And so we move now into Spring.
The evenings are getting lighter, colour begins to take its hold in the garden and Easter is just around the corner. Next stop summer….
So some light cupcake baking to throw into the mix, to add some colour to the kitchen
Pre-heat the oven to gas 4/180c and line a 12-hole cupcake tray with cupcake liners – I chose yellow 😀
For the cupcakes –
- 150g soft butter
- 75g caster sugar
- 75g honey – ideally not a cheap one as you need the flavour of the honey to shine through. You could use acacia or thyme.
- 3 eggs
- 150g gluten free self raising flour
For the filling –
- 250g Lemon Curd (I use Mrs Darlingtons award winning Lemon Curd)
For the topping (a meringue) –
- 2 egg whites
- c150g caster sugar (if you weigh the egg whites, you’ll need twice the amount of sugar)
- zest of 1 lemon
- extra honey to drizzle
Beat the butter, sugar and honey until light and fluffy. Then beat in the eggs one at a time, you will find you will need to add a tablespoon of gluten free flour to keep it from curdling. Once the eggs have been beaten in (I used a hand-held electric whisk) add in the flour and divide between the 12 cupcake cases and bake for about 20 minutes. Or until an inserted skewer comes out clean.
Leave to cool before removing from the tray and transferring to a wire rack.. You can then make the meringue topping.
Place the sugar onto a tray and warm gently in the oven. Whilst the sugar is warming, whisk the egg whites to a stiff peak. Remove the sugar from the oven and add the warm sugar to the stiff egg whites 2 tablespoons at a time. Taking care between additions to ensure the sugar has been completely whisked in. Continue whisking until the meringue is nice and shiny. You also need to make sure the sugar has dissolved into the meringue. You can find this our by pinching some of the meringue between your fingers. If the mix is smooth you are done. If you can still feel the sugar crystals keep going.
Now depending on your mixer it could be done in around 10 – 15 minutes – or if it’s an older version (like mine) – longer. But its worth the wait. The finished meringue will be nice and smooth to eat.
Before you top the cupcakes, scoop out the middle (or use one of those fancy cupcake hole makers) of each cupcake and put a teaspoon of lemon curd into each hole.
Once you have your finished meringue put into you piping bag – with nozzle of choice – and pipe onto the cupcakes with your desired pattern of preference.
Glaze under a very hot grill, or use a hand-held bakers’ blow torch to give the meringue some colour. Please take care which ever you use, make sure you take necessary precautions if using a blow torch. The naked flame is hot and will burn! It stating the obvious perhaps, but its easy to lose concentration.
To finish – drizzle with some extra honey and sprinkle the lemon zest over the tops and enjoy.
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Cakes by Noah 