Iron Cupcake: Chocolate Guinness cupcakes (my non entry)

I think I mentioned previously about being interested in entering London's first Iron Cupcake comptetion, which naturally had a theme of Chocolate.

Being more than a little retentive, I naturally expended energy in planning my entry - an adaptation of Nigella Lawson's Chocolate Guinness cake. Duly had a practice run to see how much like a pint of Guinness I could make my cupcakes look. Result - plain white cupcake wrappers in a silicone cupcake mould (no matter what anyone in John Lewis tells you, you do need a cupcake wrapper in these) with a plain piped frosting. I then just had to work out how to transport my cupcakes to the competition, as I work in West London and this was going to be in South - normally my cakes I take into work have to be fairly tough going as an hour and a half commute necessitates this. Sadly, at this point there was a flaw in my plan. Just how was I going to get them in one piece to work, stop my colleagues murdering me to get to the cakes and then get them to London Bridge. Shortly before my head exploded at the thought of so many obstacles (quite literally in the case of my tube journey) I realised that the competition actually clashed with John Barrowman's Royal Albert Hall gig which a good friend had got me tickets for months beforehand. So the cupcakes were made - and eaten by a very grateful team and flatmate.

Next month is summer fruits... if I can work out the transportation issue then watch this space...

Chocolate Guinness cupcakes (from Feast, Nigella Lawson)

This recipe makes 14 big cupcakes, which need baking for 20 minutes at 180 degrees C

250ml Guinness

250g unsalted butter

75g cocoa

400g caster sugar

1 x 142ml pot sour cream

2 eggs

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

275g plain flour

2.5 teaspoons bicarbonate of soda

Preheat the oven and line your cupcake tin/mould

Pour the Guinness into a saucepan and add the butter. Heat gently until the butter has melted.

Whisk in the cocoa and sugar.

Whisk the eggs, vanilla and soured cream together and then add this to the saucepan.

Finally whisk in the flour and bicarb. Use an electric whisk btw.

Use a ladle to measure out the cupcakes, then put your tin/s on a baking sheet and cook in the middle of your oven for 20 minutes.

When done let them cool in their tins before tipping out. Then when completely cold you can ice them.

Cream cheese frosting

300g cream cheese

150g icing sugar

125ml double or whipping cream

Beat all of this together until smooth, then using a piping bag and round nozzle, ice your cupcakes so that the white frosting looks like the head of a pint of Guinness. Trace a shamrock in the frosting with a cocktail stick if you're really going for it (yes I was going to do this).