MSC: Lemon Meringue Cupcakes

This month, for The Martha Stewart Cupcake Club, we made Lemon Meringue Cupcakes on page 142 of Martha Stewart's Cupcakes.  This cupcake was chosen by Megan from My Baking Adventures.  Check out her blog -- she has some beautiful photos.

This was my favorite recipe from the book so far.  The cupcakes were light and fluffy (unlike many of the other ones I have made) and the lemon flavor is amazing!  As a bonus, these were a lot less work than I thought they would be, given that they had three parts.

First, they involved Sarah's favorite baking activity -- zesting a lemon.  It did not involve combining the sugar and the zest, but you can't have everything.  Second, these cupcakes involved buttermilk.  I love the flavor that buttermilk adds to baked goods -- it makes them so moist and it gives them a nice tang, which goes well with the lemon.   

The second component was the lemon curd.  It was very good and very lemony (although Dorie's lemon cream is still my favorite and would be awesome on these cupakes).  I didn't strain it at the end, and although it was a little lumpy, you didn't notice it in the cupcakes and I don't think I would take that extra step of dirtying up my strainer.

The third component was seven minute frosting.  Regular readers of this blog know that I destroyed my seven minute frosting on the coconut cupcakes, but this time it worked (it helped that I didn't add any extra liquid).  I followed the directions and it came out exactly right.  I thought it was perfect with these cupcakes.  I think actual meringue might have been to hard (crunchy) with the texture of the cupcakes.  I don't have a torch, so I didn't brown the frosting and it still tasted great.

Even though Martha said to serve these immediately, I ate one the next day and it was still good and fresh tasting.  Mmmm...you should make these if you enjoy lemon and lemon meringue.  Great pick Megan!