Vanilla Cupcakes with Lemon Filling and Meringue Frosting!

This week was my friend Kelly's birthday, and since it was her 21st, and since it coincided with Spring break, we decided to go away to Santa Cruz to celebrate. We stopped by Winchester Mystery House, and went to the boardwalk. But that's not the point. The point is since we were away for her birthday, we didn't get to celebrate with any sort of baked goods! So when we got back I decided I would make these cupcakes for a late-birthday treat.

I found this recipe on Pinterest (#23 on the webpage) awhile back. I actually have a whole Pinterest board of cupcakes if you're interested. But anyway, I asked Kelly to look through the cupcakes and pick ones she'd be interested in, and she picked these, and chocolate chip cookie dough frosting (which, I would like to point out, is not a cupcake, just frosting    -_-), and since I was already in a meringue mood (mostly I just wanted to prove I could get my meringue to form...) I decided to go with these.

Ingredients for the cupcakes

 First they said to add the flour, baking powder, salt, and butter, which I thought was weird, but it turned out okay... 

 The finished batter!

Ready to bake! 

While the cupcakes were baking, I worked on the lemon filling.

 The initial egg and lemon juice mixture.

The finished product! 

 The ingredients (that I had) for the meringue frosting. I didn't have cream of tartar or corn syrup, and I decided that a trip to the store wasn't worth it.

 Now we know! I didn't do anything wrong! Look at how foamy they are right off the bat! I blame old eggs for my failed meringue attempt. 

 After beating for ~7 minutes, adding the vanilla.

The finished frosting, after ~5 more minutes of beating. 

The frosting wasn't as stiff as it should have been, which I am attributing to the lack of ingredients.

 The cupcakes turned out nicely!

 To make room for the filling, I used a piping tip. Insert, then twist in a circle and pull out. The cake should come out with it, then you can blow the cake out.

 And repeat for all 11 cupcakes (someone ate one...)

 Next I improvised a pastry bag out of a ziplock bag... but I did use a real piping tip! 

 Like I said, the frosting wasn't as stiff as it should've been. So I did one layer, let it harden a bit, then added more.

And the finished product looked almost like the picture!