Lemon Meringue Cupcakes

It's not very often you don't catch me thinking about cake, but the other day the thought came to me to combine the much-loved dessert lemon meringue pie with cupcakes. I don't quite know why - anything to procrastinate revision, I'm guessing. But I gave it a go and they are soooooo delicious. Here's how to make them: 

You Will Need:

For 12 Cupcakes:

• 125g of butter or margarine 
• 125g of caster sugar
• 2 medium eggs
• 125g self-raising flour
• zest of half a lemon
• 1 tbsp milk

For the butter icing: 

• 200g icing sugar
• 75g butter
• juice of almost a whole lemon
• a meringue nest, broken up into varied-sized chunks
• yellow crunches 

Method:

• Pre-heat your oven to 190C/375F/gas mark 5 before lining a cupcake tin with 12 cupcake cases.
• Mix together the butter and sugar with an electric hand whisk until white and fluffy in consistency. Beat in an egg, then add quarter of the flour. Beat in the second egg, then add another quarter of the flour. Once all mixed together, add the lemon zest and the final half of the flour and beat until the mixture is smooth and easily drops off the beaters. If this doesn't happen, add the milk. 
• Spoon two dollops of the mixture into each cupcake case. Bake in the oven for around 20 minutes or until you can stick a skewer into the cake and it comes out clean. Place each cupcake onto a wire rack and leave to cool.

• To make the icing, beat the butter with a wooden spoon in a bowl until it is smooth. Then sift the icing sugar into the bowl in quarters so there's less of a powdery explosion happening in your kitchen. Squeeze in the lemon juice and beat until there is a fluffy but firm consistency. You may need more icing sugar if it looks as though your icing won't hold a swirl. 
• Spoon your icing into a piping bag, then pipe a swirl onto your cakes. Before the icing hardens, break your meringue nests into varied sized pieces (but not too big, all they'll cover the whole cake) and scatter them onto the cupcake. Then pour a handful of yellow crunches into the palm of your hand and scatter them onto the icing as you wish. And voilà!   

Hope you enjoy making and eating these little gems! 

From, 

Eleanor