Here are step-by-step instructions and a video tutorial that teaches how to make meringue Christmas angels. Creating edible art with your kids is such a fun way to celebrate the holidays. It is a food craft that promotes togetherness, creativity, and culinary skills.
Want more Christmas crafting through food? Check out my Nutter Butter Christmas treats.
Meringue Christmas Angels
I’d love to share the back story of these meringue Christmas angels. One of my closest friends homeschools her kids. For the last few years, she has asked me to do a creative food lesson with her children at her holiday celebrations. Her favorite ones we have created are these cute, little pumpkin cheesecakes at harvest time.
This year she called to see if I’d come up with a Christmas idea to do together. She is gluten-free, so she was hoping for a gluten-free dessert and suggested meringues. We considered meringue Christmas trees but upon Google inspection, we realized that had been done over and over again.
As I considered the natural color and shape of meringues, angels came to mind, and an idea was born.
Materials Needed to Make Meringue Angels
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- FREE Angel Meringue Template for Body, Head, Halo, and Wings <<< DOWNLOAD HERE <<<
- Meringue Recipe – My favorite meringue recipe is found at Natasha’s Kitchen. Her pavlovas are one of my favorite desserts. This recipe made 12 angels plus some extra meringue for mini bites.
- Royal Icing Recipe – I love this recipe. It is so strong and great for gingerbread houses.
- Jelly Roll Pans
- Parchment Paper
- Pastry Bags
- Coupler for Pastry Bags
- Piping Tips I Used: 1M for Body, 1A for Head or One Wing Option (Cheaper to get these larger ones in a Tip Set), Leaf Tip 67 or 68 (Another Wing Option), Ribbon Pastry Tip 44 (Another Wing Option), and a small round tip for the Halo.
- Yellow Food Coloring
- Black Food Coloring
- Toothpicks
- Twizzlers, Sour Punch Twizzlers, or Licorice
- Edible eyeballs (optional)
Note: You might be wondering if edible pens are a good way to create the face. We experimented with this. Turns out edible pens don’t write well on meringue. I tried three different brands.
How to Make Angel Meringues (Makes 12)
Here I will provide step-by-step written instructions, but I believe it will be easiest if you watch the video tutorial provided below.
- Print out the FREE Angel Meringue Template for the Body, Head, Halo, and Wings provided. Printing two sets of these gives all the templates you need to make 12 angels. Place these side by side in three jelly roll pans. Cover with parchment paper.
- Make your meringue mixture. As stated above, I like this recipe, and it will make 12 angels plus a bit more for bonus bites.
- Pipe meringue bodies. These will be piped in the large circles provided on the template. I used two techniques with my piping bag filled and fitted with a large 1M tip. The first technique involved a swirling motion starting from the outside and swirling up and in. The next technique starts with the piping bag perpendicular to your parchment paper. Start about a 1/2″ away from your parchment paper and squeeze until the edges of your meringue reach the edge of the circle. Once reached, keep squeezing but pull up slightly to 1/2″ above the last circle to create a concentric circle on top slightly smaller than the first. Continue until the desired height is reached. You don’t want a “Hershey kiss” top, so you can push the top down with your finger a bit. The head attaches easier to a flat top.
- Pipe your meringue heads. These will be piped in the smaller circles provided on the template. Holding your piping bag, fitted with the 1A tip, perpendicular to the parchment paper and about 1/2″ away, squeeze until your meringue blob is the size of the smaller circle. To avoid a “Hershey kiss” top, stop pressing and swirl the tip slightly at the end.
- Pipe your wings. We experimented here. You can too. There wasn’t an outcome I didn’t like. We used tips 1A, 67, and 44, creating lines or layered leaves to cover the wing template.
- Color a small bit of your meringue (maybe 1/4-1/2 cup) yellow.
- Pipe halos in a circle using a small round tip.
- Bake according to recipe instructions. This takes about 2 hours. Leaving your meringues in a turned-off oven for about 30-45 minutes after cooking time is important.
- Make your royal icing. You will not need nearly this much. You could probably do a quarter of the recipe. Fill a pastry bag fitted with a small round tip.
- Make the eyes. Using a toothpick and black food coloring, paint on some eyes. As stated above, I tried 3 different edible marker options, and it didn’t work well, so I pivoted to the black food coloring option. One of my favorite angels, however, was one of the ones with edible eyes, so this is a possibility also. Edible eyes can be attached with royal icing.
- Cut off a tiny bit of licorice and form a small mouth. Attach the mouth using a small amount of royal icing.
- Attach head. If the top of the body meringue is too pointy, carefully and gently tap away at the top of the meringue with the edge of a small spoon. This creates a small divot, which provides more stability for the head. Attach with royal icing. If you create the divot, you shouldn’t have to hold it long.
- Attach the wings. Try and find a natural curve in the sides of your angel to attach the wing. It’s harder to attach on the edge of the curve rather than nestled inside. Do a strip of royal icing to attach the wings. I used my food coloring bottles to prop them in place while the icing hardened. It’s good to prop them up in some way. When you try and hold it, inevitably there is movement so the attachment point becomes weak.
- Attach the halo with a small bit of royal icing.
Phew! We made it. Hopefully, that was as clear as mud. Now for all of you visual learners, like myself, below is a video tutorial to show you how to make these meringue angels.
I fell in love with this little guy.
Video Tutorial for Meringue Christmas Angels
Want More Creative Christmas Food Ideas?
I have so many fun ideas for engaging with kids this Christmas. Please visit my Christmas tab to discover what I have to offer. As a teaser, here’s a taste of my fun Christmas food.
