Win with basketball cupcakes as fun treats for March Madness, Watch Parties, Team Celebrations and Birthday Parties!

This post came about because of the incredible response to my Shamrock Meringues Cookies. Jump over to read more about the different kinds of meringue and even more meringue info.

Meringue has a reputation for being persnickety to make. I think that must have carried over from the Italian Meringue variety.

Pinky Swear these are super easy. Just a couple of tips and you’ll have a slam dunk on your first try!

Table of Contents:

Why Do I Make Meringue Cookies over Iced Sugar Cookies?

• They are a delicious, easy treat
• It’s a super easy recipe
• Made with just a few kitchen staples
• Easily colored and flavored
• Can be piped into almost any shape
• Visually fun for festive celebrations
• Light, melt-in-your-mouth texture
• Sweet, but not rich and heavy
• Zero fat, zero cholesterol
• Minimal prep time and measuring
• Make ahead, store in an airtight container
• Easy recipe to scale
• Huge time savers:
  • Only two ingredients to measure
  • No chilling
  • No rolling
  • No cutting
  • No royal icing

Are Meringues a Healthy Dessert?

As far as desserts go, they are on the healthier end of the spectrum. But it’s a bit of a stretch to call them truly “Healthy”. (Bummer, I know)

Although they have zero cholesterol and zero fat, they do have a fair amount of sugar, but surprisingly low calories as the sugar is extended by the whipped egg whites.

In this case, the one cup of sugar I used created 24 4-inch shamrock cookies.

For a true dessert, rather than fun cookie treats, you can use this same recipe to make pavlovas. Pipe the meringue into small “nests” or bowl-shapes. Then fill them with fresh berries and a bit of whipped cream.

It’s an impressive piece of delicious heaven without all the guilt. A great substitute for pound cake or shortcake under your strawberries and cream.

Let’s get right to Making Our Meringue Cookies

Important NOTE-

Meringue powder is not on my recipe ingredient list because I prefer cooking and baking with whole ingredients when possible. I do understand it is a great alternative to separating egg whites.

However, most common varieties of meringue powder are NOT a good alternative for vegan or allergies. Most are made with dehydrated egg whites and all kinds of ingredients I can’t pronounce.

Time Required-

With minimal ingredients and minimal measuring, the active part of this recipe is quick.

But they bake low and slow! And it’s best if they cool slowly too. When you turn off the oven, you leave them in the oven to cool down along with the oven.

They are also known as Forgotten Cookies. Yes, exactly what you are thinking. You leave them in the oven cooling and tend to forget about them.

And that’s okay! No harm will happen as long as you remember to take them out before preheating the oven for its next call to duty.

Because of the cooking and cooling time, it’s best to make these ahead and store/hide them in an airtight container.

Suggestions to Streamline the Process-

First thing, separate your eggs. I think they separate easiest when they are cold. And the white will warm to room temperature faster in a bowl than in their shells.

TIP: After each clean separation of egg white, transfer it to the mixer bowl.

This way, if the fourth egg does not separate cleanly, you don’t have to throw out all four eggs, just that one.

While you’re waiting on those egg whites to get to room temperature you can do the few prep things on the list:

1. Preheat the oven to 225 degrees
2. Cover two or three cookie sheets with parchment paper
3. Print out the basketballs on printer paper – two copies are helpful. Those crazy lines? You’ll thank me for them when you add the basketball’s signature line pattern. The pages are in the Subscribers Free Printable Library. If you are not a subscriber, use the form just below. If you are a subscriber, remember you can find the password in your most recent email from me.
4. Prep your pastry bags or a plastic bag.
   • If pastry bag, fit it with a tip and turn down the top by 1/3 – 1/2
   • If plastic bag, fit into a tall glass and fold the top of the bag over the top of the glass – do NOT cut the tip until it is loaded and you are ready to pipe

Alternative to Pastry Bags and Piping Tips–

If you prefer to avoid these, you can take a different route:

1. Tint all the meringue copper
2. Place copper tinted meringue in a food safe plastic bag (not a gusseted bag)
3. Squeeze it all down to one corner and twist and seal the open end.
4. Snip the corner with scissors (start small, you can always cut it larger if needed)
5. Proceed with “piping” (step 12) and smoothing (step 13) the domes for the basketballs
6. Skip the black lines (step 14) for now.
7. Bake and cool.
8. Then slide the printout back under your parchment paper with the cooled balls.
9. Pipe with stored bought tube of black frosting.

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Thanks bunches! Now back to the Meringues:

Do You Prefer Video?

I’ve Got You Covered. Just click on the image below:

(By the way, the video includes piping hints that worked for me)

My Go-To Meringue Recipe –

Adapted for Basketball Season

Now For Basketball Cupcakes

These meringue cookies are fun and tasty treats like this, but I love to use them as cupcake toppers.

Turn a store bought or homemade frosted cupcake into a slam dunk high-demand party treat by simply adding a net and hoop cupcake wrapper with a meringue basketball positioned to score!

These wrappers are also in the Subscribers-Only Printables Library. There’s two versions, grey with white net and white with black net. It’s easy:

1. Print on heavy paper
2. Cut out
3. Tape to the diameter you need
4. Drop in your cupcake
5. Position a cookie on top for a slam dunk

So when will you serve these up?

• March Madness
• Final Four
• NBA playoffs
• High School championship game
• Celebrate your kids’ last game of the season!
• Perhaps a basketball birthday party
• Any basketball theme party

Other Seasonal Recipes You Might Enjoy:

Hope this brings a touch of extra joy to your celebrations!