I♥cuppycakes!

Creamiest Lime Cream Meringue Cupcakes

I’m a whore.

(Talk about an attention grabbing sentence, eh?)

Let me rephrase. I’m an email/comment whore. One of the best parts of blogging (for me) is interacting with my readers. I L-O-V-E getting emails and comments about my cupcakes, random questions, interesting propositions etc etc. But one of the most common questions I get is “How do you come up with your cupcake recipes?”

To be honest. I’m not sure how to answer the question. Is it cliche to say “It just comes to me”? I know that’s not the answer that most people want to hear. I guess I’d say that most of the time it might be a picture, a word, an idea, another recipe that inspires me to come up with a cupcake concept.

For example. This particular recipe was inspired by my baking group, Tuesdays With Dorie (btw Laurie has opened up membership so if you wanna get involved do it now!) and the most delicious lime cream pie that we made about 2 weeks ago. (Thanks to Linda from Tender Crumb for hosting. If she hadn’t chosen it I am not sure I would have ever tried it!) I always knew I was a lemon girl but limes? Eh not so much. But boy oh boy when I tried this pie I became a lime convert!

Can I let you in on a little secret though? I’m not a pie person. I’m a cupcake girl. (Hello Captain Obvious!) All the sudden it just hit me. How can I make this pie into a cupcake?

TADA!

All it takes is an inspiration and an idea. The rest is history.

Recipe adapted from B:FMHTY by Dorie Greenspan and Cupcake Bakeshop by Chockylit

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Makes about 15 cupcakes

INGREDIENTS

For graham cracker cupcakes
1 cup graham cracker crumbs
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) melted butter
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature*
3/4 cup light brown sugar
2 large eggs, room temperature
1-1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup graham cracker crumbs
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla

* Original recipe calls for 3/4 cup butter, but I took Cheryl’s advice to cut it to 1/2 cup instead

For lime cream filling
1/2 cup sugar
Grated zest of 2 limes**
2 large eggs, preferably at room temp
1/2 cup fresh lime juice (from about 3 limes)
1/2 inch chunk of fresh ginger, peeled and finely grated
1 teaspoons cornstarch
1/2 cup+2 tbsp (1-1/4 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into tablespoon size pieces, at room temp

** Can reduce this to 1 lime if you want less lime tang but I LOVE lime so I punched it up with 2 limes.

For the meringue
4 large egg whites, at room temperature
1/2 cup sugar

INSTRUCTIONS

To make cupcakes—
Preheat oven to 350F. Line cupcake pan with liners.

In a separate bowl, combine 1 cup of graham cracker crumbs and melted butter. Scoop a teaspoon++ into each cupcake liner, pressing down to cover the bottom. Set aside.

Whisk together flour, graham cracker crumbs, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. Set aside.

In stand mixer, fitted with a flat beater, beat butter on high speed until soft, about 30 seconds. Add brown sugar and beat on medium-high until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add eggs one at a time. Combine milk and vanilla together. Add flour mixture in 3 additions, alternating with milk mixture in 2 additions, ending with the flour mixture. Beat until just combined.

Fill cupcake liners about 2/3-3/4 full. (Cupcakes do not rise that much.) Bake for 20-22 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool before fill and frost.

To make lime cream filling—
Combine sugar and lime zest into a heatproof bowl (I prefer my metal KA bowl to a glass bowl for this.) Rub the sugar and zest between your fingertips for a few minutes, until the sugar is moist and the fragrance of lime is strong. Whisk in the eggs, then whisk in the juice, ginger and cornstarch.

Bring water to a simmer in a saucepan.

Set the bowl over the saucepan and stir with a whisk as soon as the mixture feels tepid to the touch. Cook the lime cream until it reaches 180 degrees F, about 10 minutes. Whisk constantly to keep the eggs from scrambling – you’ll see that the cream will start out light and foamy, then the bubbles will get bigger, and then, as it gets closer to 180 degrees F, it will start to thicken and the whisk will leave tracks. When it starts to leave “tracks” the cream is almost done.

As soon as it reaches 180 degrees F, remove the cream from the heat and strain the cream into the container of the blender (or food processor); discard the rest. Let it cool until it reaches 140 degrees F, about 10 minutes.

Turn the blender to high speed (or food processor) and add the butter a few pieces at a time until butter incorporated. After all the butter is in, continue to blend the cream for another 3 minutes. If you find the machine is getting really hot, work in 1-minute intervals, giving the machine a little rest in between beats.

Pour the cream into a container, press a piece of plastic wrap against the surface and refrigerate the cream for at least 4 hours, or overnight. (The cream can be packed airtight and frozen for up to 2 months; thaw overnight in the refrigerator.)

Optional: I thought it would be fun to dye the lime cream a light green color. I used Wilton kelly green until I got the color I wanted.

To make meringue—
In a stand mixer with a clean dry mixer bowl and whisk attachment, whip the egg whites at medium speed until opaque. With the mixer still running , add the sugar in a slow stream and continue to beat until the whites are glossy and form firm peaks.

To assemble cupcakes—
Remove center of the cupcake using the cone method. Fill cupcake with lime cream filling using piping bag+tip or spoon. (I used piping bag and Wilton 1A round tip.) Dollop generous amounts of meringue on top of cupcake and use the back of a spoon to make swirls.

Brown meringue by 1 of 2 options:

(1) Pop cupcakes in the oven under the broiler until the meringue is a golden brown. (This happens quickly so don’t walk away!) Let cool for 5 minutes then refrigerate for 1 hour before serving.
or
(2) Use your blowtorch to brown the meringue. Refrigerate for 1 hour before serving.

ENJOY!

Husband rating: A
He really loves the lime cream filling but I think he liked the “pie version” better than the cupcake version.

Wifey rating: A
Can I just say that the lime cream is AH-MAY-ZING! This cupcake really turned out delicious but the pie is just a tad bit yummier.

Other rating: A/A+
I brought it over for family Labor Day BBQ and there were nothing but raves. Hubs’ youngest cousin exclaimed “IT’S GREEN!” when he bit into the center of the cupcake. He followed up with “… but I’m glad it doesn’t taste like spinach b/c that’s gross. This is way better!” Cracked me up!