Lemon Meringue Cupcakes

Today, August 15th, is National Lemon Meringue Day.

And today was my first day of work!
Oh, yes... I am officially a workin' woman now!  You're looking at the new Manager for a local children's store named Generations {the website is a little out dated... that's one of my tasks I will work on up the road... but check it out!}

But enough about "work" already... let's celebrate my ability to help pay the bills with some Lemon Meringue Cupcakes - with a little surprise in the inside - strawberry preserves! 

This is my favorite lemon cake recipe to date.  I tweaked a few things here and there from Annalise Roberts' Lemon Layer Cake recipe.  I think it's to die for.  Light.  Fluffy.  Delish.

Ingredients
1 & 1/3 cups sugar 4 Tbsp ground flax mixed with 12 Tbsp warm water (mix & let congeal in fridge for 30 min or more) (OR use 4 large eggs) 2 & 1/2 cups flour mix (2 parts rice flour, 2/3 part potato starch, 1/3 part tapioca flour) 1/2 tsp salt 1 Tbsp baking powder 1 tsp xanthan gum 1 cup canola oil 1 cup milk 1 tsp vanilla extract 1 Tbsp lemon extract 1 Tbsp grated lemon rind strawberry preserves, lemon curd, other jam - optional

Method
1.  Preheat oven to 350 F.   2.  Beat sugar and flax "egg" (or real eggs) in large bowl until fluffy. 3.  Add in rest of ingredients and mix for about 1 minute on medium speed. 4.  Fill cupcake pans halfway, then spoon a little strawberry preserves (or lemon curd, other jelly, etc) into the middle of the batter, then cover with remaining batter.   5.  Bake in oven.  (to bake 12 jumbo cupcakes: bake for 25 minutes, 24 regular cupcakes: bake 18-20 minutes, 2 8inch rounds: bake  35 minutes) 6.  Cool cupcakes or cakes for 5 minutes and then take out of pan and cool completely on cooling racks.

For the lemony meringue frosting, I used the recipe from Carla's Confections but added a pinch of cream of tartar and substituted lemon extract for the juice.  I also halved the recipe. 
I piped the "frosting" with my Wilton 1M tip, placed in a preheated oven to  350 F, baked it for about 10 minutes until it turned light gold, then added some edible gold shimmer!
Linking up at these Fabulous Parties:  Made It By Monday @ Baked in the South, Made from Scratch Monday @ Living with Food Allergies and Celiac Disease , Mangia Mondays @ Delightfully Dowling, Tuesday Time Out @ Reasons to Skip the Housework Tuesday Talent Show @ Chef in Training, Crazy Sweet Tuesday @ Crazy for Crust, Gluten Free Wednesdays @ The Gluten-Free Homemaker, Allergy Free Wednesdays, Tasty Thursday @ The Mandatory Mooch, Sweet Treats & Swanky Stuff @ Something Swanky, Anything Goes Linky @ Bacon Time with the Hungry Hypo