In a big bowl, beat the egg yolks and 1 C of the sugar until pale and fluffy.
Add the vanilla.
In another bowl, sift the flour, baking powder, corn starch, and salt.
Mix until combined with the yolk mixture.
Beat the egg whites until soft peaks form.
Add 1/3 C sugar at the end. Do not over beat!
Fold the whites into the yolk and flour mixture, being very careful not to deflate the batter.
Fill cupcake liners about halfway.
Bake at 350 F for 20 minutes or until golden brown and when a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
With a serrated knife, remove the top golden layer on each cupcake to expose the sponge. You can toss the tops in the trash or proceed to eat them all! You can see the pile of cut off tops on the left edge of the photo above.
Mix the three milks and spoon them into the cupcakes.
Put about three T of the milks into each cupcake.
Wait for the milks to be absorbed and add more. You will see a pool of milks at first, like the photo above, but soon the milks will completely absorb into the sponge cake.
Refrigerate the cupcakes covered for 5 hours or overnight.
Meringue Frosting Instructions
Mix the water and sugar in a small pan.
Bring it to a boil and cook until soft crack point, about 10 minutes. To know when the syrup has reached soft crack, take a little bit with a clean spoon and drop it in a bowl filled with water. It is ready when you can make a little soft ball with it inside the water (be very careful handling the syrup, it gets extremely HOT).
When the syrup is about to come to the soft crack point, beat the egg whites (with a pinch of salt added just a minute after starting the beating) until soft peaks form.
Still beating the whites, add the syrup in a steady way and beat until the mixture cools down. The final mixture will resemble soft marshmallows.
Frost the cupcakes! I am bringing these cupcakes over to Alanna's on Monday - some other St. Louis food bloggers will be there as well. Therefore, I won't be able to hide the fact that I just shmeared the frosting onto most of the cupcakes. I only made a few with the pretty swirls. The main reason for this is that this recipe did not make enough frosting for lots of big swirls. If you want big frosting, double this recipe.
Top with cinnamon. This will give a great flavor and a pretty presentation.