Thursday 21 November 2013

Lemon meringue cupcakes

Beautiful lemon cupcakes filled with lemon curd topped with fluffy, sweet meringue. They not only look divine but are extremely tasty. Prefect sweet and tart flavors combination. And they are not so difficult to make. All you need is tested lemon cupcake recipe, jar of lemon curd (although I prefer home made) and a little bit patience during meringue making process. That's it ! 

If you prefer to use home made lemon curd this is the recipe I used. 

Ingredients for 250 - 300ml of lemon curd:
  • 160ml sugar
  • 125 ml fresh lemon juice
  • 2 tsp finely grated lemon zest
  • 2 egg yolks
  • 1 egg
  • 125 ml unsalted butter
lemon curd
Whisk the sugar, lemon juice, lemon zest, egg yolks and egg together in a metal or glass heatproof bowl. Place the bowl over a pot of simmering water and gently whisk the mixture form time to time. Within 15 minutes the mixture should thickened . Remove the curd from the heat and strain into a bowl. Stir in the butter until it melts completely. Pour the mixture into a jar and chill it. The curd will set in the jar. You can use it later in many ways, spread on toast, as crepe filling ... or just eat straight from the jar :) The recipe comes form Anna Olson 'Back to baking' cookbook.

Coming back to cupcake recipe :) This time it is Rachel Allen recipe.
Ingredients for 8 - 12 lemon cupcakes:
  • 125g soft butter
  • 125g sugar
  • freshly grated lemon zest
  • 2 eggs
  • 150g flour
  • 1/4 tsp baking powder
Preheat the oven to 180C. Line muffin tin with paper cases.
 
Place all the ingredients in an electric mixer bowl. Mix them with paddle attachment until smooth. Spoon the batter into paper cases. Bake for 20 - 30 minutes until cupcakes  rise and be springy in touch. Baked cupcakes transform to the wire rack to cool down.
When the cupcakes are completely cooled spoon a little cake out of the centre of each cupcake. Spoon lemon curd in and set aside while preparing meringue. 

Prepare the meringue. Again Anna Olson recipe. 

Ingredients for meringue:
  • 2 egg whites
  • 1/4 tsp cream of tartar
  • 80 ml sugar
Whip the egg whites and cream of tartar until foamy, then slowly add the sugar while whipping. Whip the egg whites until the stiff. Spoon the meringue into  a piping bag and  pipe swirls on top of each cupcake.

Insert the cupcakes into preheated oven and bake in 190C for 10 - 15 minutes until the meringue browns slightly. Cool the cupcakes into a room temperature.

If you have any remaining meringue in a piping bag. Pipe small swirls on parchment paper and bake in the oven for 30 - 40 minutes. Then leave them inside until the oven cools down completely. 

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