Two Chicks

I first saw an advert for Two Chicks Free Range Liquid Egg White in a magazine and to be honest, I initially thought "who'd want that?!"

I don't eat omelette's or drink raw egg and I love egg yolks - it's my favourite bit! So the idea of a product like this baffled me. I know that athletes have egg whites a lot because they are high in protein, but to me the packaging doesn't scream 'body builder'.

I didn't really consider the product again after that.

Moving forward a couple of weeks.....

I decided to make some cupcakes for both mine and my boyfriends Mum's for Mother's Day. I wanted to make a butter frosting that I could pipe in a swirl and I started looking for recipes. I knew that I wanted to make Italian meringue butter cream [IMBC] as I've heard great things about it not being as sickly sweet as regular butter cream.

I found a recipe on the Cake Journal site that required 10 [yes 10!] egg whites. Having never made this icing before, I didn't feel that it was a wise idea for me to use that many eggs in a rushed attempt to get the cakes ready on time. Also, what would I do with 10 egg yolks?! 

Instead, I made a whipped butter cream that used powdered egg whites instead of fresh egg whites. The feedback I got was great :) Even from my Mum who had already admitted to me some time ago that she didn't like [regular] butter cream.

Anyway, it took me a good few days for the penny to drop..... Why not use Two Chicks when making IMBC?! There would be no waste, I could easily weigh out the required amount from the carton and store the rest for another day and it is [fairly] easy to get hold of. 

Another big plus for me is that it is free range. I've tried to find out whether powdered egg white is from free range eggs and so far, I haven't found an answer. I am of the opinion that if it were, it would be clearly stated, so I am assuming that the powdered egg white I have isn't free range - and is therefore something that I wouldn't want to use if I were to make cakes for sale in the future.

There are other benefits of this product too; the yolks are used by a different manufacturer to be used in other products, so nothing is wasted. The egg whites are pasteurised making them safe to use in recipes that remain uncooked. They can also be frozen for up to two years.

The only downside I can think of is that although Two Chicks is sold in a variety of different stores and supermarkets, it isn't available in every branch of those shops [yet]. For example, it is sold in Tesco but it isn't available in the Tesco which is local to where I live, therefore you might find that you have to travel to find the product. Luckily, the Sainsbury's opposite the office I work in stocks it :) Yay!

You can find out more about the product on the Two Chicks website or check out their store locator to find your nearest store.