Lemon Meringue Cuppies for J's colleagues

Today is RWC 2011 opening day! As most kiwis would be slacking at work today :P I thought some cupcakes would go down well at J's work. My two bosses aren't really into sugary treats so none for my work. I thought about trying out an orange cupcake recipe to go with the sparkly orange sherbet sprinkles I'd purchased this week but J wanted his lemon cupcakes, so that was that....


Googled for a new lemon cupcake recipe as the last Rachel Ray recipe was a terrible - hopeless - lacked flavour and texture, the meringue was also lousy. Luckily this random recipe I tried was nice! Pretty good, a little less lemony than I would have liked, I'll add more juice next round. I also did a french meringue for the topping which was the right consistency for the cute little dollop tops I like. French meringue will definitely be my go to topping from now on as frosting such as buttercream frosting is just way too sweet, only good for occasional use.

Thought about making mini rugby balls but BLEH :P fresh raspberry tastes much better and less hassle for a work night! Glad Spring is finally here! Looking forward to all the fresh berries.

Creamed butter and sugar with eggs added

Recipe called for 2 sticks butter (226 gms), I somehow sliced 227 gms on the first go!
Been baking too much??

Finished batter

Lemon rind to add

Cuppies ready for toppings

Dollops of lemon curd

Topped with a french meringue and fresh raspberry

I find dollops cute :\

3 boxes for J to take to work. I need a reusable cupcake carrier!

Till next time! I'm having a hard time looking for more black cupcake wrappers and my cake pop stand still hasn't arrived :( so probably no baking this weekend from me!

Macarons for J's colleagues

Haven't got round to purchasing the sticks and a stand for making cake pops yet, so that will have to wait another week or two. In the mean time, J had told his colleagues he'll bring some macarons in one day, so I decided no time like the present! Made my two favourite flavors, raspberry and lemon :)

Plain shells

Making the meringue

Couldn't be happier, two great lots of shells with no dramas!

Raspberry ganache filling

Raspberry powder decorating

Lemon curd filling

Passionfruit powder decorating

And there we have it! 60 macarons in 2 hours. Wouldn't do it for money thou! It's a labour of love :) x

Meyer Lemon Macaruins with Lemon Curd

Hello all~ I had to try it, with the Silpats sitting there and all the right ingredients in the pantry! It was pretty nerve wrecking! And everything that could go wrong, did go wrong! haha :) Must have been the nerves.

Lemon Curd

While cooking dinner, I prepared some lemon curd as this has to chilled in the fridge for approx. two hours before use. Simple recipe to produce two cups of curd: 6 yolks, 1 whole egg, 1 cup of sugar, 2/3 cup of fresh lemon juice - all whisked in a bain marie for about 10mins, remove from heat and whisk in 2 tablespoons of salted butter. Gorgeous natural yellow!

And then I got carried away whisking the egg whites....as you can see from the photo, I set the KA on 8! and waited for the glossy shine...forgetting that this recipe does not add sugar to the whites and therefore, it won't get that shine!

KA set on 8

Overbeaten whites with some yellow gel added

I was very careful not to overmix. The ground almonds I got were a little on the rough side but I managed to get it through the flour sifter. It could not fit through the sieve at all.

Macaronage

 

Here is what the piped macarons looked like. A bit undermixed as the peaks didn't flatten entirely while drying. I'd turn on the air con to remove humidity from the air the entire process. Also made the mistake of piping before placing the Silpats on the trays so the ones on the edges were on a slant!

And then disaster struck! I had trouble positioning both trays in the wide oven, I wanted to place them side by side but was worried the overhanging Silpats would get burnt at the back of the oven. So I placed them top and bottom, by which time, the oven temp had dropped from the required 130 degrees celsius to 110. After the required 20mins, they were still not cooked. Feet had appeared at 6mins with a nice defined but then proceeded to flatten out :(


Was a bit shy to put any photos of the macaruins...but figured it was only fair to give a sneak pic....
Till next try! Will be more prepared with the oven and bake only one tray at a time! Might give another recipe a go, one that incorporates sugar into the whites :) Didn't need colour in the shells either, would have given a nicer contrast.

Credit to my lovely partner J for trying to sort out my oven issues and taste testing! xoxo