Martha Stewart's Lemon Meringue Cupcakes

The saga of creating delicious noms from leftover portions of previous leftover noms continues.  Once again, I had a tub of lemon curd with which I have been waiting to bake with.  When I saw this amazing recipe for Lemon Meringue Cupcakes in Martha Stewart's Cupcakes Book, I couldn't wait to give it a shot.

 

 First things first, starting simple, I made the cupcakes.

After they cooled, I put my lemon curd into a pastry bag and just sort of stuck the tips down in the cupcakes and squeezed.  As this was my first attempt at filling cupcakes, I was not sure what to expect.  Although the cupcakes were not filled very much, I think it was an okay job for a first try.  Because there was such a small amount of lemon curd on the inside of the cupcakes (and maybe because I had a bunch left over), I topped them all with another layer of the curd.

 I made the 7-minute frosting, which involved whisking egg whites in the mixer while simultaneously boiling sugar and corn syrup, then mixing the two.  Although it sounds stressful, it really wasn't that bad.  Because I have had such bad luck with egg whites and meringue in the past, I have to admit I was nervous about this part.  I was surprised that the icing turned out beautifully, and was absolutely delicious.  I popped it into a pastry bag and plopped it on top of my cupcakes.

I got to use my new super-cool brulee torch for the first time, that thing is addictive!  I love playing with fire.  Picture is courtesy of the BF, even he thought the flame was cool!

Finished product, in my new cupcake case, ready to go to work!  Yummy yum!