These Lemon Meringue Cupcakes are made with a light lemon cake, lemon curd filling and lightly toasted meringue frosting! It’s like Lemon Meringue Pie in cupcake form!
Lemon Meringue Cupcakes
I’ve been loving turning fun pie flavors into cupcakes! Between the Banana Cream Pie Cupcakes, Boston Cream Pie Cupcakes and now these Lemon Meringue Cupcakes, these are some super fun cupcakes! I always love the surprise filling too. It’s a whole other way to add more flavor and texture to make a cupcake that much more interesting.
For these cupcakes, the base starts with my new Moist Vanilla Cupcake. You guys have been loving those cupcakes and I love how moist and easy they are to put together. For this version of them I added some lemon zest. It adds a light lemon flavor to the cupcakes, but it isn’t overwhelming.
The bulk of the lemon flavor in these comes from the lemon curd. If you’d never made lemon curd before, you have to try it. Homemade lemon curd really is so much better than the store-bought versions. A stronger, more tart flavor. Love it!
How to Make These Lovely Lemon Cupcakes
It’s also not hard to make. Just combine everything in a double boiler (or mixer bowl set over a pot of simmering water, as I use) and cook until it reaches 160 degrees. I use an instant read thermometer to check the temperature, but you could also just use a spoon. Run it through the curd and see if it leaves a film on the back of the spoon. If it does, it should be good.
The curd will thicken up in the fridge and then be ready to add to the cupcakes. I like to press some clear wrap onto the top of the curd to keep it from developing a film on top as it cools.
Making the meringue is somewhat similar to the curd in that you also use a double boiler (or the same mixer bowl/pot set up). Once the egg whites reach the right temperature, it’s whipped on high speed until a fluffy meringue forms. If it seems intimidating, just think of it like whipped cream. 🙂 Aside from heating the egg whites, the whipping of them is just like whipped cream. Easy, peasy!
Putting everything together is mostly a breeze too. Cut the center out of the cupcake, fill it with lemon curd and then add the meringue frosting. Finishing them off is where it can get a little tricky. If you want to add the lemon slices, I suggest adding them first, then toasting the meringue. The slices are tough to get into the frosting after it’s been toasted.
To toast them, I used a kitchen torch. It’s easy to use, but you have to be careful with it. It can easily light the cupcake liners on fire. Several of mine did. They blow right out easily, but just keep your fingers safely out of the way.
These cupcakes were a hit! Light, super moist, and full of the best parts of lemon meringue pie – the lemon filling and the toasted meringue! They make a super cute presentation and are something a little fun and different to enjoy. I hope you enjoy them as much as we did!
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Lemon Meringue Cupcakes
- Prep Time: 25 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: 12-14 Cupcakes
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: American
Description
These Lemon Meringue Cupcakes are made with a light lemon cake, lemon curd filling and lightly toasted meringue frosting! It’s like Lemon Meringue Pie in cupcake form!
Ingredients
LEMON CUPCAKES
- 1 1/4 cups (163g) all purpose flour
- 1 cup (207g) sugar
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup (120ml) milk
- 1/4 cup (60ml) vegetable oil
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 tsp lemon zest
- 1 large egg
- 1/2 cup (120ml) water
LEMON CURD
- 6 tbsp (90ml) fresh lemon juice
- 1 tbsp finely grated lemon zest
- ½ cup (104g) sugar
- 6 large egg yolks
- 4 tbsp (56g) unsalted butter
MERINGUE FROSTING
- 1 cup (207g) sugar
- 1/2 tsp cream of tarter
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 4 large egg whites, room temperature
Instructions
1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (176°C) and prepare a cupcake pan with liners.
2. Add the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt to a large mixer bowl and combine. Set aside.
3. Add the milk, vegetable oil, vanilla extract, lemon zest and egg to a medium sized bowl and combine.
4. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and beat until well combined.
5. Slowly add the water to the batter and mix on low speed until well combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed to make sure everything is well combined.
6. Fill the cupcake liners about half way and bake for 15-17 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out with a few moist crumbs.
7. Remove the cupcakes from the oven and allow to cool for 2 minutes, then remove to a cooling rack to finish cooling.
8. To make the lemon curd, combine all the ingredients in a double boiler (or in a metal bowl over a pot of simmering water). Heat while whisking constantly until mixture thickens and reaches 160 degrees, or coats the back of a spoon.
9. Pour the lemon curd into a small bowl and cover with clear wrap pressed against the top of the curd to prevent a film from forming. Refrigerate until completely cool and firm, 3-4 hours.
10. When you are ready to build the cupcakes, make the meringue frosting. To make the meringue, combine the sugar, cream of tartar, vanilla extract and egg whites in a large mixer bowl. Place the bowl over a saucepan or pot of simmering water. You can also use a double boiler.
