Saturday, August 24, 2019

Lemon Meringue Cupcakes

I am on a kick of changing pie flavors into cupcakes, and if that's wrong, I don't wanna be right. These sweet little babies have a graham cracker crust, a lemon cake filled with lemon curd, and a 7 minute frosting lightly torched. Curb. Appeal. For. Days. 

This recipe makes 24 cupcakes (with a little extra) or three 8-inch cake rounds. 

For the Lemon Curd
I am still using Ina Garten's lemon curd recipe because it's delicious. This is also good to make in advance- at least a few hours or even the night before.

3 lemons *bullshit, Ina.
1 ½ c granulated sugar
¼ pound unsalted butter, room temp (that’s 1 stick)
4 extra-large eggs
½ c lemon juice (3 – 4 lemons) *Really, it depends so much on how juicy your lemons are. Sometimes it takes me 6 lemons, and sometimes 4. So what I'm saying is buy more lemons than you think you will need. 
1/8 tsp salt

1. Using a vegetable peeler, remove the zest of 3 lemons, being careful to avoid the white pith. Put the zest in a food processor. Add the sugar and pulse until zest is very finely minced into the sugar.
2. Cream the butter and beat in the sugar and lemon mixture.
3. Add one egg at a time, and then add the lemon juice and salt. Mix until combined.
4. Pour mixture into a 2-quart saucepan and cook over low heat until thickened, about 10 minutes, stirring constantly. The lemon curd will thicken at about 170F, or just below a simmer. For this recipe, I kept cooking it for about 10 more minutes because I wanted it to be thicker so that it would not squish out of the cake layers.
5. Remove from heat and run through a strainer to get any lumps or bigger pieces of zest out of it. Cool or refrigerate. I put it in mason jar and let it cool slightly before putting the lid on and putting it in the fridge. 

For the Graham Cracker Crust
2 c graham cracker crumbs *I just bought the box because I couldn't be bothered, but if you have a little pent up anger that you wanna take out on some grahams, you do you boo.*
2 tbsp brown sugar
1/2 stick (4 tbsp) unsalted butter, melted
Pinch of salt

1. Preheat oven to 350F and prepare 24 cupcake tins with liners (and I also did a 6-inch pan because, like I said, extra batter- ie snackies for baker if you have to take these cupcakes to an event and can't eat them all by yourself in a dark room like you want to).
2. Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix. Test with your hand- squeeze it in your hand and see if it lightly packs together.
3. Take about an 1/8 c or so of the graham cracker mixture and put it in the bottom of each lined tin.
4. Take a 1/4 c measuring cup and use the back of it to pack the crust down into the bottom of the tins.
5. Cover with the batter that follows (no need to bake beforehand).
*Side note- I did not put graham cracker crust in the bottom of my extra cake pan. I just sprinkled the crumbs on top of the cake later*

For the Lemon Cake

1/3 c vegetable oil
One stick unsalted butter, room temperature
3 large eggs
2 c granulated sugar
3 1/2 c all-purpose flour
1 c buttermilk
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla
Zest and juice of 1 lemon (although more wouldn't really hurt)

1. Combine oil, butter, and granulated sugar and cream together in a stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment.
2. Add eggs one at a time, incorporating each before adding another.
3. Add vanilla.
4. Combine flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder together in a separate bowl.
5. Alternate dry ingredients and buttermilk, incorporating each into the batter before adding more. Start and end with the dry ingredients.
6. Incorporate the lemon zest and juice into the batter and mix.
7. Divide batter into cupcake tins and bake for 18 - 22 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

For the 7 Minute Frosting
I used Smitten Kitchen's recipe for the frosting- it is also known as a marshmallow frosting. Light and fluffy and perfect for a torch!

4 large egg whites
1 c granulated sugar
1/2 c light corn syrup
4 tbsp water
2 tsp vanilla extract
Pinch of salt

1. Combine all ingredients into a metal bowl (I used my bowl of my stand mixer, and you will see why in a minute). 
2. Place metal bowl over a pot of simmering water- it should just barely be touching the bottom of the bowl. (For a stand mixer, you can have it go past the part that connects to your mixer and touch the bottom of the actual bowl part- you get what I mean). 

3. Beat with a handheld mixer until light and fluffy- about 7 minutes (hence the name). Mine took a little longer because I didn't let the water start simmering beforehand. 
4. Take the bowl off the simmering water and put it on your stand mixer. Mix until it gets suuuuuuuper fluffy and is cooler. 

Assembly
1. Once the cupcakes have cooled, take a piping tip to make a small hole in the center of the cupcake. 
2. Take the cooled lemon curd and put it in a piping bag (or just a ziploc bag) and cut the tip off to fill in the holes in the cupcakes. 
3. Put your frosting in a big piping bag and cut a BIG hole. Pipe fluffy mcflufferson clouds on top of your cupcakes. 
4. If you have a kitchen torch, go to town on your frosting for a nice little sun tan on the cupcakes. 

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