nutella cheesecake

banana walnut bread

lemon curd pinwheels

lemon meringue cupcakes

Exams are around the corner. It's Valentine's day today.

I should be either a) studying for the exams or b) celebrating it with some loved ones. But instead I am: c) baking my butt off all day and watching TV


I was originally supposed to make lemon macarons (ooh!) for Valentine's day to give out to my friends when I went to school but they failed miserably due to reasons like:

#1: The recipe had some unusual things in it - You could say that its a recipe for disaster (ha!)
#2: Making macarons is hard work - sifting, folding, waiting ages for the meringue to stiffen
#3: I pipe my macaron batter all over the baking sheet. So I get really huge cookies, almost the size of the cookies you get from Subway

I also prepared lemon curd the day before specially for the macarons but since it failed, I decided to make some lemon meringue cupcakes instead. I've actually made these before and even posted the recipe on my now-dead-and-never-reviving blog. It was great. But man, this is even better.


Maybe I'll experiment more to make it EVEN better. When I have the time.

Recipe - 

For the lemon curd:

(Makes a small jar)

20-25g unsalted butter (cubed)

100g granulated sugar

1 egg + 1 egg yolk 

50ml freshly squeezed lemon juice (fresh is always better)

1/2 teaspoon grated lemon zest (more if you want it to be more tangy)

In a heavy saucepan over low heat, whisk all the ingredients together EXCEPT the butter, stirring constantly

When the mixture thickens, turn off the heat. Add the butter and mix until the butter has been incorporated. 

Let the curd cool slightly then transfer it into your jar. Be sure to cover it so that it doesn't form a skin at the top. Leave in the fridge to chill more.

Will keep for a week in the fridge and 2 months in the freezer.

For the cupcakes:

(Makes 12)

125g caster sugar

125g unsalted butter (room temperature)

2 large eggs

Zest of 2 lemons

125g self raising flour

2 teaspoon milk

2 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice

Preheat your oven to 170ºc (150ºc if fan forced)

In a standing mixer (you can do this by hand for sure, but I'm lazy) with the paddle attachment, mix the sugar & butter together until it's pale and fluffy. 

Add the one egg at the time (only adding when previous egg has been fully incorporated), then the lemon zest. 

Mix the flour in, then add the milk & lemon juice. 

Divide your batter evenly (best using a ice cream scoop) into your cupcake liners. Bake for around 20-25 minutes, until your skewer comes off clean! 

For the meringue:

(Makes WAY more than enough for 12 cupcakes so I'd recommend you to halve it)

60ml water

100g sugar

2 egg whites

1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar (optional)

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

(Preferably with a standing mixer or hand beater) Whisk your egg whites, cream of tartar and vanilla extract until its bubbly and puffy.

In a saucepan, heat the sugar and water until it comes to a boil, then take it off the heat. 

While whisking, slowly add in your sugar mixture. Continue whisking the mixture until your hand muscles starts to burn the meringue forms stiff peaks and doesn't drip all over your head when you hold the bowl over your head. (P/s: this takes more than 10 minutes so I REALLY don't suggest that you use manual labor)

Preheat your oven to 200ºc, turning on the top grill thingy? 

When your cupcakes have cooled, take a melon baller/knife/whatever floats your boat and cut out a little hole in the middle. Fill it with lemon curd (preferably overfilling it because you just love lemon curd). Using a palette knife/piping bag (if you're feeling fancy), <s>smother</s> cover the top of your cupcakes with the meringue! Be sure to make little peaks though so the burnt sugar will look better. 

If you have a blowtorch please go ahead and use them.

Put your cupcakes back into the oven again for about 5 minutes to let your meringue brown up beautifully. Or not if you're like me, doing other stuffs and causing the meringue to chao-da (become burnt).

Case in point:

I removed the burnt parts off so now it's not very nice. But I ensure you the taste is AMAZING. 

Before I end this.....

A majorly failed selfie using the timer, with the camera placed on top of my standing mixer. #selfieolympics