Christmas
Party Eats, Desserts, Recipe
Lemon Meringue Cupcakes Recipe
Lemon meringue cupcakes are the perfect balance between sweet and sour. Filled with lemon curd and dressed up with a delightfully fluffy meringue topping, these homemade lemon cupcakes are absolutely delicious.
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Lemon desserts are always my favorite because of their combination of tart flavor and sweet taste. I pride myself in making one of the best lemon bars around, so branching out into a lemon cupcake was a natural progression.
These lemon meringue cupcakes work great for elegant tea parties, pretty baby showers or fancy bridal showers.
Recipe tips
You can absolutely use store-bought lemon curd for the filling, but I’d encourage you to try making it from scratch. Although a little time consuming, it really is a simple recipe.
And, it makes the use of a double broiler. If you’ve tried my Swiss meringue buttercream frosting recipe you already know how to use a double broiler. It’s basically just a pan of warm water simmering on the stove with a heat-proof bowl on top of it. The mixture in the bowl Is heated by the water, it cooks but never gets too hot. It’s often used for creams and sauces that require eggs because it guarantees that you don’t accidentally make scrambled eggs.
Make the lemon curd first as it takes 20 minutes and then needs to cool. The recipe makes plenty of lemon curd, enough at least to fill two dozen cupcakes if not more. Store those delicious leftovers into a mason jar in the fridge. Now you have a delicious topping for those scones you’re going to make next 🙂
Also, if you don’t have this tool to squeeze the juice out of your lemons I highly encourage you to go get it. So much less bulky than an electric juicer and easier to handle than just a hand juicer you have to twist. I actually have the lemon upside down in this picture. I don’t know what I was thinking.
As you know, I love to dress up my cupcakes, and these lemon meringue cupcakes are no exception. They are wrapped in my free lemonade stand printable cupcake wrappers that you can grab from my free printables page.
The meringue topping is soft and sweet. I could have piped it on the cupcakes to make it look fancier but I just took a big spoon and dropped it right on top and set it in the oven.
I couldn’t find my kitchen torch, but burning the edges would have been kind of cool. You could also set the oven on broil for a couple of minutes. But watch out, the broil setting on many ovens is really good at making charcoal so don’t take your eyes off your cupcakes.
Don’t forget to get your free printable lemon cupcake wrapper.
Lemon Meringue Cupcakes
Lemon cupcakes with lemon curd filling and meringue topping.
Ingredients
Lemon Curd
- 3/4 cups sugar
- 3 Tbsp all-purpose flour
- 1 pinch salt
- 1/4 cup lemon juice
- zest of 1 lemon
- 3 egg yolks Use the whites for the meringue.
- 2 Tbsp unsalted butter
Lemon Cupcakes
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 Tbsp lemon zest
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 eggs
- 2 Tbsp lemon juice
Meringue
- 3 egg whites Leftover from lemon curd recipe
- 1 pinch salt
- 1/4 cup sugar
Instructions
MAKE THE LEMON CURD
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Put a pan with water to simmer on the stove.
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In a heatproof bowl, mix the sugar, flour, salt, lemon juice, and zest and mix well. Add the water, egg yolks, and butter.
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Set on top of the pan of simmering water and stir constantly with a wisk until thickened and smooth. About 20 minutes
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Let cool and set aside.
MAKE THE LEMON CUPCAKES
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Preheat oven to 350º F.
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In one bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, salt, and lemon zest.
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In a second bowl, cream the sugar and butter with a mixer until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time. Making sure each egg is mixed before adding the next. Add lemon juice and mix well.
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Add the flour mixture from the first bowl and mix until the batter is smooth.
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Fill 12 cupcake wrappers equally with the mixture and cook for 15 minutes or until the cupcakes are golden on top.
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Remove from oven and cool.
MAKE THE MERINGUE
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Add a pinch of salt to the egg whites and beat until they start to stiffen. Add in the sugar gradually and continue to beat until you get nice stiff peaks.
PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER
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Using an apple corer or a knife, remove a little hole from the center of each cupcake and fill with about a teaspoon full of lemon curd.
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Drop or pipe a tablespoon or 2 of the meringue on top of the cupcakes. Dust with a little extra sugar if desired and set in the oven for another 5-7 minutes or until golden.
If you have it, use a torch to burn those meringue edges -
Let cool & enjoy.
Don’t lose it, pin it!
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Picked for you:
Looks like a delightful summer dessert!
Yum! Can’t wait to make this for my sister’s birthday!
I tried them. They’re amazing!!!
You’re a fantastic baker.
And I love the kind o’ lopsided photo.
Those look so good Nathalie ! I love lemon cake so I can only imagine how yummy these are.
These look incredible! I happen to have an obsession with lemon curd and am totally going to try this! Although I may do it the other way around and sprinkle some cupcake onto my lemon curd! : ) I also love that juicer. I have the same one. And I forget sometimes and do it backwards too!
This looks like a perfect summer dessert!! Love the little lemon paper cups, too!
This sounds super yummy!! The cupcake wrapper is so cute too!
Thank you Sarina. I love that printable lemon set!
These look fabulous! I love lemon anything and they are perfect for summer!
Summer is lemon time, that’s for sure.
Oh so yummy!!! Lemon curd is one of my favorites!! I’ll definitely be trying these this summer!!
Made from scratch is way better than the jar stuff…
These look delicious my friend! I love sweetness of a cupcake combined with the refreshing zing of lemon 😍
Thank you Jennifer.