Lemon meringue cupcakes

One thing I have to practice making is the lemon curd. The time I made this three weeks ago, I followed the recipe exactly and I got lemon scramble eggs instead of curd. I had to make a new batch of lemon curd and to my horror,I had only 1 lemon left in the fridge so I used orange juice to make up the remaining lemon juice I needed for the curd.I made the cupcakes again this weekend and had another unsuccessful lemon curd trial! It wasn't scrambled like before but it wasn't thickening so I cheated by mixing 2 tablespoons of corn flour with 2 tablespoons of water and adding it to the lemon curd to thicken.

Excuse the lack of creativeness of food styling and food photography.

Adapted from Isabella, Junior Masterchef Season 1's winner 

( For citrus version)

Cupcakes

• 1 cuppure cream
• 1 cupcaster sugar
• 2eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 1/2 cupsself raising flour
• Finely grated rind of 1 lemon (and 1 orange)

Lemon curd

• 1/2 cuplemon juice (Juice of 1 1/2 oranges and 1 lemon)
• 100gbutter
• 1/2 cupcaster sugar
• 1egg
• 3egg yolks

Meringue

• 3egg whites
• 1/2 cupcaster sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• Preheat oven to 180'C. Place 12 patty cake liners in a 12 hole 1/2-cup capacity muffin pan. ( I got about 20 small-medium cupcakes.)
• Place cream, sugar and eggs in a large mixing bowl and whisk until smooth. Gradually add flour and zest and continue whisking until mixture is thick and smooth.
• Divide mixture between prepared liners and bake for 15-20 minutes or until cakes spring back to touch. Cool in muffin pan.
• For lemon curd, heat lemon juice and orange juice in a small saucepan and let it simmer. In a different bowl whisk sugar, egg and yolks until combined. Remove citrus juice from heat and slowly add to sugar and eggs mixture while whisking continuously. Pour the mixture back into saucepan and continuously mix. Continue mixing the curd and add the corn flour mixture while whisking until mixture becomes thick and glossy. Pour into a shallow oven tray to cool.
• For meringue, beat egg whites in an electric mixer until firm peaks form, gradually add sugar, a tablespoon at a time, beating until sugar has dissolved between each addition. Fold in vanilla extract. Spoon meringue mixture into a piping bag.
• To serve, preheat grill to medium-high. Cut a small hole in the top of each cupcake and fill with 1-2 teaspoons of lemon curd. Pipe a swirl of meringue mixture on the top of each cupcake and place under heated grill for 60-90 seconds or until golden. Arrange on a serving plate with spoonfuls of lemon curd if desired.