Lemon Meringue Cupcakes

My mom and I went to a birthday party a few weeks ago and my friend Alyssa had made some really yummy lemon blueberry cupcakes with a lemon curd. It inspired me to make these lemon meringue cupcakes for my brother. He LOVES anything lemon and for his birthday BBQ I knew I had to make something special. These cupcakes are truly delicious! Although there appears to be several steps, they really are fairly easy and definitely worth the time- and to make the cupcakes a little bit easier on myself, I took some help from a boxed cake mix for the cupcake part!

Lemon Curd ( I doubled this recipe)

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup lemon juice

zest of 2 lemons

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon corn starch

pinch of salt

6 large egg yolks

Cupcakes

1 box of your favorite white vanilla cake mix

2-3 vanilla pods, beans removed

Meringue Frosting

6 egg whites

1 cup sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 teaspoon cream of tarter

Directions: 

• Bake the cupcakes according to the box instructions, and add extra ingredients listed. 
• Remove from oven and let cool completely
• I recommend even doing these the night before so they are set up nicely and cooled completely

Lemon Curd:

• Melt the butter in a sauce pan over medium-low heat. Remove from the heat and add the lemon juice and zest. 
• Mix together the sugar, salt and cornstarch and add it to the pan.
• Whisk in the egg yolks until smooth and return to the heat.
• Cook over medium-low heat for roughly 10 minutes until the mixture has thickened and coats the back of a spoon. 
• No not allow the mixture to boil.
• Once thickened, strain the mixture through a fine mesh strainer into a large bowl. 
• Allow to chill in the refrigerator completely before using. 
• When cooled- using a Bismarck tip and piping bag, push the Bismarck tip approximately 3/4 of the way into the cupcake and slowly pull up, this will fill the center of the cupcakes with the lemon curd. 
• If any of the curd comes out, just lightly spread it over the top of the cupcake to give it some extra lemony-goodness!

Frosting Directions:

• Beat egg whites until frothy then gradually add sugar, and then cream of tarter, continuing to beat until stiff peaks form. Make sure you don't rust this process- you want the meringue to be stiff. 
• Add vanilla. 
• Pipe onto cupcakes and using a small pastry torch, cook the topping until peaks are nicely browned.

NOTE: I ended up doubling the meringue recipe (oops) and ended up with a crap load of meringue. Not wanting to waste it- I ended up making a lemon meringue pie (found some vanilla wafer cookies at my moms house and mixed that with butter for the crust) and then some meringue cookies! The pie was GOOD! The cookies, eh. I liked them, not no one else loved them- I think its a texture thing. You either love or hate meringues. Stephen is still confused over what they were- he thinks they would be good- on TOP of a normal cookie :)