Chocolate Guiness Cupcakes

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Every now and then a “trendy” cake seems to be appear at every Café, Party and Blog. The cake de jour I have come across over the last few months has to be Nigella Lawson’s Chocolate Guiness Cake. I first tried it at an office bake off and then it practically stalked me at various birthday parties, Cafes and Restaurants and I even overheard people talk about this amazing Chocolate Guiness Cake recipe once.

Now, I’m not a Guiness drinker and if you are also not keen on the Irish stout beer, don’t be put of (most people, especially guys, will probably be anything but put of about an extra dose of Guiness!). I can’t say, that I taste the Guiness as such in this recipe. It just seems to give the cake a richer and deeper taste.

However, if you really don’t want Guiness in your cake, try it with some non-alcoholic malt beer instead. I tried this in Germany (with “Malzbier”), where Guiness is not that easy to come by and it tasted almost exactly the same.

Both make the cake equally moist and dense. So much so, that it is – topped with its rich cream cheese icing – a bit much for me, unless it comes in a very thin slice and then the frosting ratio doesn’t work for me anymore…

I therefore decided that Chocolate Guiness Cupcakes would be the way forward – small but with a good spread of icing!
So here they are, based on Nigella’s recipe:

http://www.nigella.com/recipes/view/chocolate-guinness-cake-3086

I made both, mini versions – which I really, really liked – and the normal, fairy sized cupcakes and from this recipe I got tray of 20 normal sized ones, which I didn’t fill that full so that I had enough left for a tray of 12 mini ones as well.

So I’d say, the recipe is for about 24 normal cupcakes – and if you only want mini ones, you will probably get double that, if not more!

For the Cake you need:

  • 250ml Guinness
  • 250g unsalted butter, cut in slices
  • 75g cocoa
  • 400g caster sugar
  • 142ml pot sour cream (or half fat crème fraiche)
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 Tbsp real vanilla extract
  • 275g plain flour
  • 2 ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda

And for the icing you need:

  • 300g cream cheese
  • 150g icing sugar
  • 125ml double cream (or whipping cream)

Preheat the oven to gas mark 4/180 degrees and line your muffin tray with cupcake cases.

Pour the Guiness in a large saucepan, add the butter and heat until the butter’s melted. Then whisk in the cocoa and sugar, with a whisk or wooden spoon.

In another bowl/jug beat the sour cream/crème fraiche with the eggs and vanilla extract, then pour into the brown butter-beer fluid in the pan.

Mix the bicarbonate of soda with the flour and add this in as the last ingredient, again mixing it in with your whisk or wooden spoon.

The batter is pourable so you can use a small ladle or jug, to fill your cupcake cases. For the mini cupcakes a piping bag with a big nozzle or a squeezy bottle works best. You can fill the cases almost to the top, if you like, as the black colour of the risen cakes looks quite nice over the cases.

Bake the mini ones in the oven for circa 10-12 minutes and the bigger ones for about 24 minutes. Do the toothpick test for both sizes to make sure they are baked through: they are ready, if the toothpick comes out clean. Let the cakes cool down in the tray for about 10 minutes then transfer them onto a wire rack.

For the icing, lightly whip the cream cheese with an electric whisk until smooth, then add the icing sugar and carefully (or your kitchen will be covered in icing sugar) and slowly (or you’ll have lumps) whisk it in. Add the cream and beat again with the electric whisk until it makes spreadable consistency.

Ice the completely cooled cakes and if you don’t eat them all at ones, keep them in the fridge. They cakes still taste good up to 2 days later!

Pumpkin Pancakes with Bananas & Cinnamon Syrup

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It’s pumpkin time! With Halloween around the corner pumpkins are starting to pop up in every shop and market right now. I’m not that big on Halloween but I do like a nice orange pumpkin and all the things that can be made with it

And with American Thanksgiving not that far off – and Canadian Thanksgiving already gone by – the shops in London are also serving North American Expats by stocking cans of pumpkin puree for those Thanksgiving Pumpkin Pies. This recipe requires pumpkin puree and the easiest way is to get such a can of 100% pumpkin puree. The classic Libby’s version is available at Waitrose for about £1.50, which is much cheaper than the health food shop version for about £4.

