Lemon Meringue Cupcakes

Last week at work we had a cake sale to raise money for the Wear it Pink breast cancer day. I wanted to make something a bit different for the sale so I had a go at these lemon meringue cupcakes.

The original recipe had coconut in the sponge and meringue, plus you were supposed to make your own lemon curd. I decided I didn't have the patience to make the curd then wait for it to cool so I used a jar of pre-made curd instead. I left out the coconut because I wanted the cakes to taste just like the Lemon Meringue Pie my mum makes (doesn't everyone love the pie their mum makes?).

Here's my version:

Ingredients
For the cake
125g stork margarine
the rind of 2 lemons
2/3 cup (150g) caster sugar
2 eggs
1/3 (80ml) milk- I used soya milk
1 1/4 cups (185g) self-raising flour
1 jar lemon curd

For the meringue
4 egg whites
1 cup (220g) caster sugar

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. Line a 12 hole muffin tray with paper cases.
2. Beat the margarine, rind, sugar and eggs till they are light and fluffy
3. Stir in the milk, then sift in the flour. Mix till everything is even.
4. Divide among the cases. I found it best to leave 2cm from the top of the case
5. Bake the cakes for 20-25mins. Put on a wire rack to cool. Increase to the oven temperature to 220 degrees C
6. Cut the top of the cakes so they are flat then scoop a hole out in the middle of each cake with a teaspoon (I saved all these cut-offs as treats for the cook!)
7. Fill the holes with lemon curd.
8. Make the meringue by beating the egg whites till they form stiff peaks then stir in the sugar a bit at a time. ( I have to admit my meringue fell flat every time I added the sugar so any hints for better meringue are welcome. The flat meringue was ok though and made more of a marshmallow topping)
9. Arrange the cakes on a flat baking tray and pipe the meringue on top of each cake.
10. Bake in the oven for 5 mins or until the tops are just brown. (As the photo shows I overcooked my first batch)