Cake makes me stout

The theme for the second Forever Nigella, hosted by Sarah of Maison Cupcake is Seduced by Chocolate, and as Nigella is all about the sinful pleasures in life, (well sometimes, lets not forget the irritatingly named Temple Food chapters), there are a lot of chocolate recipes to choose from. I in fact ended up making two, but only one is really the focus of this blog.

I made Nigella’s flourless chocolate cake from Kitchen for Manny’s work as a last minute “good luck  moving offices” cake last Thursday night. It was a very simple cake to make and the sliver I tasted before it was whisked off to LR HQ never to be seen again tasted delicious. Something to make again I’d say. And make properly next time - this was meant to come with a margarita cream however someone, who shall remain nameless, appears to have drunk the miniature of tequilla I keep for baking so it was delivered without cream - which didn't seem to matter as it was scoffed sharpish and feedback from Manny's colleagues was very favourable. And none came home which is always a good sign.

I then couldn't decide what to make for my proper Forever Nigella entry. The peanut butter and chocolate cheesecake looked so good, as did the chocolate and honey cake, with little tiny bees on top. And then there were the churros. Hmmm churros. However one recipe caught my eye – the Guinness and chocolate cake. I like booze and I like chocolate = sold!

From her book Feast, for her Guinness and chocolate cake, Nigella (obviously from the title) uses the black stuff from Ireland. I chose to go a little more local, opting for some Kernel Brewery Export Stout (1890 London) an award winning stout from my local brewery in Bermondsey. It was incredibly tempting just to drink all this and make a different cake - I'm not a fan of ale really, but I do love a good stout.

I seem to choose well with the Nigella recipes I make - this cake was even simpler than the flourless chocolate one!  And the simplicity doesn't mean the cake wasn't tasty - the results were fantastic!

Obviously I couldn't resist it and had to cupcake a couple of spoonfuls of the cake, but who can blame me, aren't they pretty?!

So as well as cupcake'ing the recipe I made the proper cake. And boy it was a beauty - an astounding colour,  black as night with a moistness that only lashings of butterbeer can provide!

And once I covered it in splodges of ooooozing vanilla creamy creamy cheese frosting it was a thing of beauty. I know it's not shop pretty but I love it!

And it tasted as good as it looked – very moist cake and incredibly flavoursome with some of the notes of the stout (rich dried fruit, rum and raisin, espresso, chocolate etc) coming through. I’ve made Guinness cake before and although this stout was slightly more expensive I’d definitely recommend spending a little extra as it is worth it and gives it a lovely intense flavour. I also added a good splash of vanilla paste to the frosting as I can't resist adding vanilla to anything, and it really brought out the flavour of the cake for me. The frosting was fabulous - even pudding cat Angel gave it the paws up for taste. Lets face it there is little you add cream to that doesn't taste better after!

I've included the recipe below -with some changes I made but if you want Nigella's original version you can find it on her website, link above. 

Cake ingredients
250ml Kernel brewery porter
250g unsalted butter
75g cocoa
400g caster sugar
1 x 142ml pot sour cream
2 eggs
1 tablespoon real vanilla extract
275g plain flour
2 1/2teaspoons bicarbonate of soda

Frosting ingredients
300g Philadelphia cream cheese
150g icing sugar
125ml double or whipping cream
(optional) Good splodge of vanilla paste (I used quite a bit - I love vanilla!)

Preheat the oven to gas mark 4/180°C, and butter and line a 23cm springform tin. I would pre-heat the oven a bit before starting - this cake took me less than 10mins to make so the oven wasn't quite heated and I had to wait!

Pour the Kernel Stout (or whatever Stout you're using) into a large saucepan, add the butter, sliced - and heat until the butter's melted. At this point, take off the heat and whisk in the cocoa and sugar. Nigella does the rest of the cake in the pan, but I poured the butterbeer mix into my large bowl here as it was easier to beat everything together in the bowl.

Beat the sour cream with the eggs and vanilla and then pour into the brown, buttery, beery pan and finally whisk in the flour and bicarb.

Pour the cake batter into the lined tin and bake for 45 minutes. Mine took 45mins but Nigella states it could take up to an hour.

Leave to cool completely in the tin on a cooling rack, as it is quite a damp cake.

When the cake's cold, sit it on a flat platter or cake stand and get on with the icing. Be careful transferring the cake – it’s quite squishy!

Lightly whip the cream cheese until smooth, sieve over the icing sugar and then beat them both together.

Add the cream and beat again until it makes a spreadable consistency. This is where I added a good splodge of vanilla paste. Slap the frosting on the cake and lick the bowl clean if you have any left.

If you’re a bit of a girl, sprinkle with glitter and assorted fancy heart shaped goodies.

Serves: yields about 12 slices (or less if you have a husband who doesn’t understand the concept of a small slice).

Can't wait to see what next month's Forever Nigella challenge brings - thanks again to Sarah for hosting this fabulous event!

Btw, not all of the cake was covered in sprinkles - just for the blog - those things are killer on your teeth!

Red Velvet Cupcakes - with the best frosting ever!

The notion of a foodie fills me with contempt and horror. But I like greedy people. I think if I was with someone who wasn't greedy that would be a bad sign." Greedy for what? "Everything. Anything. Greedy people generally have an energy and interest in life

As soon as I read about Maison Cupcake's Forever Nigella challenge I had an idea of what I was going to make - Nigella's take on perhaps the prettiest cupcake of all time - the red velvet, from her most recent, and wonderful, book Kitchen: Recipes from the Heart of the Home. The theme was seasonal which I interpreted to be comfort food, and what is more comforting than a delicious cupcake and a lovely cuppa?

