Lemon Raspberry Cupcakes With Meringue Frosting

Ingredients:

For the Cake:

• 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 3 cups powdered sugar
• 4 1/2 teaspoons finely grated lemon peel
• 2 large eggs
• 1 1/4 cups self-rising flour
• 1/4 cup buttermilk
• 4 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• Seedless raspberry jam
• Fresh raspberries (optional)

For the Frosting:

• 3 large egg whites
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons water
• 1 tablespoon light corn syrup
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

For the Cupcakes:

Gather ingredients.

Preheat oven to 350F. Line 12 standard (1/3-cup) muffin cups with paper liners.

Using an electric mixer, beat butter, 1 1/2 cups sugar, and 3 teaspoons lemon peel in a bowl until fluffy and pale yellow. Beat in eggs one at a time. Beat in half of flour. Beat in buttermilk and 2 tablespoons lemon juice, then remaining flour.

Drop one rounded tablespoonful of batter into each paper liner. Drop one teaspoon raspberry jam onto the center of batter. Cover jam with remaining batter. You will want to fill the cupcake liners 2/3 of the way full, to avoid over pouring cupcakes.

Bake cupcakes until tester inserted half way into the center comes out clean, about 23 minutes. Cool cupcakes in pan on rack. Cool completely before frosting. My cupcakes took exactly 23 minutes, which is oddly specific, but it works. When inserting the tester you will want to stick it in towards the side of the cupcake to make sure you don't get jam on it.

For the Frosting:

In a large, clean heatproof bowl, combine the egg whites, sugar, water and corn syrup. Set the bowl over (but not touching) simmering water in a saucepan and heat the mixture, whisking constantly, until the sugar has dissolved and the mixture is very warm to the touch (about 160F on an instant-read thermometer), about two minutes. Remove the bowl from the saucepan. Using an electric mixer on high speed, beat until glossy and voluminous, about 5 minutes. Beat in vanilla. Use right away. My mixture took longer to heat up than two minutes. If you are planning on using this I suggest you really use it right away, it starts to get weird after awhile.

My Experience:

I have never made this recipe. I have also never made meringue frosting before. These cupcakes turned out really well. The only thing I would change is the frosting, and how much I put in the cupcakes. I didn't fill the cupcake liners as much as I should. I was experimenting with a different frosting than normal and although it was good, it wasn't my favourite. I would recommend using a raspberry butter cream frosting, considering that you still probably have some raspberry jam left. This was a very nice recipe that I would recommend to anyone!

Enjoy!xx