The Adventures of Dot and Mae

Hello everyone. It’s a rah-ther grey day at Dot and Mae’s so they have decided to make something very sunny to brighten up the day. They would like to share some of their homemade sunshine with you. They are making Lemon Meringue Cupcakes.

Do you feel the sunshiney goodness?

Here is the recipe if you want to make some of your own . . .

Lemon Meringue Pie Cupcakes

 

1 cup cake flour
1 cup all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
¼ cup butter, very soft
1 cup sugar
2 tbsp lemon zest (from 2 large lemons)
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup milk, room temperature

Preheat oven to 375F. Line 18 muffin cups with paper liners.
Sift together cake flour, ap flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl.
In a large bowl, cream butter, sugar and lemon zest until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Beat in egg thoroughly, followed by vanilla. Alternate milk and flour in three additions, ending with flour.
Evenly distribute in prepared pans.
Bake at 375F for 18-20 minutes, until a tester comes out clean and the cake springs back when lightly pressed.
Remove to a wire rack to cool.
Makes 18 cupcakes.

Once the cupcakes are cool, fill a metal-tipped pastry bag with lemon curd (recipe follows, or you may use store-bought) and pipe into cupcakes. Poke the tip of the pasty bag 1/2-1 inch into the top of each cupcake and squeeze about 2 tsp lemon curd into it. You might not use all the curd.

Meringue
3 egg whites
½ cup sugar
¼ tsp cream of tartar

Set a glass or metal bowl over a sauce pan with an inch or two of boiling water in it (i.e. use a double boiler) and beat egg whites in it until foamy. Add in cream of tartar and beat until fluffy but not yet at soft peaks. Stream in sugar until meringue reaches fairly stiff peaks. Spread on cupcakes with a small knife or offset spatula.

Brown with a blowtorch or place on a baking sheet under the broiler until lightly browned, about 3 minutes - whichever . . . Dot and Mae would like to use a blowtorch but they are too tiny so they just ask a big person to help them use the broiler . . . shoot, that sounded like fun!