Lemon Meringue Cupcakes
These Lemon Meringue Cupcakes have a delicious lemon-scented cake filled with tart lemon curd and topped with a fluffy, airy toasted meringue frosting!
Summer has begun! It’s a bit surreal, it feels like just yesterday I was packing my bags to go to college. Now, my room is filled with tons of unpacked suitcases, and I’m starting to understand that unpacking is MUCH worse than packing. I’m definitely not a fan.
It is really hard to believe that I’m completely done with one year of college. Time really does fly as you get older.
As for this summer, I go to Mexico in a week with two of my best friends and my family, and then I’m starting an internship at UBS Financial! Should be a good summer, but I have to say, it’s too weird not being able to walk 5 feet and be with my best friends.
However, I’ll have baking to keep me busy, and busy I will be. I know I’ve been a bit of a slacker with the posting this year, but this summer will make up for it! I already have some recipes lined up, and I’m crossing my fingers you will all enjoy them.
To start the summer off right, I give you a delicious lemon meringue cupcake. A friend of my dad’s brought over a bag of over 20 lemons from her lemon grove, and I knew I needed to do the gorgeous fruits justice!
Lemon meringue was easy to settle on, but I wasn’t in a pie crust mood, so I went with cupcakes. Thankfully, good ole Martha has a kick-butt recipe that was easy to follow and turned out wonderfully delicious. My entire family enjoyed these cupcakes, from the moist crumb of the cake, to the tart, velvety curd, to the light, airy torched meringue. And my 3-year-old twin cousins definitely got a kick out of the blow torch!
If you have some lemons hanging around, I highly encourage this recipe! It’s a perfect Memorial Day recipe, so whip these up next weekend and show everyone your baking prowess. Hope you enjoy!!
PrintLemon Meringue Cupcakes
- Prep Time: 40
- Cook Time: 10
- Total Time: 50 minutes
- Yield: 24 cupcakes 1x
- Category: cupcakes
- Cuisine: dessert
Ingredients
For the Cupcakes
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 2 cups sugar
- 4 large eggs, room temperature
- Finely grated zest of 3 lemons (about 3 tablespoons, plus 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice)
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 cup buttermilk
For the Lemon Curd
- 8 large egg yolks
- Finely grated zest of 2 lemons
- ½ cup plus 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice (about 3 lemons)
- 1 cup sugar
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- 1 ¼ sticks (10 tablespoons) unsalted butter, cold, cut into pieces
For the Seven Minute Frosting
- 1 1½ cups plus 2 tablespoons sugar
- ⅔ cup water
- 2 tablespoons light corn syrup
- 6 large egg whites, room temperature
Instructions
For the Cupcakes
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt.
- With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, cream butter, sugar, and lemon zest until pale and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until each is until incorporated, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Beat in vanilla. Stir together buttermilk and lemon juice. Add flour mixture in three batches, alternating with two additions of buttermilk and lemon juice, and beating until just combined after each.
- Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling each three-quarters full. Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until golden brown and a cake tester inserted in centers comes out clean, about 22-25 minutes. Let cool for about 3-5 minutes in the pan and then move the cupcakes to wire racks to cool completely. Cupcakes can be stored overnight at room temperature, or frozen up to 2 months, in airtight containers.
For the Lemon Curd
- Combine yolks, lemon zest, lemon juice, and sugar in a heavy-bottom saucepan; whisk to combine. Cook over medium-high heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon (be sure to scrape the sides of the pan), until the mixture is thick enough to coat the back of the spoon, 8 to 10 minutes (mine ended up taking about 12 minutes), or until it registers 160 degrees on an instant-read thermometer.
- Remove saucepan from heat. Add salt and butter, one piece at a time, stirring until smooth. Strain through a fine sieve into a medium bowl. Cover with plastic wrap, pressing it directly onto the surface of the curd to prevent a skin from forming. Refrigerate until chilled and set, at least 1 hour or up to 1 day.
For the Seven Minute Frosting
- Combine 1 1/2 cups sugar with the water and corn syrup in a small saucepan; clip a candy thermometer to side of pan. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until sugar dissolves. Continue boiling, without stirring, until syrup reaches 230 degrees.
- Meanwhile, in the bowl of a standing electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whisk egg whites on medium-high speed until soft peaks form. With the mixer running, add the remaining 2 tablespoons of sugar, beating to combine.
- As soon as sugar syrup reaches 230 degrees, remove from heat. With the mixer on medium-low speed, pour syrup down side of the bowl in a slow, steady stream. Raise speed to medium-high; whisk until mixture is completely cool (test by touching the bottom of the bowl) and stiff (but not dry) peaks form, about 7 minutes. Use immediately.
To Prepare the Cupcakes
- To finish, make a hole in the center of the cupcake with either a cupcake corer or a knife (here is a tutorial). Spoon lemon curd into the center of each cupcake. Either fill a piping bag with frosting and pipe frosting onto each cupcake, swirling tip slightly and releasing as you pull up to form a peak, or just spoon some frosting onto the top of each cupcake, using a spoon to create peaks all over the cupcake (I did the latter). Using a small kitchen torch, hold the torch 3 to 4 inches from surface of frosting, and wave it back and forth until frosting is lightly browned all over. Serve immediately.
Yippie! Thanks for sharing. I am so excited to make these. :)
these pics are too cute rach
These are beautiful! Seriously want to try them.
Super cute, Rachel! I love lemon and the toasted meringue is a perfect touch. Congrats on finishing your first year and best of luck with the internship!
Oh good grief, lemon has to be my all time favourite flavour in baked goods, with lemon curd an achilles heel of mine to say the least! These look absolutely stunning
I’m not a cupcake fan, but this recipe made me go weak in the knees!
Usually I don’t love lemon in desserts, but this recipe totally changed my mind! They’re darn good! :)
What a brilliant twist of lemon meringue dessert! Your cupcakes make the tart version so yesterday haha!
What a gorgeous dessert you have here. And I just love that homemade lemon curd recipe!
Yummy! I love lemon anything and the idea of a lemon meringue cupcake definitely works for me.
Beautiful cupcakes. Love the toasted meringue!!
First off, congrats on finishing up your first year (and landing an internship) – though it always feels a little bittersweet leaving Tacoma at it’s most beautiful time of year. Enjoy your summer, and California :).
About the cupcakes: I’ve had this recipe bookmarked for AGES, though I’ve been sidetracked by one of my favorites from the Cupcakes book since it’s quite similar – Martha’s Meyer Lemon Cupcakes (on page 121). I’ve made them at least half a dozen times (including for a catering gig for a wedding last summer), they’re perfectly moist lemon-flecked poundcake in cupcake from that’s filled with a hefty dollop of lemon curd. So good! But next time I feel like making a cupcake that’s a bit more involved, I’ll have to try this iteration – they’re beautiful.
Oh my gosh, I love this. Love, love, love! Lemon cakes and pastries are among my favorite–the way the tartness tempers the sweetness is just perfect. Definitely pinning this one! Oh, and good luck with your internship–I always wish I had done that when I was in school!
Beautiful cupcakes!
And enjoy your college years! They go SO fast! I graduated a year ago and can hardly believe it!
These look super awesome! I love lemony stuff!