Lemon Meringue Cupcakes

By: Pete on 22:20:00

I've done these a few times, and they are always very popular. I came up with them when someone said that they loved a cupcake, but found the amount of icing that is the norm these days (the Mr. Whippy style) a bit too much. I'd just learnt to make lemon curd, and meringue goes well with it (as you always have spare egg whites!)

You need a cupcake corer to make these, which is a cheap little gadget to remove a circle from cake...also handy if you want to put a sneaky jam filling in a cupcake as well!

I think everyone gets to the point where they can make cupcakes almost by rote, I certainly can with these. Depending on how I feel I will either use the creaming method to make the cakes (beat the butter and sugar, then add the eggs, then finally the flour), or the all-in-one method (all in the stand mixer and let rip!). he recipe uses the latter, as it saves on typing!

Lemon Meringue Cupcakes - Recipe

• Pre-heat oven to 150'C

Cake Ingredients

• 180g self-raising flour
• 180g caster sugar
• 180g softened butter
• 3 large eggs
• a few drops of vanilla essence

1) Place all the ingredients in a stand mixer with the paddle attachment

2) Mix slowly until all the ingredients are combined, then turn it up and mix hard until the mixture is smooth (but stop as soon as the mixture is smooth...over-working it will result in heavy, flat cakes)

3) Spoon the mixture into 12 muffin cases (I always use muffin cases and trays, bun trays are far too stingy). It will work out at about 45g of mixture per case (I weigh them, I'm sad like that)

4) Bake in the oven for 20 minutes.

5) Remove from the tray, and cool on a wire rack

Lemon Curd Ingredients

• 3 egg yolks (save the egg whites for the meringue)
• 120g caster sugar
• Juice and zest of 2 lemons
• 60g butter

1) Place the yolks, sugar, juice and zest in a small sausepan

2) Place on a low heat for 7-8 minutes, stirring continuously, until the mixture begins to thicken (it should coat the back of a spoon)

3) Remove from the heat and whisk in the butter, until it has all melted

4) Pour the curd into a jar (you will have some left over once you have made the cupcakes)

Meringue Ingredients

• 3 egg whites
• 175g caster sugar
• ½tsp cream of tartar

1) Place all the ingredients in a heat-proof bowl, over a bain-marie

2) Using a hand mixer, beat at a medium speed for 7-8 minutes while heating

3) Stop once the mixture is a shiny white texture, and forms stiff peaks

4) Spoon the mixture into a large piping bag with a star nozzle

Assembly

1) Using a cupcake corer, remove a core about third the depth of the cupcake from each cake (save these, they go well with left-over lemon curd as a snack!)

2) Into each cored cupcake, pour in 2tsp of lemon curd

3) Pipe meringue on top of each cake in the classic "Mr Whippy" style

4) Using a chefs blowtorch, toast the meringue, being careful not to let light to the paper cases (be ready to blow them out!)