The Best-Ever Lemon Cupcakes Recipe Adventure Story

Lemon Curd Recipe

(Makes 2 cups)

• In a small, heavy-bottomed pot, combine the egg yolks, lemon zest, lemon juice and sugar and whisk them together. Stir constantly until the mixture is thick, between 8 and 10 minutes and registers 160 degrees on an instant-read thermometer.
• Remove pot and add salt and butter, one piece at a time. (The butter, not the salt!) Stirring until melted, each time.
• Strain the curd.
• Cover with plastic making sure that the plastic is pressed onto the surface of the curd which will keep a skin from forming.
• Refrigerate at least one hour or up to one day. Making this the day before would certainly spread the work out a bit.

Lemon Meringue Cupcakes Recipe

(Makes 24 cupcakes.)

• Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
• Line muffin tins with cupcake liners.
• Whisk flour, baking powder and salt together.
• Mix butter and sugar together at medium speed.
• Add eggs one at a time and wait until the egg is all mixed in before adding the next one.
• Add zest and vanilla.
• Add flour mixture in three batches with two batches of buttermilk and lemon juice in between. Beat until just combined after each addition.
• Place batter in lined cups filling about three-quarters full.
• Bake until golden, cake tester comes out clean or about 25 minutes.
• Cool completely before removing from the muffin tins.
• These cupcakes can be stored overnight at room temperature or frozen for up to two months.

Seven Minute Frosting Masquarading as Lemon Meringue Recipe

(Makes a lot.)

• Combine 1 1/2 cups sugar with the water and corn syrup in a small pot.
• Attach a candy thermometer to your pot.
• Boil over a medium heat, stirring until the sugar is dissolved.
• Continue boiling but do not stir anymore.
• When syrup is 230 degrees, remove from heat.
• Meanwhile
  Whisk egg whites on medium-high speed until soft peaks form. (I used my stand mixer's regular beaters as it does not have a whisk.)
• With mixer running, gradually add 2 tbsps sugar.
• When syrup reaches the required temperature, gradually add it to the mixing bowl with the mixer on a medium-low speed.
• Raise speed to medium high and whisk until cool. (The bottom of the bowl wil be cool to touch.) Stiff peaks will form and it will take approximatey 7 minutes.

Helpful Cupcake Hints From Martha and Brenda

• Brenda warns that lemons can be expensive so you might want to choose to make these cupcakes when lemons are on sale. The day I was shopping for lemons, they were two for $1.00 which was not too bad but I thought I needed 9 (you actually need 6). I was lucky and able to purchase bagged lemons with more than I needed at a lower cost.
• Martha recommends cupcake liners; Brenda never bothers with them and did not have any difficulty removing the cupcakes from the pans so it is purely a matter of personal choice. There are, however, an endless choice of cupcake liners available from Amazon for any theme you might be working on.
• Brenda says that it is critical that the butter be at room temperature, a little on the soft side. I have tried with cookies to use butter that isn't soft enough and it just does not work.
• Martha says that one of the biggest problems with cupcakes is over mixing so be careful not to do that!
• Brenda says that It is possible, albeit risky, to make these cupcakes without a thermometer. I failed to follow Rule Number 1 and did not realize that I needed one. When the time came to make the lemon curd, I just cooked it for the longer time given and made sure that it fit the written description given in the recipe. When I was making the meringue, it was a bit more difficult. I used my meat thermometer which went to 212 degrees. However, the syrup needed to reach 230 degrees so I just cooked the syrup longer. Fortunately for me, both worked out fine. I'd recommend, however, that you buy a thermometer!
• Brenda did not strain the curd and could see no issues with not having done so.
• Brenda successfully used her stand mixer's regular beaters because she does not have a whisk attachment.