Mini Lemon Meringue Cupcakes

I have been recovering from the summer flu this whole week. It started Sunday night and every night I would think that I would feel a lot better the next morning after a good night's rest, but I was wrong 4 out of 5 times. Many, many pills and 10 gallons of fluid later, I'm finally feeling better today and I will be back on my feet this Monday 100% and fully productive.
Did I ever mention that I'm going back to school? I'm pursuing a M.S. in Food Science at Chapman University! I was supposed to begin in the fall, but I decided to start early with summer school. I'm taking a class entitled Food Flavors on Saturdays. It's an interesting, yet unconventional class and allows me to apply my chemistry background to my liking.
It's such an exciting time in my life right now. Some of the most important people in my life are beginning new chapters in their lives as well. This fall my sig-o is going to Pharmacy school at USC and my sister just graduated high school and will be continuing her education NYU in the fall!
I recently found this blog "HowDoesShe". It's a blog collaboration of three mothers who love crafting and cooking. When I saw these mini lemon meringue cupcakes on their site, I knew I had to make them. I love all things sour and tangy, among other flavors. These were just my cup of tea. After making them, I only wished I made them the full size cupcake.

Enjoy and stay healthy!

Mini Lemon Meringue Cupcakes adapted from HowDoesShe

Cupcake
1½ cups flour ½ teaspoon baking powder 1/4 teaspoon salt ½ cup buttermilk 1 tablespoon lemon juice 2 sticks (8 ounces) unsalted butter, softened 1-2/3 cups sugar, plus more for decorating

Directions:

1. Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 350°. Line mini-muffin pans with paper liners. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt. In a separate bowl, combine the buttermilk and lemon juice.

2. Using an electric mixer, beat the butter on high speed until creamy, about 1 minute. Add 1 cup sugar and the lemon peel and beat until fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add the 2 eggs, one at a time, and beat until combined, scraping down the sides between additions. On low speed, beat in a third of the dry ingredients, then a third of the buttermilk mixture. Repeat, alternating ingredients, until the batter is smooth.

3. Spoon the batter into each liner, about three-quarters full. Bake until a toothpick comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Let cool on a rack.

Lemon Curd 3 lemons 1 1/2 cups sugar 1/4 pound unsalted butter, room temperature 4 extra-large eggs 1/2 cup lemon juice (3 to 4 lemons) 1/8 teaspoon kosher salt
Directions:

1. Using a carrot peeler, remove the zest of 3 lemons, being careful to avoid the white pith. Put the zest in a food processor fitted with the steel blade. Add the sugar and pulse until the zest is very finely minced into the sugar.

2. Cream the butter and beat in the sugar and lemon mixture. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, and then add the lemon juice and salt. Mix until combined.

3. Pour the mixture into a 2 quart saucepan and cook over low heat until thickened (about 10 minutes), stirring constantly. Remove from the heat and cool or refrigerate.

Meringue

4 egg whites
6 tbsp. white sugar

Directions:

1. In a large glass or metal bowl, whip egg whites until foamy. Add sugar gradually, and continue to whip until stiff peaks form.

Assembly

Spread the lemon curd on the baked cakes. If you like, you could inject the curd straight into the cake with a piping bag and a medium sized tip. Pipe the meringue onto the cake. Place the assembled cakes on a cookie sheet and place under the broiler until the meringue has browned slightly.

Last Minute Cookies

Do I have a life? I think I do seeing that I'm always busy with something. Well, apparently my sometimes wonderful sister doesn't think I have a life. You see, a few days ago, in the middle of the afternoon, my sister called me and demanded (I mean, asked) me to bake something for a bake sale at school the next day. Hmmm...thoughts raced through my head about all the things I had to do that afternoon and how quickly I would have to finish them in order to squeeze baking in. Not having the heart to say no because 1) it was my sister and 2) it was for a good cause (they were raising money for some students to be able to take an educational trip to Costa Rica during spring break). I spent the rest of the afternoon trying to decide what to bake, while simultaneously thinking about the other dozen things floating around in my mind. Did I want to go all out and bake something really time consuming like a cheesecake or cupcakes? Or should I go with a more simple approach like some kind of cookie dough? Well, seeing that I didn't get to it until 8:00pm, I opted to go with the latter. I chose a sugar cookie recipe that I was already familiar with (this was no time to experiment, people). They're easy to handle and they don't spread as much as other cookies such as chocolate chip, which means placement on the cookie sheet would be effortless. To make it seem like a lot of time and energy was spent on perfecting these creations, and to make her cookies more distinguishable than other plain ol' sugar cookies that might be there, I decided to "sweeten" up the cookies by adding some streams of chocolate. I think they turned out pretty well for something that was thrown together last minute (last minute meaning I didn't know about it more than 48 hours in advance). Their size came out just about right - not too big to be overwhelmend, and not too small to feel like you're paying for something that you will finish in one bite.

I got the report on how well they sold...success! There were only two cookies left!

All in all, even though it was last minute and I was caught off guard (I'm a planner!), everything turned out alright.

Just so my sister doesn't seem like a complete brat, it must be known that she did do the clean up after I was done with the kitchen, in spite of the two tests that she needed to study for, the following day.