It's party time and your cupcakes are picture-perfect. But in a warm room, as the guests start to arrive, the frosting starts to droop.

You've made lovely iced sugar cookies to take to a new neighbor. They're as beautiful as they are delicious. But you stack them on a plate and they stick together. You pull them apart and that pretty, smooth surface is marred.

Your whipped cream is stunning. But soon it's sagging and melting and the dessert you dressed it with isn't so pretty anymore.

What to do? It's meringue powder to the rescue. This amazing cooking aid will solve these problems. Because most whipped frostings, including butter-cream, need to be stabilized to make them more durable (or they'll droop and melt in a warm room), meringue powder should be added. And it puts a hard shell on icings so that you can stack your cookies. And finally, it stabilizes your whipped cream so it doesn't melt so quickly.

Have you heard of this stuff, or ever tried it? Basically it's a fine white powder made primarily from dried egg whites, with cornstarch to keep it from clumping while stored, and some food gums to help it bind together easily when being used. The powder can be reconstituted with water and forms up into a nice, fluffy meringue when beaten at a high speed. Besides egg whites, cornstarch, and food gums, the ingredients include sugar, ammonium aluminum, salt, and artificial flavor. It's often packaged with equipment that is used in the production of baking mixes, so it could contain traces of soy, dairy, wheat, or nuts.

Meringue powder has a long shelf life. It doesn't need to be refrigerated once the container is opened, but it should be kept in an air tight container and stored in a cool place.

To use, simply add this powder to your existing recipes. Two tablespoons will do in most recipes. To stiffen whipped cream, for instance, just add two tablespoons to two cups of whipping cream.

If you make cupcakes or cakes or top desserts with icings, try adding meringue powder. It will make an incredible difference. Professional bakers use it all the time. In fact, on the folks at Prepared Pantry (www.preparedpantry.com) sell it and are so convinced you'll love the difference it makes that they offer a money-back guarantee. I have a couple avid baking friends who were introduced to the product when taking some Wilton baking classes, and they agree-they now wouldn't be without it.

But the drawback is that it's a little pricey. For instance, 16 ounces of Wilton meringue powder sells for around $18. Ateco brand sells for 20 ounces for $18.00. While a little goes a long way, maybe the price is justified. Ateco also has meringue powder in 10 pound buckets for $85. That's a much better price, but to buy it that way I'd want a few fellow bakers to go in with me and we'd divvy it up.

While it isn't all that necessary, perhaps, to add meringue powder to your recipes, there are those times that it's a good idea to have some on hand. For those special times when presentation

does

matter-Pinterest-worthy cupcakes for your party, a food gift for the new neighbors, and so on, then it would be time to bring out the big guns-meringue powder to the rescue!