with cutters.
12. Lift onto greased baking sheets with a spatula.
13. Form left-over dough into a ball and roll and cut again till all the cookie dough is used up.
14. If you are icing your cookies later, bake them plain.
15. If you are not icing them, sprinkle the cookie cut-outs on the pans with colored sugar.
16. Bake 5-8 minutes (depending on the thickness of your rolled cookies) till lightly browned at edges. Cool on wire rack
17. If you baked your cookies plain, spread icing on your cooled cookies and sprinkle with candy sprinkles.

Make-Ahead Ultimate Sugar Cookie, Roll and Spritz Recipe 

Makes 2-3 dozen, depending on size of cookie.

I clipped this recipe from Bon Appetit magazine in 2013 and used it exclusively for our 2017 Christmas cookies.  It's a great recipe! The cookies are crisp but tender, keep their shape when baked, and taste so good. We ate all the cookies by Christmas Eve, so mix up two batches of dough.

The dough rolls easily for cookie cutter shapes, but you can also form a roll out of the dough, refrigerate, and slice cookies to bake. You can also load this dough into a cookie press for spritzes.

You can sprinkle on tinted sugar before baking or plain baked cookies can be decorated with royal icing after they've cooled.

The dough can be mixed 1 month ahead: freeze instead of chilling.

If you make dough a few days ahead of baking and chill in the fridge, let it sit out for a few minutes so it's easier to roll out. 

Cookies can be baked 2 weeks ahead, wrap undecorated cookies with plastic wrap and freeze in an airtight container. Don't tell anyone they're in the freezer.

• 3/4 tsp kosher salt OR 1/2 tsp table salt
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 3 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for rolling
• 1-1/4 cups (2-1/2 sticks) chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2" pieces
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 large egg yolk
• 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

1. Place oven racks in lower and upper thirds of oven; preheat to 325 degrees F.
2. Whisk salt, baking powder and 3 cups flour in a small bowl.
3. Using electric mixer on high speed, beat butter and sugar until well-combined, creamy and lighter in colour (4 minutes minimum with a hand mixer.)
4. Add egg, egg yolk, and vanilla; beat just to combine.
5. Reduce speed to low and gradually add dry ingredients, mix just to combine.
6. Form dough into two 3/4 inch thick rounds.
7. Wrap in plastic and chill at least 2 hours.
8. Let 1 round of dough sit at room temperature until softened slightly, about 5 minutes.
9. Roll out on a lightly floured sheet of parchment paper until about 1/4" thick, lightly dusting with flour as needed. 
10. Cut out shapes with floured cookie cutters. Cut shapes as close together as possible to minimize waste. Reroll the scraps. If dough gets soft or sticky, chill on parchment until firm.
11. Transfer cut-out shapes to parchment-lined baking sheets with a spatula.
12. Sugar cookies don't spread much while baking, so leave only an inch between them.
13. Bake cookie in preheated 325 degree oven, rotating baking sheets from front to back halfway through.
14. Bake until edges are golden, 12-16 minutes, depending on size.
15. Transfer to wire racks and let cool. 
16. Repeat with scraps and remaining dough.
17. Decorate cooled cookies as desired.

Royal Icing for Decorating Cookies

• 3-1/4 cups icing sugar (powdered sugar)
• 2 large egg whites OR 5 Tbsp meringue powder mixed with 1/3 cup water
• water

1. Using an electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat sugar and egg whites OR meringue powder mixture until white, thickened, and tripled in volume (about 5 minutes).
2. Add water by the tablespoonful until icing no longer holds a peak.
3. Divide icing into smaller bowls and add food colouring drop by drop, as desired.
4. Makes about 2 cups.