Add the sugar spoon by spoon and continue until you have added it all. Cover the top of your mixer or bowl as the sugar will puff out in big clouds.
When you have added all the sugar, continue whisking at high speed for about 5 to 7 minutes. Test the mix by pinching a bit of the mix between your fingers: you should not be able to feel the sugar: it should be very smooth. Do not mix too long as the proteins will no longer hold. When that is the case, start over: you cannot salvage ‘over-beaten’ egg whites.
Get your piping bag, and fold it back. Push in the piping mold piece: you can use the edged one for a cool, sharp edge in your meringues, or just go for the clean, straight one. That works very well if you use coloring.
Get your food coloring, and using the brush, paint small stripes of coloring from the tip of the bag up.
This tip is from the recipe of The Meringue Girls, who have their recipe here [insert link]. Their must-have cook book (present from the Queen of Flavors in my case) is a very good source of out-of-the-box combinations of flavors. Their recipe uses hot sugar from the oven, which is cool but too much work for me.
It helps to use a large measuring cup, place the piping bag in it, and use the edges of the cup to hold up the bag up. Get your flexible scraper and fill the bag with the firm whites. Do not push to hard to smear the stripes, but make sure to carefully push any pockets of air away.
Grab your large baking sheet and drop four drops of mixture on each of the corners of the sheet. Line the baking parchment paper: the little drops will prevent the paper from moving.
With the piping bag, pipe small heaps of mixture on the sheet. Do not place them too close together. Depending on your taste of the appearance, you can leave a small peak, or push-and-quickly-twist to get a more clean appearance. Repeat until the mixture is all gone. Use more sheets if necessary.