Passionfruit Meringue Cupcakes

Hey Everyone,

Well. this week of the Great British Bake Off was unexpected - Botanical Week! However all of it looked delicious, especially the citrus meringue pies, so I'm going to one of them this week, but with a twist on it! If you make this, instead of a pie, you'll have twelve delicious cupcakes instead. Those of you who've read my blog previously may notice I use passionfruit quite regularly in my baking and it's one of my favourite ingredients! If you haven't, check out Passionfruit Viennese Whirls which I've made a couple of weeks ago; they were amazing!

This recipe is a lemon cupcake, in the middle a passionfruit curd with a meringue piped on top before it was blow-torched! (That part was really fun!) The passionfruit curd is also really good just on toast as well, so making that by itself is still delicious if you don't have time to complete the entire recipe. (If not, usually there is some of the curd left over anyway!)

They are definitely better fresh, though they can be stored briefly, and I really wouldn't recommend trying to travel with them, at least not for a long distance, as the meringue tends to droop a bit!

 

I found this recipe in one of my favourite recipe books, "Making Cupcakes with LOLA". It's an entire book dedicated to cupcakes at each of the four stages that stand for LOLA ( A Lighter Side of Decadence, Over The Top, Let's Have a Cuppa! and Always Favourites). This one is from  a lighter side of decadence so you can only imagine what is classed as "over the top"!

Passionfruit Meringue Cupcakes - From "Making Cupcakes with LOLA

Ingredients -

Passionfruit Curd

• 3 Eggs, plus one egg yolk
• 100ml Passionfruit Juice (From about 6 fruits, sifted)
• 175g Caster Sugar, plus 2 Tbsp
• 125g Butter, cubed

Cupcake Mixture

• 125g Self-Raising Flour
• 1 Tsp Baking powder
• 75g Ground Almonds
• 100g Butter
• 150g Caster Sugar
• 1/2 Tsp Vanilla Extract
• 1/2 Lemon Zest
• 2 Eggs
• 75ml Plain Yoghurt

Meringue Topping

• 3 Egg Whites
• 180g Caster Sugar
• 1/4 Cream of Tartar
• 1/2 Vanilla Extract

1. Start by making the passionfruit curd. Mix the whole eggs and egg yolk into a bowl. Put the passionfruit juice and sugar in a saucepan and bring to boil. Boil until the sugar has dissolved. Slowly pour the hot fruit syrup into the eggs, stirring briskly and constantly to prevent the eggs from scrambling. 

2. Bring a small saucepan of water to a gentle simmer and set the bowl of egg mixture on the pan. Heat stirring gently for 20-30 minutes or until thick enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon. Remove from the heat and whisk in the butter, a few pieces at a time. Let cool and refrigerate for at least 4 hours, or overnight if possible.

3. Preheat the oven to 180 Degrees Centigrade/350 Degrees Fahrenheit/Gas Mark 4. Sift together the flour and baking powder into a bowl. Stir in the almonds. Put the butter, sugar and vanilla in a mixing bowl and beat with an electric mixer until pale and fluffy. Stop occasionally to scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Add the lemon zest. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

4. Add the dry ingredients and yoghurt and beat on a low speed until combined. Divide the mixture between the muffin cases. Bake in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes or until well risen and a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. Remove from the oven and let cool completely on a wire rack before decorating.

5. Mix the egg whites, sugar and cream of tartar in a heatproof bowl. Bring a small saucepan of water to a gentle simmer and set the bowl of egg whites on the pan. Heat, whisking with a balloon whisk, until the sugar has dissolved and a sugar thermometer in the mixture reads 60 Degrees Centigrade/140 Degrees Fahrenheit.

6.Remove from the heat and whisk with an electric hand whisk on a low speed and gradually increasing to high speed. Whisk until stiff and glossy (but not dry) peaks have formed. Whisk in the vanilla. Refrigerate for 10-15 minutes or until firm enough to pipe.

7.  When the cupcakes are completely cold, make a hole in the middle of them with a teaspoon and fill with a dollop of curd. Spread the meringue over the cupcakes using a spatula, or spoon the meringue into a piping bag fitted with a star nozzle/tip and pipe it into little peaks on top of the cupcakes. hold a kitchen blow torch about 10 centimeters from the meringue and scorch evenly. Pour passionfruit pips on the top, if desired.

Please Enjoy!!!