Showing posts with label meringue. Show all posts
Showing posts with label meringue. Show all posts

Monday, March 15, 2010

MSC: Lemon Meringue Cupcakes

This month for our Martha Stewart Cupcakes challenge, Megan from My Baking Adventures chose the Lemon Meringue cupcakes. I was very excited to try this recipe since it required me to step out of my baking "box" so to speak. Lemon Curd was something that I had never attempted before. The amount of eggs in this month's challenge was a little crazy. I think I went through about two dozen eggs between the cupcakes (4 eggs), the curd (8 egg yolks and two whole eggs), and the frosting (5 egg whites)!

I decided to make the lemon curd first since it needed to chill in the fridge for a few hours. I thought the actual process of making the curd was pretty simple. It was when I went to check on it a few hours later was when I realized that I had failed, the curd was still runny and had never firmed up. I was so disappointed! I took to my Facebook to rant about my failed lemon curd. My Wilton cake instructor, Dorothy, asked me what went wrong. She talked me through it, and it turns out I didn't cook it long enough. I'll have to give lemon curd another try...

On the other hand, I really enjoyed making the cake. I loved the fragrant smell of lemons while making them. I tried Martha's Seven Minute Frosting again, just to see if I would have better luck than I did last time. But no, they were exactly the same. I guess I figure when I put some much effort into making frosting I expect it to taste amazing, but this frosting is just kind of boring.

When it came time to toast the cupcakes, my husband Alex was more than willing to help me out:




The final results:




The verdict: I would make the cake for this recipe again. The frosting, heck no: I'm done with this frosting. I'll stick to my classic buttercream, thank you very much. And when I'm feeling ambitious (or when I have 8 egg yolks lying around), I'll try making Lemon Curd again.

Be sure and check out all of the other baker's results. You can see a list of all the other participating bakers here.

AND please stay tuned later today for a giveaway!!