If you can’t find either (or don’t want to spend £4 on the health food shop version) I’d suggest to make the puree yourself. Pioneer Woman suggests in her blog that the easiest way to do that is to roast wedges of pumpkin in the oven until soft, cooling them down and then pureeing the soft flesh, see http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2008/10/make-your-own-pumpkin-puree/

Whichever pumpkin puree you go with, these pancakes with homemade cinnamon syrup and bananas are amazing – one of the best brunches I’ve ever had! The pancakes themselves are great – fluffy and thick – but the syrup makes the whole dish, so do go through the effort of making the whole recipe. I promise you won’t regret it!

This recipe is slightly adapted from the one on this blog:
http://tastesbetterfromscratch.blogspot.com/2010/11/pumpkin-pancakes-with-cinnamon-syrup.html

Start with the cinnamon syrup, for which you need:

  • 1/2 cup white sugar
  • 1/2 cup dark brown sugar
  • 2 Tbsps flour
  • 1 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 cup water

Sift the brown sugar (sifting helps getting ridd of the lumps as brown sugar easily crumbles up) into a heavy bottomed saucepan, along with all the other ingredients and stir them together. Bring to the boil over a medium heat, stirring occasionally. Let it boil for a few minutes, while stirring until it thickens. Remove from heat and set aside until needed.

Now, for the pancakes you’ll need:

  • 1 cup flour
  • 1 Tbsp brown sugar
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp ground ginger
  • 1 tsp ground cinnamon
  • pinch of salt tsp salt
  • 3/4 cup milk
  • 1/2 cup pumpkin puree
  • 1 egg
  • 1 Tbsp vegetable oil
  • 1 Tbsp vinegar (any plain tasting one will do)

Mix all the dry ingredients in one large bowl – that’s the flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger and pinch of salt.

In another bowl, mix together the milk, pumpkin, egg, oil and vinegar with a whisk. When it’s all combined pour this wet mix into the dry flour mix and whisk it under with the whisk (but don’t over-whisk the whole lot, it just needs to be incorporated).

Then heat a lightly oiled frying pan over medium heat. Pour or scoop the batter onto the pan- the recipe suggested using approximately ¼ cup for each pancake. My cup messaurements are in form of a big spoon, so this worked a treat. It’s a good way to ensure all pancakes come out in more or less the same size.  If you’re using a generous ¼ cup of batter you will get 6 pancakes. I’d suggest using a little less than the full ¼ cup, which should result in 8 pancakes.

Brown on both sides and serve hot, with slices of banana and a generous amount of syrup. Mmmmmhhh!

Apple Pie Cupcakes

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Ok, admittedly, a butter cream iced cupcake first thing in the morning may well be too much for many people. But it was a friend’s birthday, so I made them as mini birthday cakes and on your birthday cake first thing in the morning is a must!

The making of these pretty little things takes a while… cutting the apples in teeny, tiny pieces… baking the cupcakes and waiting for them to be completely cooled down…

However, if you start making the cupcake base the night before, as well as the cinnamon spiced apple pieces, then the frosting and putting it all together can quickly be done in 15mins the next morning.

This recipe is inspired by the one I saw on the Tale of Two Kitchens:
http://thetaleoftwokitchens.blogspot.com/2011/01/apple-pie-cupcakes.html

For 12 cupcakes you need:
A 12 tin muffin tin, lined with cupcake/fairy cake (not large muffin ones) cases

For the cupcakes:

  • 125g unsalted butter or baking spread
  • 125g caster sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 125g self-raising flour
  • ½ teasp vanilla extract
  • 2-3 tbsp milk

For the apple filling:

  • 2 tbsp. butter
  • 2 teasp. cinnamon
  • 2-3 tbsp. sugar
  • 4 green apples, that don’t go mushy when cooked and aren’t too sweet, like Granny Smiths, peeled, cored and diced into small pieces

For the icing:

  • 90g butter
  • ¼ teasp. vanilla essence
  • 1 cup icing sugar
  • 1tbsp milk
  • ½ teasp. cinnamon

First make the cupcakes:

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees/gas 6.
Cream the butter and sugar, add the vanilla and the eggs, one at a time, adding a spoon full of flour in between (which helps preventing the mixture from curdling). Add the rest of the flower and milk as needed to bring the mix to a consistency that drops of the back of a wooden spoon. Spread the mix between 12 fairy cake cases (the small ones, with a cm diameter), lining a muffin tray.  Don’t fill the cases to the rim – not that you’d have enough dough for it anyway – only fill them about 2/3 up.

