Lemon Meringue Cupcakes

A while ago, I was, for some weird random reason, in a cupcakes phase. I was dreaming about cupcakes non-stop, googling for recipes, and fretting over which flavours I should make first to satisfy that urge. I know. It's really weird yeah. I've never been much of a cupcakes person - I'm more of a cake girl (or rather, an entremet girl) most of the time.

I stumbled upon the loveliest sunshine yellow cupcakes at Shirley's site > here. And I knew I just had to make it. I absolutely love all kinds of citrus, especially lemon. And though I'm not a fan of meringue in general, I knew I had to make these. Oh yes, I must. And yes, I did.

 Lemon Meringue Cupcakes

Sunshine yellow overdose

The cupcakes baked up beautifully, with a little dome top, but no worries, since I was about to core the cupcakes for the lemon curd filling anyway. I found that my metal round tablespoon came in handy as it was the perfect size and I used it as a "corer", and also, to fill the cupcakes with lemon curd (as shown above).



It's the first time I've not used a butter for a cake recipe, instead, the recipe calls for whipping cream instead. Which kinda make sense in a way, since if you whip cream for long enough, you can technically get butter? And I can say that for this recipe to be thought up by a young contestant on Junior Masterchef - wow. Like, what was I doing at their age man? Probably cramming for exams, or just mucking around, doing kids stuff. Boy, has times changed.

I'm actually watching Masterchef Australia Season 3 on and off (I have the episodes in my computer) and is finishing it up soon. The show is really darn good. I do love watching food related shows when I have the time (apart from all that Korean dramas and variety show that I watch) and I'm actually thinking where can I get Season 1, 2 and the Junior Masterchef season...if anyone has any idea, do shout out!

Back to the cupcakes. The cupcakes were just a touch drier than what I would like. I mean, it was perfectly fine, but I just like a moister cupcake (personal opinion), I guess I'll just bake it a few minutes lesser than it originally called for.

As for the meringue, I've made up my own recipe cos I'm more comfortable with using Italian meringue and also, it is more stable than French meringue (which do have the tendency to weep, and not form stiff peaks). And woo baby, I get to have some fun time with the blow torch! I do love occasions where I get to bust out the blow torch.

And, some news. I'm actually planning a dessert table menu for my Sis's wedding in January. Omg. It's my first ever dessert table that I'm gonna be doing. Meaning - I'll be doing the design, and the food. I'm ectastic for the opportunity, and also freaking out over how to decorate, what to make and the logistics of moving props and food to the venue. I'm still planning, but some items I'm considering are cupcakes, macarons, pie pops (or cake pops), popcorn and some type of bars.

Since the Sis's colour theme is blue and yellow, I'm actually quite inclined to bake up these pretty luscious yellow dream babies. We'll see if I can handle the prepwork for this. Hopefully my first dessert table will not be too shabby! My cake stands will finally start being useful instead of being stacked upon one another on a dusty shelf, aside from the occasional starring in my food photographs. Cheers to that. (I'm secretly hoping to collect more...with the excuse that I need it for the dessert table ha!)

Isabella's Lemon Meringue Cupcakes (adapted from here)
(makes 12 cupcakes)
Cupcakes
1 cup 35% whipping cream
220g caster sugar
finely grated zest from one lemon
2 eggs, lightly beaten
195g self raising flour

Preheat oven to 180C.
Line cupcake liners in a 12 hole capacity muffin pan.
Rub the lemon zest into the sugar, set aside. Sift the flour and set aside.
Combine cream, lemon sugar and eggs in a large mixing bowl and whisk till smooth.
Gradually add flour and and continue whisking until mixture is thick and smooth.
Divide mixture among the prepared liners and bake for 12-15 minutes or until cakes spring back to touch.
After a few minutes, remove from muffin tray and leave to cool on cooling rack.

Lemon curd
1/2 cup lemon juice
100g butter
115g caster sugar
1 egg
3 egg yolks

Heat lemon juice and butter in a small saucepan and simmer until butter has melted.
In a small bowl, whisk together sugar, egg and yolks.
Pour the lemon juice butter mixture gradually into the sugar and eggs mixture.
Pour everything back into the saucepan and cook, whisking continuously until mixture becomes thick and glossy.
Set aside to cool.

Meringue 
45g egg whites
100g caster sugar
25g water

Combine sugar and water in a saucepan and heat on low heat. Stir vigourously to dissolve sugar (stop stirring once small bubbles start to appear at the side of the saucepan.
Beat egg whites with an electric mixer until firm peaks form.
When sugar syrup reaches 120C, remove from heat and start pouring in a thin stream into the egg whites, all the while mixing with the electric mixer.
Continue beating till mixture cools down, and becomes thick and glossy, about 7 minutes.
Place in piping bag with piping tip attached.

Assembly
Cut a small hole in the top of each cupcake (I used my round shaped metal tablespoon measurer to do so) and fill with 1 tbsp of lemon curd.
Pipe a swirl of meringue mixture on the top of each cupcake and use a blowtorch to torch the tips of the meringue.