Nigella's red velvet cupcake contains nothing unusual for those of you who've made red velvet before - just the usual cakey stuff, with some vinegar, buttermilk and LASHINGS of red food colour thrown in. Now, I didn't have a chance to get to Party, Party in Dalston before the episode of Nigella's Kitchen, featuring these cupcakes, aired, just before Christmas, so by the time I got there London's baking community had gone
Christmas Red food colour mad so I couldn't get her shade of choice. Instead I made do with fuschia and as you can see the cakes still came out a beautiful colour of red.

Alas, it was not only the cakes that came out red. I accidentally spilt a teeny tiny splodge of food colouring when opening a new tub, onto the kitchen floor, without noticing, then of course proceeded to walk it through the house. I've spent two days finding splodges of food colour in unusual areas of the house! This is not something I'd imagine Nigella would do! Thankfully the cats somehow avoided walking through it! Something else I can't see Nigella doing is nearly answering the door to the Ocado delivery man in pyjama bottoms covered in so much food dye she resembles John Hurt character in Alien after the 'birth' scene.

So if you're like me and a little bit messy, and blonde, then these cupcakes are messy little buggers to make BUT they are so delicious you forget about the mess as soon as you sink your teeth into one!

I've only made red velvet cupcakes once before, and while they were ok I was never fussed to make them again - however these cupcakes will be made over and over - they were divine! As good, if not better (dare I say it!) than any I've had from some of London's more well known cupcakeries. The base was incredibly moist - we ate the last two cupcakes today, (two days after baking), and they were still moist and full of flavour. But, what really made these cupcakes delicious was the frosting. I'm often not a fan of cream cheese frosting, finding it a bit claggy on the palate but this one was perfect. Nigella calls for some lemon juice or cider vinegar to be added to the frosting, I opted for lemon juice as vinegar sounded yuk, and it really made a difference and made the frosting the kind of melt in your mouth cream cheese frosting I've been striving to make for some time. This will definitely be my 'go to' cream cheese recipe from now on.

It wasn't just me and Manny who enjoyed them - I took some to work and was told by one colleague that they were "the lick" which I'm led to believe means good! They were certainly snaffled quick sharp! I was also encouraged to leave my job and take up baking instead. If only!

And, I don't mean to blow my own trumpet but I have to say I think my cupcakes look better than the domestic goddesses - Nigella seems to just slop on her frosting. Tut tut. Less time stroking fruit suggestively and thrusting your chest at the camera young lady, and more time practising those piping skills. Just imagine the double entendres you could smoulder at the camera while wielding an oozing frosting bag?

Finally, Ms Lawson can spout on about liking greedy people all she wants but she is slightly mean with her cupcake sizes. This recipe was meant to make 24 (I knew it wouldn’t from the quantities) but I got 12 – it could’ve perhaps stretched to 13 as one was a whopper! Mind you who am I to quibble over size when they taste so luscious.

And in a non-cupcake departure I also made the Thai Chicken Noodle Soup from Kitchen and it was so delicious I couldn't wait to scoff it before I got a decent picture. Sorry!

Oh, I forgot, originally I'd said I was going to do something different with the red velvet cupcakes - my original plan had been to top them with pomegranate as for some reason I always think of them when I think of Nigella (her going on about them being jewels gets my goat for some reason) but they were so beautiful and pure looking I couldn't bring myself do sully them!

What's your favourite?

Quality Street are synonymous with Christmas and I know in our house the fight was always over two sweets. The green triangle (mums favourite) and the purple one (my favourite) - we used to watch other family members like hawks making sure they didn't take our favourite. Hardly the festive spirit I know but I'm sure most families are the same.

So, when I was trying to think of festive Christmas cupcakes for Cupcake Club, organised by Kelly from An American Cupcake in London, one of my first ideas was, the purple one. For those who don't know the purple one is a caramel filled chocolate with a hazelnut inside.

The cake is Mary Berry's Devils Food Cake in cupcake form, which I've made several times before and is one of the easiest and tastiest chocolate cakes I've found to make.

I then took a chunk out of the cooled cupcakes with my trusty apple corer, and filled it with dulce de leche and a roasted hazelnut. I nearly set fire to the house making the dulce de leche as I forgot about the tin and it very nearly boiled dry. I'm doubtful my lovely Lakeland milk pan will never recover but it tastes divine so was (kinda) worth it.

Now I could've taken the obvious route and just covered them in lashings of gorgeous caramel frosting, but I wanted to make the frosting something festive also. And what is more festive than my favourite Winter tipple, Baileys! So the frosting is basically butter, icing sugar and lashings, and lashings of Baileys. I have a feeling one of these cupcakes will put you over the limit for driving so if you're coming to Cupcake Club be warned!
Also I only got 7 purple ones in a whole tin of Quality Street so if you want one topped with a sweetie you'd better be quick. If not you'll have to make do with a glitter one!

Topped with some festive glitter

My second cupcake for the evening is my winning cupcake from Cupcake Camp in October - the sprout cupcake.

Fresh out of the oven

I slightly altered the recipe from last time, adding more cinnamon, a bit less raisins and more coconut and walnuts as I prefer those. If anyone wants the recipe I shall post it up.

The cupcake that is one of your five a day

I then topped it with a cream cheese and cinnamon frosting and a sprout for decoration. Don't worry it was just for the photos - I wont force anyone to eat a raw sprout. Nor will I force anyone to eat the sprout cupcake. I'm only bringing 4-6 along with me, solely for those who want to try it!

The sprout cake in all its naked glory