Lemon Meringue Cupcakes!

WHAT YOU NEED:

    Cupcakes

½ c. lightly salted butter, softened (I use regular baking butter.)

heaping ½ c. superfine sugar (I use regular white sugar.)

2 eggs

1 ¼ c. self-rising flour (if you only have all-purpose, you have to adjust other amounts…)

½ tsp baking powder

1 tsp vanilla extract

finely grated zest of 1 lemon (I use the juice, of about ½ the lemon, too.)

    Filling

Lemon curd (4-5 Tbls)

    Topping

2 egg whites

scant ½ c. superfine sugar (again, I use regular here)

* I also add a little more lemon juice to the meringue at the end, about ½ lemon’s

  NOTE: This makes only 12 cupcakes! Adjust as needed.

WHAT YOU DO:

Preheat oven to 350⁰F. Line your cupcake pan with liners.

Put all the cupcake ingredients into a bowl and beat with a handheld electric mixer for about a minute. You want it to be light and creamy. Divide the cake mixture between the cupcake liners.

Bake in the preheated oven (350⁰F) for about 20 minutes. You want the cupcakes to rise a bit and be just firm to the touch.

Once the cupcakes are done baking, I remove them from the oven and let them cool a bit. Meanwhile, raise the oven temperature to 450⁰F.

I use a spoon to scoop out about 1 tsp (or a little less) of each cupcake. Fill this spot with lemon curd. (This also permits you to do a “quality assurance” check of the cupcakes…)

Make the meringue topping – beat the egg whites in a thoroughly clean bowl until peaking. Gradually beat in the sugar, a bit at a time, to make a firm, glossy meringue. This part takes 10-15 minutes. I also add about ½ lemon’s juice into this topping.

Pile the meringue onto the tops of the cupcakes – swirling it with a palette knife. (or I just use a spoon to make little spiky peaks, super cute!). Return the cupcakes to the oven (I put them back into the cupcake pan) for another 1-2 minutes, sometimes I leave them for 4 or 5 minutes. Just WATCH THEM CLOSELY. You want the meringue to start to brown, but you don’t want the sugar part too burned. A little browning on the tips is ok if you need to get the whole topping sunned a bit.

Here are the last ones I made, getting ready to go into the oven:

And coming out of the oven:

These are best when served warm, but do hold up if you want to try to save them for later. That is TRY – they are very good and don’t last long at my house. Ha. Enjoy.

The last ones I made were actually for a cupcake auction. I have also done them for bake sales. For this, I put them in cupcake boxes in sets of 4:

You can really have fun dressing them up, like this:

 (lemon shaped tags with a label on one side and a Bible verse on the other.)

These cupcakes are beautiful and delicious! I may make a variation as one whole big cake sometime. Because it is lemon with lemon with lemon, raspberries or blueberries would compliment it well. 

Is your mind spinning with ideas now? Are you taste buds crying for you to please go make cupcakes now? Ha. Do you want to try it as listed above, or do you want to try something else with it?

How will YOU experiment with this base recipe?