Getting it right the second time

I love making these meringue cups (would they still be called vacherons?) because making them involves pulling out all of the piping skills I can muster from my flour-dusted self. This was my second time to make them and they're a vast improvement over the first batch I did, which had lots of hollow spaces in the sides. The pastry cooks start turning out quantities of them when a glut of unused egg whites accumulates, and the Golden Fan uses the meringue cups as the base for the fruit tarts it serves in its buffet resto.