• Preheat oven to 200°F. Prepare baking sheet by lining with parchment paper.
• Add egg whites and salt to a stand mixer and mix on medium until frothy.
• Add cream of tartar and combine at medium high speed.
• Beat in sugar, adding 1 tablespoon at a time.
• Add in vanilla extract and continue to mix at medium high speed.
• Once the meringue starts to become stiff with peaks, check if it is ready by pinching off a little and rolling the meringue between your thumb and finger. You are feeling for any gritty sugar. If you can feel any gritty sugar, continue to beat the meringue until it is gone.
• If making striped Meringues, see "Striped Meringues" section below. Or if you are making both striped and plain white meringues, set some batter aside for the plain white meringues and make the striped meringues.
• Trim the bottom of the bag and drop your pastry tip inside.
• Fill your bag with Meringue. Try to poke out any air holes with the back of the paintbrush or a skewer. Twist the top of the bag.
• Holding the pastry bag straight up and down, hold over the baking sheet and squeeze, pulling up to create peaks. If you want to create the ice cream cone look, use the round pastry tip and in very small movements, move the bag around in a circle and pull up to create a peak.
• Bake for 1 hour and let the meringues stay in the oven to dry for 2 hours or overnight.

Striped Meringues

• Turn pastry bag inside out before filling. Keep an inch pulled through the bottom as you'll be trimming this off and inserting your pastry tip. Place the pastry bag over a glass to keep in place and dip your paintbrush into the gel food color and draw stripes on the bag.
• Remove the bag from the glass, reach hand into bag to reach the bottom and pull the tip through so the stripes are now on the inside of the bag. Trim the bottom off the bag and drop your flower pastry tip inside. Continue with step 9 above.

Decorating

• Melt white chocolate in a double boiler or microwave. Crush candy canes and set out any other decorations you want to use.
• Drizzle white chocolate over the meringues, sprinkle red sanding sugar and crushed candy canes over the white chocolate before it sets up.