I see some folks talking about Easter stuff, as is tradition I did the desserts for the big family get together. Originally I was going to make a cake but I decided to make cupcakes instead, seemed like a fun idea
I went with a lemon meringue idea, white cake with lemon curd and meringue that I heavily whipped on top. I had everything I thought I needed, so I went with my favorite basic white cake recipe, which is flour (cake flour this time, I had what was left of a box), sugar, baking powder, salt, eggs and egg whites, whole milk or buttermilk, vanilla and butter, mixed it up for a bit and it came out great, 25 minutes in at 350 and bam
I probably should have turned them halfway through to achieve uniform browning but otherwise great, soft and springy on the inside with the little bit of crust so that it can tolerate toppings
Next came the curd, I feel like there's lots of ways to make it but I like lemons (juice and zest/peels), sugar, cornstarch, an egg and some yolks, and butter, just saucepan it up with the juice/zest and sugar, then grab some of the hot juice and mix it with the starch in a bowl, combine and recombine (back in the pan), reduce to low, add eggs and butter, reduce and thicken, sieve the big chunkies out and put it in a bowl to cool, I did so next to my kitchen door leading out to my deck (it was around 30 degrees last night, perfect to chill it further)
Afterwards I combined, grabbed cupcakes, added curd (dipped the tops in) and then added meringue with a ziploc piping bag (forgot to securely close the back end some gooshed out on me, as is tradition), at the last second I grabbed my confectioners' torch because why wouldn't I toast the meringue
All in all quite happy with them, I made a dozen in this carrier and a few extra that I will take with me but not tell anyone about unless they're needed (so I can eat them myself later lol, they're fantastic judging by the samples)
Been a while since I piped on meringue, can you tell
