Meringue: My Old Nemesis

Alright so, today I got home from Chicago and made lemon cupcakes filled with lemon curd, topped with rasberry italian meringue buttercream.

Woof. Recipes first, then rant.

…Problem being, I kind of winged a lot of this, so I’ll do what I can. I went based off this recipe for the basis of the cupcakes.

For the Cupcakes

  • 2½ cups / 6 dl flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon baking soda
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • 8 oz 2 sticks / 230 g unsalted butter, slightly softened
  • 1½ cups / 3 6 dl sugar
  • 2 eggs room temp.
  • 3 egg yolks room temp.
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1 teaspoon lemon zest
  • 1 teaspoon orange zest I left this out and used 2 tsp lemon zest instead
  • ¼ cup / 0 6 dl fresh lemon juice
  • ½ cup / 1 2 dl whole milk
  • 1/2 cup of sour cream

For the Cake

  • Heat the oven to 350. (failure to do this in a timely manner. Why gods)
  • In a large bowl,using a whisk, mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together.
  • Set aside.
  • In a standing mixer, beat together the butter and sugar. (melted the butter rather then softened, be warned, this will change your consistency, immensely)
  • Add the yogurt, milks, and vanilla until combined.
  • Slowly mix dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until no lumps remain. Batter will be thick.
  • Using a handheld mixer and a clean bowl, beat the egg whites until until thick and foamy, about 3 minutes.
  • Fold into cupcake batter.
  • Divide batter among 12 cupcake liners and bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. (be wary of cupcake liners, for they should get sprayed down with some kind of grease. also, do like, a bare minimum amount of batter. no, really, less than that) (I also let it back for an extra 5 minutes because it was still very squishy. this caused mine to fall in on themselves. less of a fuck to give about that, in lieu of the whole filling with curd)
  • Allow cupcakes to cool completely.
  • Using a paring knife, gently cut a hole out of the top of the cupcake and down through the center being careful to not go to the bottom of the cake. (I used my finger, because I’m an abomination)
  • Gently fill the cupcake with a scoop of curd and spread a little more all over the top of the cupcake. (oozed curd out of a bag. ahem)

I also added some of my lemon zest directly into the batter. Strong recommend, made it fucking delicious.

For the curd, I followed this out of the basis of my favorite lemon meringue pie. This got exciting, because we ran out of sugar – I also did this bit first, (and doubled it to make some for a friend) because curd tends to need a bit of coddling. Fun part, now I have several jars of curd. Less fun part; boiling curd will shoot directly up into the air. No, really.

  • 1½ cups white sugar
  • ⅓ cup cornstarch
  • 1½ cups cold water
  • 3 eggs, separated into yolks and whites
  • 4 medium lemons
  • 3 Tbsp. butter, softened
  1. Grate and/or zest the skin of all lemons into a small bowl. Slice the lemons in half and squeeze the juice into a separate bowl. Remove seeds if necessary and set aside.
  2. Mix sugar and cornstarch in a heavy saucepan. Add cold water and whisk mixture until smooth. Heat on medium to medium-high heat and stir constantly while allowing mixture to come to a boil.
  3. When mixture begins to boil, continue stirring constantly and allow to boil for 2-3 minutes, letting filling become thick and glossy.
  4. Remove from heat and pour about a ½-1 cup of hot filling slowly into the bowl with the separated egg yolks, make sure to be mixing the eggs while the hot filling is being poured in. Return egg yolk mixture into saucepan and heat and whisk until smooth. Bring to a boil again. Boil for about 2 minutes.
  5. Whisk in the butter until smooth. Add the lemon juice and lemon rind, whisk until smooth. Pour filling into pie shell and immediately top with meringue.

From there I wanted a rasberry sauce, to add to the buttercream my mother makes which is as follows:
-Take about a cup and a half of rasberries, add to a saucepan on medium low.
-Add several tablespoons of sugar. Gently mash with a spoon and cook down. Keep stirring so it doesn’t burn. Congratulations, your house smells delicious.


And then I made meringue buttercream. This was new, and fucking fraught. By which I mean, I done goofed a few parts. Anyways. Basis of the recipe from here.

  • 4 egg whites large, room temperature
  • 1 1/3 cups granulated sugar 267g
  • 1/4 tsp salt optional
  • 16 ounces unsalted butter 454g, room temperature cut into 1-inch pieces
  • 1 tsp pure vanilla extract optional, 4.9mL
  • 1/4 tsp cream of tartar .84g
  • 1/3 cup water 79mL
  • Beat the egg whites, salt and cream of tartar, slowly add in 1/3 cup of sugar and continue beating until soft peaks form.
  • While the eggs are getting whipped add the remaining sugar and 1/3 cup water into a medium pot and place on medium-low heat.
  • Stir until sugar melts and becomes clear.
  • Maintain at medium-high heat until temperature reads 235-240F.
  • Drizzle the sugar into the mixer immediately. At this point the meringue should be at the soft peak stage.
  • Run mixer until meringue is cool/tepid.
  • Switch to a paddle attachment. Add room temperature butter into running mixer one tablespoon piece at a time.
  • Add the salt and vanilla if using.
  • Beat until butter is combined and mixture has reached a silky consistency.

Places I fucked up include: I did not keep the butter at room temperature; the kitchen aid was already dirty due my usage on the cakes themselves….annd I do not have a sugar thermometer so this was all done very by eye. Fun fact; if it’s soupy as mine was, stick it in the fridge and ignore it. Surround it by ice. It should come together..better..er..ish.

Ahem.

Now for the bitchery part. Alright, look, I get it. Meringue is fussy. It needs to be treated just so to behave, and if you don’t it falls apart and you are a FAILURE so it’s a fun little experiment in do you have an attention span (I don’t) and honestly, it tastes pretty fluffy so it’s not awful.

But for honest to fuck’s sake, it isn’t that special and I think it gets overcooked when people make it for pie or anything else, and then it tastes vile.

I also am of the opinion a Baked Alaska is fucking vile though, because I’m a horrible little savage. Frankly, I’d eat the stuff with a spoon, or just on top of some curd (Oh..wait. That’s pie. Duhrr.)

This whole recipe was a madcap notion I’ve been bouncing my head for awhile, I definitely want to attempt it again, when I am not exhausted from driving home from Chicago, burning out from school and work, and halfway gone loony from uh. Life.

That said, I have lemon curd in a jar now.

Also I know how to make the rasberry sauce, so I’ma eat it with a spoon. RIP my back and the dishes tho.