CANDY BUTTONS RECIPES

Steps:

• cut white paper into 12 2x11in strips. using and electric mixer, beat the confectioners sugar and egg white until thick and smooth about 5 minutes. divide the icing into 2 small bowls. stir in 3 drops of yellow food coloring into one batch and 3 drops of blue food coloring into the other. cover the blue icing with plastic wrap.
• arrange the paper strips side by side on a work surface. scrape the yellow icing into a small, resealable plastic bag and snip off a tiny corner. pipe out the icing onto the paper strips in dots, about 1/3 inch apart in even rows of 3. when about a quarter of the yellow icing remains, add approximately the same amount of blue icing to the bag, stirring with a toothpick. continue to pipe green icing dots onto each paper strip. transfer the blue icing to another small, resealable plastic bag and continue piping. let the dots sit at room temperature until hardened, 12 hours or overnight.

Steps:

• Cut 10 strips of parchment paper, 2-inches wide by 16-inches long.
• Sift confectioner's sugar and meringue powder together in a bowl; beat in water and vanilla extract until smooth.
• Divide sugar mixture evenly into three bowls; beat in small amounts of different food coloring paste into each bowl until desired color has been achieved.
• Place a #3 pastry tip into end of pastry bag; fill with one of the tinted sugar mixtures. Pipe buttons about the size of a penny onto parchment strips, 3 rows across. Repeat with remaining tinted sugar mixtures. Dry until buttons are hard, about 8 hours.