Great British Baking Show Alum Kim-Joy Shares Her Halloween Party Tips Like These Monster Meringues

Halloween food should be equally delicious and whimsical and there's no one better for the task than Great British Baking Show alum Kim-Joy.

The finalist from the cooking competition show — known overseas as The Great British Bake Off — wowed judges Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith with her creative bakes and has taken her talents off the TV screen, into cookbooks and now in your Halloween party. And part of the British baker's trick to playful bakes is simple: Work with your mistakes.

"You don’t always have to have a plan with Halloween baking, and when your bakes go slightly wrong it’s often an opportunity to create something fun," Kim-Joy tells PEOPLE. "If there’s red juice spilling out on top of your berry pie, then create a scene around it — maybe it could be a chopped up gingerbread man in the pool."

The author of graphic novel Turtle Bread shares an ideal spooky recipe for a dessert that uses any flaws to its advantage: monster meringues.

"You can pipe any shape, and they all work — they’ve each got their own personality!” says the author of Bake Me a Cat about the ghoulish goodies. "There are different ways to pinch the meringue and create different effects."

The meringues are impactful on their own, or a home cook can use them to decorate other treats, according to Kim-Joy. “You can pipe all sorts of creatures and serve them on their own or use them to decorate a cake or pie for Halloween.”

She continues to explain how you can play with the flavors of the treats as much as the shapes. "Freeze-dried fruit sprinkled on the meringues works really well as they pack maximum flavor without adding any moisture," she says. "You can also swirl through your favorite curds and jams through, or use your favorite extract."

Kim-Joy's Monster Meringues

3 large egg whites

Pinch of cream of tartar

1 cup plus 2 tsp. granulated sugar

Food coloring gel (1 to 3 drops of your choice of colors)

Edible candy eyeballs

1. Preheat oven to 225°. Line 2 large rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper.

2. Place egg whites in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Beat on high speed until soft peaks form, about 3 minutes. With mixer still running, add cream of tartar. Gradually add sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time, beating for about 45 seconds after each addition until sugar is fully incorporated and meringue feels smooth between your fingers, about 15 minutes. (Add sugar very slowly so it dissolves properly.)

3. Divide the meringue among different bowls, depending on how many colors you want. Stir food coloring into each bowl until evenly distributed. Fill a piping bag with meringue; cut a hole ½-inch from the tip. Pipe meringues onto baking sheets, in different shapes, leaving at least a 1-inch space between each meringue. Using your fingers, pinch sides of each meringue to create points and peaks, if desired. Stick edible eyes as desired on the monsters.

4. Bake meringues in oven 45 to 60 minutes for gooey centers, or 1 hour 30 minutes for dry centers. Turn off oven, leaving the door closed, and let meringues stand in oven until completely dry and crisp, 3½ to 4 hours.

Serves: 16

Active time: 30 minutes

Total time: 5 hours, 30 minutes

Quick tip! “Instead of piping meringues, you could dollop them with a spoon,” says Kim-Joy. “They’ll look great once you add the edible eyes.”