Little Lemon Meringue Cakes

Hello! fellow bloggers and lurkers! I’ve been M.I.A. for two whole months and am glad to be back. I can’t begin to express how frustrating these two months have been , what with the my laptop charger giving up on me , then realizing that the computer was . contaminated with viruses of sorts after waiting for a new charger to arrive from Melbourne. And now.. (sigh!!) that the computer has been fixed, it’s slower than it’s ever been, I feel like I’ve been ‘Driving Miss Daisy ‘ all morning!

Anyhow, enough whining for now, I think. Today , I’m posting a recipe adapted from Julie Le Clerc’s gorgeous book ‘ Little Café Cakes’. It’s beautiful to look at and tastes absolutely yummy!

Little Lemon Meringue Cakes

1 ½ cups Snowflake self-raising sponge flour

¾ cup caster sugar

150g salted butter, softened

3 eggs, lightly beaten

4 tblsp milk

juice and zest of 2 lemons

lemon curd (below)

meringue (below)

1 Preheat oven to 175C. Prepare 12 paper cases.

2 Place first six ingredients into a bowl and beat until smooth and creamy. Spoon mixture to ¾ fill cases. Bake for 20 minutes, then remove to a rack to cool. Reduce oven temperature to 120C.

3 Once cold enough to handle, cut out a large cavity from the top of each cupcake and discard. Fill cavity with lemon curd. Pipe small mounds of meringue on top of lemon curd. Bake for 10 minutes further to set meringue.

Lemon Curd

75g salted butter

½ cup sugar

Juice and zest of two lemons

2 eggs, beaten

1 Place butter, sugar, lemon juice and zest into a double boiler. Stir over heat until sugar has dissolved. Whisk warm mixture into beaten eggs and return to double boiler. Cook over a low heat until mixture thickens to coat the back of a spoon.

Meringue

2 egg whites

½ cup caster sugar

1. Whisk egg whites until stiff. Add 1 tablespoonful of the sugar and whisk until
incorporated. Whisk in remaining sugar until mixture is glossy.

Makes 12