彩虹溶豆

Use 2 eggs and a bowl of cornstarch (baby formula milk powder works too). Add sugar to taste. Choose whatever fruit and vegetables you like for colour, leafy greens need a quick cook; I picked dragon fruit, cucumber, and raspberry, none of which need cooking.

Separate the whites and yolks into deep, roomy bowls for easy whipping. Blend and strain the fruit and vegetables into juice, adding a splash of water if needed, but not too much, or it will go to waste.

Start with the yolk melts: add a spoon of sugar to the yolks and whip, ordinary sugar or caster sugar both work.

Beat until pale and as thick as yogurt, then add a big spoon of cornstarch or milk powder.

Keep whipping until smooth and the batter holds a ribbon trail that does not vanish at once.

Use a piping bag if you have one, or a food-storage bag like I did: tuck one corner over the rim of a bowl and fill it with the yolk batter.

Lift it, snip a small hole at the corner, and it is ready.

Now preheat the oven to 90C top and bottom. Line a tray with parchment and pipe the yolk batter into drops of any size, they barely change while baking. Pipe them larger for younger babies to grip, and bake at 90C for about an hour.

Next, make the fruit-and-veg egg-white melts: add a spoon of sugar to the whites and whip.

When large bubbles form, add the last spoon of sugar.

Whip to stiff peaks; exactly how stiff does not matter, as long as the pattern holds.

Stir cornstarch or low-gluten flour into each juice, the amount depending on how thin the juice is, adding it in stages. I used two spoons for the dragon-fruit and raspberry juices and three for the cucumber.

Always add the starch in stages, as too much turns it into a non-Newtonian fluid. Once mixed, a thick, yogurt-like consistency is right.

Fold in one spoon of meringue at a time, mixing evenly before adding the next.

For the meringue amount, my two spoons came to about 1.5 times the volume of juice, though it need not be exact, around twice the juice works fine.

Once folded, it should hold a trail and feel very light and fluffy.

Pipe again from a food-storage bag, works a treat.

Bake on the lower-middle rack at 90C top and bottom for about an hour. Ovens vary, so watch towards the end to avoid scorching, and extend the time for larger drops.

They look appetising and suit all ages, a lovely little snack to nibble at home that tastes good without weighing you down.

Bite-sized and a big hit, they double as an early lesson in naming colours.

The baked melts are wonderfully fluffy and melt in the mouth, and their rainbow colours keep little ones coming back.

So tasty!