Happy Birthday, Hannah!

Growing up, it was tradition in our house that we got to choose what we wanted for dinner and dessert on our birthday.  My sister always chose lemon meringue pie, so our Mom would lovingly make her one from scratch.  I remember thinking it was a very difficult and time consuming dessert.  What I don't remember is what I thought of the taste.  I don't think I looooved it, but I don't think I disliked it either (anyone want to chime in here and refresh my memory??).  I do know that I haven't had any since though.  So I am guessing I didn't looooove it or I'd have been more inclined to eat it and/or make it.

I do like lemon though.  And I do like pie.  And dessert.  So, I figured we could have a little birthday treat in my sister's honor tonight since we aren't together to celebrate her birthday today (see how good I am at coming up with a reason to bake and indulge!).  I had come across these lemon meringue cupcakes on Pinterest a few months ago and pinned them because they looked so pretty.  Today seemed like the perfect opportunity to try them out, even though I was a little worried if I'd be able to make meringue.

I consulted the inspiration recipe, as well as this one from Martha Stewart, this random one from a Google search, and the lemon curd recipe from the Joy of Cooking that my sister had once blogged about as being delicious.  I decided I did NOT need to make 24 or 28 cupcakes like these recipes were for, but instead thought 6 would be a much more reasonable number for three of us to consume before a) we were sick of them, b) they got moldy in the humidity or stale in the fridge or c) I couldn't justify having one AND one of whatever else I had been inspired to bake next!  And there was still the uncertainty about the meringue.  No need to waste so many eggs for a potential failure of a recipe.

This is what I came up with:

cupcakes
3/4 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 cup salted butter, room temp
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg
zest of 1 lemon
juice of 1 lemon
1/4 cup buttermilk

Cream butter and sugar until smooth.  Mix flour and baking powder and add to butter/sugar.  Add in egg.  Then lemon juice and zest and finally the buttermilk.  Bake for 22 mins at 325.

lemon curd
2 egg yolks
zest of one lemon
juice of one lemon
1/4 cup sugar
2.5 Tbsp cold salted butter

In a small pot over medium heat, combine everything except the butter.  Stir continuously with a wooden spoon.  Use a candy thermometer to ensure you get to 160 degrees.  This should take 8-10 minutes.  Remove from heat.  Slowly add in small pieces of the cold butter.  Immediately strain through a fine sieve.  Put plastic wrap right against the curd to avoid a 'skin' and put in the fridge to chill. 

meringue 
2 egg whites
1/4 cup sugar
1/8 tsp cream of tartar
1/4 tsp vanilla

Mix egg whites and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer.  Place bowl over pot of simmering water and stir continuously until sugar is melted and thermometer reads 140 degrees. Remove from heat.  Add in vanilla.  Mix 5-6 minutes until strong peaks form.

assembly
Cut a cone out of the top of cupcakes.  Fill with curd.  Cut bottom of cone off and replace top over the curd.  Spoon meringue over top and form many peaks.  Put under low broiler for approx 2 minutes (watch like a hawk, set timers, do whatever you have to do to ensure you just get a nice, mild browning on the peaks without scorching them).

You will note that in MANY photos of lemon meringue cupcakes, the meringue is piped into a smooth and tidy swirl.  Well, my inspiration picture had fun, crazy, irregular spikes so I kind of wanted to do that.  Also I, myself, am a smooth and tidy, symmetrical kind of gal while Hannah is more of a funky, spiky, artsy kind of gal.  And these were in her honor for her birthday, so I just HAD to go with the spikes.  And although not all the recipes call for the broiling part, I just HAD to do it.  You see, the colored spikes reminded me of Hannah's hair in the '80s about the time that Mom would have been whipping up those lemon meringue pies for her.  I wish I had a photo of her hair to share, but you will just have to close your eyes and try to picture this.  Buzz cut all over except for a VERY large set of crazy long, teased, spiked bangs ... of any shade of the rainbow she was feeling like sporting at the time.  Ah, the 80s!

Happy Birthday, Hannah!