Courgette Cupcakes aka Vehicle for Italian Meringue Buttercream

As you know, I have been doing some research into baking over the last few weeks. Trying to hone my skills in the basics, creme patisserie, creme anglaise, pastry and buttercream icing. Who knew there were so many varieties of the buttercream icing? And so many better tasting buttercreams too! Of course I have made the classic, butter, icing sugar and vanilla extract and the cream cheese variety but the Italian Meringue buttercream and the French butter cream are new to me. I started with the former, the IMBC and boy is it dreamy.
I wanted to make it but had to have something to put it on, you can't just eat it by the spoonful can you? No? Ok, yes you're right, mustn't eat it by the spoonful!
We have recently been getting a fruit and veg box from Abel & Cole and the week before last we got two courgettes. Now, I am in two minds about the courgette. Cooked in the right way it can be delicious but get it wrong and it can be a very tasteless. One of my favourite ways of cooking the courgette is to put it in a cake, it makes a great alternative to the carrot cake. One of the signing up gifts from Abel & Cole was their cook book. All you have to do is go to the index, look up your fruit or veg and there are some lovely recipes to open. Italian Courgette Cupcakes was where I stopped under the courgette. I replaced the honey and nut topping with the IMBC.
I found this recipe for the IMBC, it was very clear, the pictures helped. The basis of this buttercream is a meringue made with a hot sugar syrup. You get a very thick and silky meringue and then add your butter whisking all the while. At first I thought that it wouldn't work, the addition of the butter makes it split but you just whisk on through and you end up with this thick, unctuous, creamy icing that you can use on anything. The thing you have to remember, again, is that you shouldn't just eat it by the spoonful. It's hard to remember when you are faced with the finished product.

I then piped it on to the courgette cupcakes. The cakes were lovely (a nod to the healthy) but the thing that my husband remarked on the the icing, he liked it, a lot!