Orange Curd Cupcakes

By: Pete on 07:57:00

I did these really just to remind myself of how long they took, as there is a baking competition at work next week. I'd like to say I went for "orange" (clementines, aka easy peelers) curd rather than lemon curd as it was what was in the house...having tried it, the flavour is not as strong as lemon. Maybe some spices (cardamon, ginger etc) might give it some more warmth.

Otherwise, they went great. The volume of curd and meringue was spot on, and I was really happy with the consistency of the meringue...really marshmallow-y.

Orange Meringue Cupcakes

• Pre-heat oven to 150'C
• Get a 12-hole muffin tin, and 12 muffin cases

Cake Ingredients

• 3 large eggs
• 175g self-raising flour
• 175g softened butter
• 175g caster sugar
• ½tsp vanilla essence

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

2) Mix until just smooth (you want to stop as soon as it looks smooth....any longer and you'll beat the air out of it)

3) Spoon ~50g into each of the muffin cases

4) Bake in the oven for 20-22 minutes

5) Remove to a wire rack to cool

Orange Curd Ingredients

• Zest and Juice of 1 large orange
• 2 egg yolks (save the egg whites for the meringue)
• 80g caster sugar
• 40g butter

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

2) Heat gently while stirring until the mixture starts to thicken (coats the back of a spoon)

3) Remove from the heat and stir in the butter until it's melted

4) Decant into a jar and leave to cool

Swiss Meringue Ingredients

• 2 egg whites
• 120g caster sugar
• ½tsp cream of tartar

1) Put the egg whites and sugar in a heatproof bowl over a bain-marie

2) Whisk over the heat until the mixture becomes foam

3) Add the cream of tartar

4) Continue to whisk until the mixture is stiff and glossy (this will take 8-10 minutes)

5) Remove from the heat to cool

Assembly

1) Using a cupcake corer, take out a chunk of the middle of each cake

2) Put 2 teaspoons of curd into each hole

3) Place the cores back into the holes, pressing them down gently

4) Put the meringue in a piping bag with a large star nozzle attached

5) Pipe generous swirls of meringue onto each cake

6) Using a blowtorch, toast the meringue on each cake (try not to set fire to the paper case!)