The final Gluten-Free Friday has come around! Let’s go out with the pop of flavour and swoosh of meringue in these divine Lemon Meringue Cupcakes.

I’ve been making Lemon Meringue Pie for years and years and years. My favourite pie recipe comes from the Australian Women’s Weekly and is completely lemony without being too rich. I’ll tell you about that some other day though, because today we are cupcakeing it up!

Lemony almond meal cupcake. Gooey home-made lemon curd. Snowy meringue. There is nothing here not to love.

These cupcakes are really special because of the fact that the cupcake itself is a nut based sponge. It has a little bite to it, but is still light, a good contrast to the smooth buttery lemon curd.

By the way, the lemon curd can be made with lime or blood orange juice and zest, or with passionfruit – just substitute 1/4 cup juice or pulp for the lemon juice. You can also double or triple the recipe and keep it in the refrigerator.

Lemon Meringue Cupcakes

makes 12

Lemony almond meal cupcakes

ingredients

4 eggs
200g sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 tsp lemon zest
200g almond meal
100g rice flour
2 tsp baking powder

mixing

Line a 12 hole muffin pan with cupcake cases, spray cases with non-stick spray.

Beat the eggs, sugar, vanilla and lemon zest together until the eggs have foamed up and start to turn creamy. The mixture should still have some large bubbles in a denser foam, as shown in the photo.

Combine the dry ingredients and add to the mixture, then fold in using the back of a metal spoon. Scoop the mixture into the cupcake cases, and bake at 175 degrees Celsius for 25 minutes. The mixture will still whisper when you take the cakes out, but a skewer inserted into a cupcake will come out clean. Cool on a wire rack.

When the cupcakes are cold, scoop out a hollow in the centre of each using a 3.5cm round cookie cutter. Press the cutter about 1.5cm into the centre of the cupcake, and twist sideways slightly to break the centre of the cut away from the main cake. Spoon about 2 tsp of Lemon Curd into the hole. Load the Meringue into a large disposable plastic piping bag with no nozzle. Snip off the tip so that you have a 5mm diameter opening and pipe little peaks over the cupcakes, taking care to enclose the Lemon Curd completely. As shown below, the best piping layout is ten peaks around the outside, five just inside the outer ring, and one in the centre.

Bake the meringue covered cupcakes at 175 degrees Celsius for about 7 minutes or until the tips of the meringue starts to turn golden.

Serve as a dessert while the cupcakes are still warm, or let them cool completely.

Lemon Curd

ingredients

100g sugar
75g butter
juice and rind of one lemon
1 egg, very well beaten

mixing

Combine the sugar and butter together in a heavy based saucepan, heat over a medium heat, stirring all the time, until the sugar starts to melt (the mixture will take on a thick gooey texture). Remove from the heat, stir in the lemon juice and grated rind. Let cool to room temperature – this is important, if you put the egg into a mixture that is too hot it will cook immediately and make horrible lumps! Whisk in the egg until completely combined. Return the saucepan to a low heat, and cook, stirring all the time with a wire whisk, until the mixture thickens like a custard – about 3-5 minutes. Do not let the mixture boil. Cool and store in a jar in the refrigerator until needed.

Meringue

ingredients

120g caster sugar
80g (2 large) egg whites

mixing

Beat the egg whites with an electric mixer until soft peaks form. Add all the sugar and beat until the meringue is thick and glossy and the sugar has dissolved (you can feel if this has happened by rubbing a little meringue between your fingers- the mixture will feel completely smooth). The meringue is ready to use.

Enjoy!xxx