Lemon Meringue Cupcakes with Lemon Curd

At my parents's house, there is an awesome lemon tree that bears a LOT of lemons this time of year. They inspired me to make these lemon meringue cupcakes with lemon curd! Also, there was a flea market in the next town and since I'd been searching for a vintage footed cake stand for a while, I kept my eyes open and found this one :-)
It's vintage and frilly enough for my taste, but not overly garish ;-)
I made more lemon curd than I needed for the 12 cupcakes - although it keeps only for a few days, I decided to keep some in the freezer and use some as a bread spread or for the next batch of cupcakes. It's delicious!

 
Ingredients for 12 Cupcakes:
about 1/4 of this Lemon curd:
8 egg yolks
finely grated zest of 2 lemons
juice of 3 lemons (120 ml)
1 cup (200 g) sugar
1 pinch salt
125 g butter, cut into pieces

Muffins:
100 g butter
1 cup (200 g) sugar
finely grated zest of 1 lemon
2 eggs (or 6 egg whites to match the yolks for the curd)
1 1/2 cups (225 g) flour
1 TSP baking powder
120 g yoghurt

Meringue:
2 egg whites
1/4 cup (100 g) sugar

For the lemon curd, combine egg yolks, lemon zest, lemon juice, and sugar in a small pot over medium heat.

While stirring, cook for 5 minutes or until mixture boils and thickens. Check if it coats the back of a spoon, then remove from heat. Add salt and butter in pieces, stir. The recipes says to strain the curd through a fine sieve, but I didn't do that - I like the lemon zest pieces in the curd! Cover the curd directly on the surface with clingfilm and place in the fridge to cool and thicken. I set aside about one quarter for the cupcakes in the bowl and filled the rest into a glass which I froze after the curd had cooled and set.

For the muffins, preheat oven to 180°C and line a muffin tray with paper cases. Combine the ingredients in a bowl and mix them. Fill the batter into the muffin tray and bake for 15-20 minutes, check with a skewer. Remove from oven and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Use a knife to cut a cone-shaped piece out of each muffin, about 2 cm deep and 2 cm wide.
Place a good teaspoon of lemon curd into each cupcake.
Use an electric mixer to whisk the eggwhites until firm peaks form. Gradually add the sugar while beating. Continue beating for 2-3 minutes or until the sugar has completely dissolved.

Pipe meringue on top of each muffin, then set cupcakes onto an oven tray. Place the tray very high in the oven under a preheated grill until lightly golden - that takes only a few minutes, make sure you do not leave the tray in too long (as I did) and beware that with many ovens, you cannot see the tips of the meringue, as it is higher than the oven window goes!

Update: The second time, I piped roses onto the cupcakes (just start piping on the inside instead on the outside) and took better care - that color of the meringue is more like it!