Making Meringue

I have to make a meringue product for one of my upcoming school projects. Chef did a demo for us on Italian, Swiss, and French (or common) meringues. I made two batches of Italian in class (one with melted chocolate incorporated and one using cocoa). Neither really came out the way I wanted. My oven was too hot during the first batch and cracked rather than drying out. The second is drying over night, so we'll see tomorrow.

The pic above is the third attempt, this one made at home. I used dutch-processed cocoa in this one. I know it is a terrible pic (and probably impossible to tell) but I am working on a hat shape and am planning to fill the middle with ganache or a fruit curd. I think they'll look more hat-like once I add a chocolate "ribbon" and "bow" to them.

Stay tuned - I'll show you tomorrow how I use up all these practice meringues.