Wednesday, August 15, 2012

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 SouthMade 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 TrainingCrazy Sweet Tuesday @ Crazy for Crust, Gluten Free Wednesdays @ The Gluten-Free HomemakerAllergy Free Wednesdays, Tasty Thursday @ The Mandatory MoochSweet Treats & Swanky Stuff @ Something SwankyAnything Goes Linky @ Bacon Time with the Hungry Hypo 

13 comments:

  1. I love these cupcakes, they are so pretty! Congrats on the job!

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    1. Thank you and Thank you! The job is going well so far!

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  2. they look fantastic!

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  3. well yummy! I love lemon meringue pie, so this would be even better.

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  4. This looks great! The 15th was my birthday! Its the perfect treat! :) My name is Cindy and I blog over at Vegetarianmamma.com I wanted to invite you to link up your recipe at our Gluten Free Fridays Recipe Link up party! It happens every Friday and we'd love to have you join us with some of your awesome recipes! You can find this week's link up here: http://vegetarianmamma.com/gluten-free-friday-recipe-link-up-1/
    Thanks, Cindy

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    1. Thanks for linking up with us! We had a great recipe party with over 120 reicpes! ;) I have tweeted and pinned your recipes to the Gluten Free Fridays Recipe Board! I appreciate it! Hope to see you next week :) Cindy

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  5. Your recipe for your cupcakes sound delicious. Congratulations on your new position. I have a four year old grandson so I'll check out the web page.
    Happy Weekend.

    ~Emily
    The French Hutch

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  6. Wow those look amazing meringue with no eggs incredible.

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  7. These look amazing!! Thanks for linking up to Tasty Thursdays at The Mandatory Mooch. Hope you will link up again this week. The party will be live tonight. www.mandatorymooch.blogspot.com

    Thanks, Nichi

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