Lime Meringue Cupcakes

You will remember just a few days ago I achieved my first miracle in baking (not the double-yolk egg) and managed to make my first ever batch of lime curd; well this evening I put the lime curd to the use for which I had intended and made accompanying vanilla sponges and Italian Meringue.

I used the recipe (almost to the letter, no, really I am serious this time) in Cupcakes from the Primrose Bakery:

110g unsalted butter (softened)
225g golden caster sugar
2 large eggs
150g self-raising flour
125g plain flour
120ml semi-skimmed milk (room temperature)
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp of salt (my own addition)

Sift the two flours together with the salt and then pour the vanilla into the milk.

First of all I made the batter in the usual way, blending the butter and sugar together (this time I used a hand mixer from the very beginning to save my wrists).  Once it was all blended and smooth I added in the eggs one by one and mixed them in thoroughly.

The first egg being added

Once the eggs were both incorporated into the mixture I started to add in the sifted flour and the milk and vanilla mix 1/3 at a time until the batter was thick and well mixed.

The almost finished batter

This batter went a lot further than the Red Velvet and I was able to get 12 equal sized scoops into the tin.

In the tin ready for the oven

I placed them in a 160⁰C for exactly 25 minutes and then took them out of the oven and placed them on a rack to cool.

Warm out of the oven

While the cakes were cooling on the rack I made my second batch of Italian meringue of the week, using the following:

97g egg whites (room temperature)
63g water (yes, again I know this is a weird amount but it works)
250g granulated sugar

I melted the sugar and water together in a saucepan, and when the syrup reached 100⁰C I switched the stand mixer on high with the egg whites and whipped them until they were firm peaks.  Once the thermometer in the syrup showed it had reached 118⁰C I switched off the heat and started to slowly add teh bubbling mixture to the egg whites.  I have discovered that it is much more effective to mix the egg whites in a metal bowl which has been cleaned with fresh lemon juice rather than a plastic or glass bowl.  Having added in all the sugar syrup I added a few drops of liquid food colouring (in green because I wanted it to complement the lime curd and the theme of the bake sale is MacMillan a charity who uses green as their signature colour).  I carried on whipping the egg whites and sugar syrup until the sides of the bowl were cool to the touch.

Once they were completely cool I 'cored' each cake using an apple corer (incredibly useful if you want to put something in the cupcake once it's baked) and then filled them with the home-made lime curd.

Cored and filled with lime curd

Once I had filled each cupcake and placed the core back in the cake I spooned the Italian Meringue into a piping bag and then piped it onto the cakes.

The swirls looked good but of course I had to go a little bit OTT (as you will see) and piped on a few stars and things to fill every single inch of cupcake that I could, I then placed them under the grill to brown them just a little bit.

The finished article