You will need
3 egg whites
1t lemon juice
2/3 cup (160ml) castor sugar
15 white cupcake holders, 5cm wide base and 3cm high
Ready made lemon curd
1 punnet blueberries
1 punnet raspberries
1 punnet strawberries
1 cup (250ml) fresh cream
edible flowers
Method
Adjust oven rack to middle position. Preheat the oven to 150°C.
Place cupcake holders into a muffin pan.
Wipe the inside of a spotlessly clean medium size glass mixing bowl with some lemon juice or vinegar.
Separate the eggs. The whites go into the spotlessly clean glass mixing bowl. Reserve the yolks for another recipe.
Beat the egg whites with the electric beater on high speed. Add lemon juice. Beat until the whites stand up in soft peaks. Do not add Castor Sugar until this soft peak stage. Now gradually add the Castor Sugar Mix little by little while beating on high speed. You will end up with a snow white, thick and shiny meringue.
Add a dab of meringue to the base of each cupcake holder and “glue” it to the bottom of each muffin hollow. This keeps the holders in place while piping in the meringue.
Fill a large piping bag with the meringue, no need to fit a nozzle, just cut the bag straight across to give a 1 cm long slit.
Pipe meringue on the bottom and sides of the cupcake holders leaving a generous space in the middle. Fill the middle with a tablespoon of lemon curd.
Bake for 30 minutes. Then switch off the oven. Don’t open the door but leave the cupcakes standing in the warm oven for 30 – 45 minutes to firm up and dry the meringue.
To Serve
Half whip the cream. Add 1/2 cup of the lemon curd and beat on slow speed until the cream holds its shape.
Place a few berries into the bottom of the cupcakes. Spoon the lemon curd cream and spoon into the cupcakes.
Decorate cupcakes with berries and edible flowers as shown.