Meringue Mice

This one takes awhile to cook, but is fairly quick and easy to make otherwise.... They're cute and great for kids parties - which is kinda what I made it for; a kids party themed International Mens Day morning tea at work.

Ingredients:
- 2 egg whites at room temperature
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- Pinch of cream of tartar
- 1/2 cup caster sugar
- 1 licorice strap
- 1/4 cup flaked almonds
- 50g dark chocolate, chopped

Method
Step 1: Cut licorice into 8cm long thin strips

Step 2: Preheat oven to 120degreesCelcius and line 2 baking trays with baking paper.

Step 3: Beat egg whites, vanilla, cream of tartar and sugar with an electric mixer for 8-10 minutes until meringue mixture is thick and glossy.

Step 4: Spoon mixture into a piping bag fitted with a 1cm plan nozzle. Pipe teardrop mice shapes onto prepared trays, about 4cm apart. Insert 1 licorice piece for the tail and 2 almond flakes for the ears into each mouse shape.

Step 5: Bake mice for 1 and 1/4 hours or until hard when tapped, but still white. This is where I went a bit wrong I think, because I left them for 1 1/4hrs and then after that thought 'why are they a light brown colour?' Yeah if I had read the instructions better I'd have taken them out earlier. Buuut they were still yummy and either no one noticed or no one said anything about it if they did notice. Also, the meringue looked a bit granular, as though there were sugar granules on the outside... not sure what thats about but again, they tasted good and nobody said anything. Not sure if you can see the of-whiteness or the granularness in this picture, but it was there...

Turn oven off and leave meringue mice to cool with door ajar.

Step 6: Put chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water and stir until melted and smooth. Spoon chocolate mixture into a zip-lock bag. Snip one corner and pipe eyes and a nose onto each mouse.

I made 2 batches to take to work with me, which was about 35 mice.