How to Make cakes, cookies, and desserts even better! (with a recipe for strawberry pineapple frosting)

Add a little meringue powder. It's like magic!

We rarely make cupcakes, whipped cream, or frost cookies without using meringue powder. It's a kitchen staple.

• Essential for whipped cream frostings, royal icings, and buttercream frostings
• Helps whipped cream stay perky and firm for prettier, nicer desserts
• Makes frosted cookies with a shell icing that resists marring and is less likely to stick together
• Economical--only one or two tablespoons per batch is needed for most recipes
• Large 4-ounce resealable package to stay fresher

Your cupcakes are beautiful. But in a warm room, the frosting starts to droop. Most whipped frostings, including buttercream, need to be stabilized to make them more durable. Depending on how stiff you want your whipped cream, 2 tablespoons of meringue powder for two cups of heavy cream usually does the trick. For additional stabilizer, add cream cheese, cocoa, or more meringue powder.

Strawberry Pineapple Whipped Cream

One Saturday, in our little country store, we were handing out filled cupcakes topped with various flavors of whipped cream. The store was full, and there was a lot of buzz.

I made strawberry whipped cream using two tablespoons of meringue powder for every two cups of heavy whipping cream. Instead of sugar, I used strawberry pastry filling to sweeten the whipped cream. The pastry filling provided both color and flavor. When I had enough pastry filling to create a pretty pink color, I had a nice strawberry-flavored topping.  

If you want more flavor in the whipped cream, add a half teaspoon of strawberry flavor. That will give you more flavor with still a gentle pink.

Upstairs, in our test kitchen, we had a fresh, ripe pineapple that needed to be used. I laid it on a cutting board and sliced and trimmed it. Using a chef's knife, I minced the pineapple into tiny pieces. Then, a batch at a time, I wrapped a paper towel around the pineapple and wrung out the juice until it was almost dry.

I dumped the pineapple into the pink strawberry whipped cream and folded it into the strawberry frosting. We put it on cupcakes and cookies. Folks loved it.