11. Whisk constantly until sugar is dissolved and egg whites are warm, to 160 degrees on a thermometer, about 4-6 minutes. Remove from heat.
12. Using the whisk attachment, beat the egg white mixture on low speed, gradually increasing to high, until stiff, glossy peaks form, 5 to 7 minutes.
13. To put the cupcakes together, use a cupcake corer (or a knife) to cut a hole in the center of the cupcakes.
14. Fill the center of the cupcake with lemon curd.
15. Frost the cupcakes with the meringue frosting. I use Ateco tip 808.
16. Finish off the cupcakes with a slice of lemon, if you like, then toast lightly with a kitchen torch.
17. Refrigerate cupcakes until ready to serve.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 Cupcake
- Calories: 290
- Sugar: 36.5 g
- Sodium: 113 mg
- Fat: 10.1 g
- Carbohydrates: 46.2 g
- Protein: 4.8 g
- Cholesterol: 102.4 mg
Keywords: lemon cupcakes, lemon cupcakes recipe, easy cupcakes, easy cupcakes recipe, lemon cake recipe, lemon cake, lemon curd recipe, lemon curd uses, lemon dessert recipe
Enjoy!
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If I make them the day before, do I put them in the fridge or leave them out? Should I wait on doing the frosting part until the day of? What do you recommend? Im not a huge baker so any suggestions will help. Thank you
I made them and kept them in the fridge without any issues.
I made them. They are delish and very appealing! Thank you for this recipe of pure springtime. A couple things to point out: The batter is runny, don’t let it scare you, they bake up beautiful. My cupcakes never got golden brown, so don’t wait for that, they are done baking before they turn golden. I don’t have a cupcake corer, I used a melon baller , it worked just great. I have a lot of trouble with meringue–I can’t explain it, I follow each recipe exactly and it never turns out fluffy. I need a meringue lesson.
★★★★★
Found the issue. My cream of tartar was expired.
Thanks!
★★★★★
These are amazingly delicious cupcakes, thank you for sharing the recipe for all of us to enjoy!
Question with the meringue though, even though I whipped it to a stiff peak it still relaxes quite a bit and starts drooping down the edges. What could I be doing wrong here?
Hard to say exactly. A few possibilities are to make sure the bowl that you’re making it in is completely grease free before you start. You can rub it down with lemon juice to be sure. Another possibility is that the egg whites could be over whipped. As soon as they get to stiff peaks you want to stop mixing. Overmixing can cause it to be a little bit droopy.
I’m glad you enjoyed them!
I stuck them under the broiler for a few seconds, till they started to smoke and brown. Fast way to do the all at once.
★★★★★
Awesome! Glad that worked well!
Planning to make these this weekend for a party. I was thinking of pressing a mixture of graham cracker crumbs and butter into the bottom of the cupcake paper (like a mini graham cracker crust), then pouring cupcake batter over it.
Do you think this would work? Tips on executing this would be great!
Thanks!
Quick correction- 6tbsp of lemon juice is not 90mL, perhaps you meant 9mL?
It is actually 90ml, that is correct.
i used a boxed cake mix and store bought lemon curd, but found this recipe when i needed one for meringue frosting. worked like a charm! it holds up really well, even though i couldn’t get it to stiff peaks. delicious too! i had extra, so i piped that onto a baking sheet and made meringue cookies. thanks for the great meringue recipe!
★★★★★
Awesome! I’m so glad you enjoyed!
Just wanted to say I’ve used this cupcake recipe SEVERAL times, and it is always a HIT! I do add a bit extra lemon zest. Additionally, if you roll the zest around in the sugar and let it sit for a few minutes prior to adding the other ingredients, it helps the flavor pop!
★★★★★
That’s a great idea! I’m so glad you enjoyed the cupcakes!
Hi! I made your meringue frosting and immediately put the cupcakes into the fridge once frosted. I used a large pastry tip but, unfortunately, the frosting flattened out quite a bit and lost most of the textured design from the tip I used. Any idea what would cause that? I thought maybe that I refrigerated the cupcakes but just saw that was how you instructed it be stored. I’m wondering if I beat the heated egg white mixture too long??? The frosting piped BEAUTIFULLY and tasted absolutely AMAZING but just flattened out with time. Thank you!
I forgot to mention on other weird thing. The first 3 cupcakes that I frosted (with an admittedly less wide base of frosting) flattened out less than those with a wider base of frosting (i.e. the frosting covered more of the cupcake top).
Hmmm, hard to say for sure. It could be that it was whipped for too long – you want to stop when it’s hit stiff peaks.
I tried making this again last night and the same thing happened, only worse this time. Was making cupcakes for a customer so this is very frustrating and money/ingredients wasted. 🙁
I’m sorry to hear that. I’d suggest looking up some tips on making meringue and seeing if you can figure out what’s happening.