Lemon cupcakes filled with a tart homemade lemon curd and topped with a toasted marshmallow meringue. These lemon meringue cupcakes are delicious and perfect for both lemon and lemon meringue pie lovers!
How To Make Lemon Meringue Cupcakes:
Step 1: Make the lemon curd filling and let it set in the fridge to cool.
Step 2: Preheat the oven to 375. This recipe makes 12 cupcakes, so line at 12 count muffin tin with the cupcake wrappers of your choosing.
Step 3: “Mash” the lemon zest and sugar together with the back of a spoon and stir it around so there are no noticeable pieces of zest and the sugar resembles a light pale yellow color as shown below.
Step 4: Prepare the dry ingredients in a large bowl by sifting: all-purpose flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt together; whisk and set aside.
Step 5: Cream the butter and lemon sugar together until fluffy (about 2 minutes.) Mix in the eggs (one at a time), sour cream, whole milk, and lemon juice.
Step 6: Add the wet mixture into the prepared dry ingredients and stir just until combined. (Over stirring will result in denser cupcakes.)
Step 7: Fill a 12-count lined cupcake tin all the way full and bake for 5 minutes at 375, and then reduce heat to 350 and bake for another 10 minutes. Having a higher temp at the beginning lets the cupcakes rise and have high tops to them.(Not the shoes!) Then reducing the temp lets them bake at a steady rate so they do not over-bake.
Step 8: Core cooled cupcakes by using a cupcake corer, which comes in handy. Or use a knife to cut the centers out of the cupcakes. Make sure to not cut too far down into the cupcake or to the bottom. When taking the cupcake out of the wrapper to eat, you don’t want the curd to slip out the bottom!
Step 9: Fill centers of cupcakes with the delicious lemon curd.
Click here to view my lemon curd blog post. This is the filling that we are going to put in these lemon meringue cupcakes. I think this is what makes these cupcakes. I wouldn’t skip on doing this step. You can also buy lemon curd at the store to make this recipe simpler, however this lemon curd recipe is super simple and worth it!
Next, make the FROSTING!
How To Make Marshmallow Meringue Frosting:
Super easy and quick! Combine eggs white, sugar, cream of tartar, and salt together in a heat-safe bowl and put it over a double boiler or a sauce pan simmering with a couple inches of water (see full process below in instruction card). Stir the mixture until the sugar dissolves. Then transfer to a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment or in a large bowl with a hand mixer. Lastly, whip on high until it resembles marshmallow fluff (about 7 minutes.) Whip in vanilla for 20 seconds. Done!
Step 10: Pipe or spread meringue on to filled cupcakes. I used a Wilton 1M tip which you can buy here or in the speciality baking aisle at a grocery store. Toast with a kitchen torch to finish the process. It makes it really these cupcakes seem like a bite of lemon meringue pie! I got my kitchen torch from here.
With these every bite is just as delicious as the first! Make them and comment how turned out are below! -The Big Booty Baker
Lemon Meringue Cupcakes
Ingredients
Method
- Preheat the oven to 375°F. Line a 12 count cupcake tin with cupcake liners.
- In a small bowl mash/stir the lemon zest with the sugar until there are not any bits of zest showing, and the sugar looks pale yellow.
- Sift the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into a large bowl and whisk; then set aside.
- Add eggs, butter, lemon juice, sour cream, and sugar to a medium bowl and whisk until smooth.
- Add wet mixture into the dry ingredients and stir just until combined. Fill cupcake wrappers all the way. Bake for 5 minutes at 375°F, then reduce oven to 350°F and bake for another 10 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean with a few crumbs.
- In a heat-safe bowl, whisk the first four ingredients listed until fully combined.
- Set bowl over a saucepan filled with a few inches of water that is starting to simmer. Whisk mixture constantly over the heat for about 5 minutes or until egg whites are warm to the touch and the sugar has dissolved.
- Remove the bowl from the heat and transfer mixture to a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment or a large bowl with a hand mixer. Mix on high speed until stiff glossy peaks form. About 5-7 minutes. Add vanilla and mix for 20 seconds to combine.
- Add to a piping bag with a Wilton 1M tip, any other desired tip or frost with a knife.
- Core the center of your cupcakes by cutting out the center, but not all the way to the bottom. Discard the cores into a small bowl which can be eaten as a snack. Fill the cored centers with your premade lemon curd. Top with marshmallow meringue frosting, and toast with a kitchen torch if desired.