Lemon Meringue Cupcakes

Lemon Meringue Cupcakes

My husband has developed quite the sweet tooth. He never used to like sweets and rarely ate them, but since Madison took up baking he has gotten a bit...well...addicted!

After Madison left for college, the baking to satisfy his cravings has fallen on me. I was never much of a baker, but as you can tell by the Sweets section on the blog - I have been doing quite a bit of baking over this past year.

Recently I sent some cupcakes with him to work for a friend's birthday, and when he came home with the empty cupcake carrier he said, "It's ready for a refill" haha  That same day, I saw a post online regarding a friend and fellow Allstar's Sweet Vanilla Cupcake recipe on allrecipes.com. Everyone was raving about this recipe! and the recipe creator, Marianne, mentioned how she likes topping these with lemon curd - that gave me a great idea! Lemon Meringue Cupcakes!!

I made the cupcakes as stated in the recipe for Sweet Vanilla Cupcakes. I made one small change and reduced the oven temp to 325 degrees F. This keeps the top of the cupcake flat instead of domed. I like a flat cupcake for decorating purposes. I baked them for 22-25 mins. I knew these were a hit when I gave a little taste to the batter and it was so light and delicious - I couldn't wait to take them out of the oven! 

While the cupcakes were cooling I whipped up some Luscious Lemon Curd and put it in the fridge to chill. Then I made the Marshmallow Meringue topping as follows... 

3 egg whites
1 cup granulated sugar

Mix the egg whites and sugar in a bowl while heating a saucepan on low.  Place the egg mixture into warmed pan, remove from heat and whisk.  You will be putting this on and off the heat until the mixture is warm to the touch and all the sugar is dissolved.  We aren't trying to scramble the eggs here, so be careful with the heat. When the egg mixture is warmed to the touch, remove from the heat, transfer to a medium mixing bowl, and beat the egg whites on high (using whisk attachment) until they form stiff, shiny peaks, about 5-8 minutes.

When the cupcakes and lemon curd cooled, I assembled the cupcakes by topping the cupcakes with a dollop of lemon curd and then piping on the marshmallow meringue. I used a round decorating tip for these, and then I popped them under the broiler for about 30 seconds - 1 minute. Watch them closely so they don't burn. 

These are so tasty! Just like individual Lemon Meringue Pies! only easier to make, imo!