Lemon Meringue Cupcakes

I love the smell of cake batter in the morning…

so when i’m off to a picnic and bringing a plate, cupcakes are my weapon of choice.

This time I wasn’t content to go with my old faithful mini vanilla cupcakes and vanilla icing. I was itching to try something new and, as is well documented on this blog, I have lemons on the brain. I had just been on a day trip to the Southern Highlands where I picked up another jar of Lemon Curd and needed to use it stat.

So I made these.
Lemon Meringue Cupcakes.
Bam.

I like my lemon curd to be super lemony and hate when cafes serve lemon meringue that barely makes you pucker. What is the point of lemon flavour that doesn’t pack a punch? I used a whole jar of lemon curd to fill these cupcakes and, as you can see, I didn’t go easy on the curd. These cupcakes were filled. Oh baby.

Then I had to think about the meringue. I was in the process of moving house and didn’t have a sugar thermometer handy so wasn’t able to use the italian meringue recipe that came with the cupcake recipe. Instead I figured I would use a normal meringue recipe and blast them in the oven for a few minutes to brown the tops. Worked like a charm! I also thought i’d try to be a bit fancy and pipe the meringue which was fun and makes them look a bit more interesting. Everyone likes bobbles on their cupcakes don’t they?

Do you like my sneaky pic of the cross section of cupcake?

They went down a treat at this picnic and were actually quite straightforward to make. You could always go super super fancy and make the curd yourself but 1. it was a million degrees that day and 2. just no. Its so fiddly and I just couldn’t be bothered! But if its your thing, go for it.

So what do you like to bring to a picnic? Are you a fan of the lemon meringue?

Lemon Meringue Cupcake Recipe – From Rockpool Bar and Grill where you can get the recipe for the lemon curd as well

Cupcake Ingredients

155 gm unsalted butter
155 gm caster sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
155 gm self-raising flour
75 ml milk

Method

preheat the oven to 185C and line a 12-hole 125ml (½ cup) muffin tray with paper cases.

1. Beat the butter until pale (roughly 2 mins)
2. Add the sugar and beat on medium-high speed until light and fluffy
3. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition and until the batter looks smooth
4. Add the vanilla extract and beat to combine
5. Add the flour and milk alternately in three batches and beat until just combined
6. Divide the batter evenly between the paper cases and smooth the tops
7. Bake at 185 degrees celsius for 15-20 mins or until dark golden brown and the cupcakes spring back when their centres are lightly touched
8. Scoop out some of the cake from the centre of each cupcake and spoon in a teaspoon (or more!) of lemon curd

Meringue Recipe – Adapted from taste.com

Ingredients

3 egg whites
3/4 cup caster sugar

Recipe

1. Place egg whites in a clean, dry bowl and beat on high until stiff peaks form
2. Add the caster sugar a little at a time and beat for 30 secs/1 min between addition so that the sugar dissolves
3. Pipe the meringue onto the tops of the cupcakes
4. Place under the grill for 2-3 mins or until the tops are lightly brown