I'm so glad Martha offers this recipe as an option; meringue powder is not easily found in my small town, but I always have eggs on hand. It's a great base to start with stiff icing for piping -- add water in small amount to get smoother icing for flooding. I enjoyed the hint of lemon flavor on the gingerbread as well. Happy decorating!

sorry - posted my gingerbread snowflakes review on this page by accident - but I did use this icing for them as directed, and it piped very well.

I made this recipe for smaller star-shaped cookies, following the recipe exactly. I had my doubts about the pepper too, but the taste is really good & spicy. To decorate as shown is VERY time consuming (3-4 mins. per cookie?) but this recipe is worth doing if you need some "wow" factor for a gift-box of cookies: you can just put a few on top of the stack and they will class up the gift. I wish I had made a half batch, which would have been plenty for several dozen normal-size cookies.

can you subsuite the lemon juice for almond or vanilla extract?

I wouldn't bleach your eggs, eggs have a semi permeable membrane and bleaching them could be harmful to you and your family. If you wouldn't normally consume it-don't use it on your eggs. If you buy unpasteurized eggs, wash them thoroughly to remove any potential lingering salmonella.

I used "All whites" 100% liquid egg whites. They are pasteurized. Martha has an icing recipe with meringue powder, but at my grocery store it was $7.78. That;s why I chose to use the liquid egg whites.

well if bacteria come from the outer shell then can I put the eggs in bleach for a min or 2 to killed any bacteria then pull them out of the bleach then in water and let air dry?

I am a pastry chef; salmonella is not contained in the egg, it is located on the outer shell, if there at all. We are taught very little about the bacteria, just that it comes from raw eggs...in reality, if you do not allow your egg to touch the outer shell; you will NEVER get sick from raw egg. It is also rare that it will be on your eggs at home. Do the research. If you're still paranoid, just pasteurize the egg.

While lemon juice may curdle the egg, it does NOT kill salmonella, the bacteria responsible for most food poisonings.

Actually...the lemon juice "cooks" the eggs.. you don't have to worry about food poisoning

I bought some Wilton's Meringue powder at Wal Mart in the cake/baking section of their craft department.

Where do I find "meringue powder"?

Meringue Powder comes out with a more predictable consistency, is easier than separating eggs and finding something to do with the yolks, and is food-safe, because you don't bake the frosting, so you would be eating raw eggs.

I haven't made this yet- however, I've noticed that the recipe in the MSmagazine calls for "meringue powder", instead of eggs. I guess I'll have to run the experiment through the oven in order to find what works best.

I used this recipe for my halloween sugar cookies. This was also my first time making icing. 100% perfect. I don't like gobs of icing, but I thought the hint of lemon will be a surprise and it was. By far the biggest hit of the party. I guess I have found my 'signature' icing.