Bake for 15-20mins, then take them out of the oven and, within 3-5 mins, take the cupcakes out on a rack to let them cool down completely.

In the meantime, make the apple filling:
Heat the butter – ideally in a heavy bottomed pan – over medium-high heat. Add cinnamon and sugar; cook for a minute, until mixture begins to bubble. Careful not to make a burnt caramel here, which is what happened to me the first time!  Don’t cook the sugary mix for longer than about a minute or so. Lower the heat and stir in the apples. Cook until apples are getting tender (not mushy!), it took me about 10 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool.

…and the icing:
Whisk the butter and vanilla until fluffy, then add half the icing sugar and half the milk, slowly mixing it in (careful not to go straight on to a high setting and having the icing sugar flying all over the place!). Once the first half is absorbed add the rest of the icing sugar, milk and the cinnamon – again mixing it all in slowly.

To finish:
Using a small teaspoon, scoop out about a teaspoon worth from the middle of each completely cooled cupcake, leaving enough of a rim, on which to pipe the icing later on. Fill these holes with a generous teaspoon or so of the apple filling, trying to pile it up a little so it looks out over the icing, which can then be piped on in any way you like. I used a medium star shaped nozzle and piped little dots around the filling.
Et voila- enjoy!

Oat Pancakes with Plum Compote

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The plum is the fruit that rings autumn in for me. And the ones I really like and look forward to baking with are the oval shaped purple plums, as opposed to the round yellowish ones you seem to get everywhere. In my opinion, the purple ones have more flavour – maybe not as sweet as the yellow ones but overall tasting more of a real garden plum.

Back in Germany the oval, dark purple ones, the “Zwetschgen” are much more common. In England I struggle to find them but think that big Damsons are the nearest thing to it. And the other day, I actually saw some very “Zwetschgen”-like plums in my local greengrocer:


I got very excited and thought I’d share the pleasure with you by giving you a quick plum compote recipe. This compote would go well with all sorts of brunch treats: waffles, french toast (hmmm…now thinking I should have made french toast!) and also as a dessert, with vanilla ice cream. But I had seen this recipe for oat pancakes on another blog (http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/oatmeal-pancakes-10000002011047/)  and wanted to try them out, thinking they would make a great base for the plum compote.

I had never heard of oat pancakes before but figured, oat based porridge is a very healthy breakfast (slow release energy and all that) so oat based pancakes must somehow make a healthier pancake.

And I’m glad I did, as they made a substantial brunch without being stodgy and not as fatty as french toast would have been, I guess. The oats make them more filling than an ordinary pancake, so if nothing else you’ll probably eat one or two less than of normal pancakes, so maybe the healthy theory is right!

Try them out and let me know what you think.


First for the Quick Plum Compote (which will make more than you need for the pancakes and that’s a good thing, so you can have some the next day too).
You’ll need:

  • 500g plums
  • 50g sugar
  • 3 tablespoons of lemon juice (or water, if you have no lemons in the house – but they add a little extra something)
  • 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1 cinnamon stick

Half and de-stone the plums and add all ingredients to a put and slowly put the heat on underneath it. As the juices are coming out of the plums, the syrup gets fruiter and thicker.

Keep the pot on a low simmer until the plums are soft but not falling apart; about 15 mins. Set aside and let it cool down a little.

Now, for the Oatmeal Pancakes, slightly amended from: http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/oatmeal-pancakes-10000002011047
For 2-3 portions, you’ll need:

  • 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1 cup porridge oats (not the big ones but the ones for quick cooking, that ones that broken down a bit already)
  • 1 tablespoon sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • pinch of salt
  • 1 cup buttermilk
  • 2 tablespoons butter, melted
  • 1 egg
  • oil for baking the pancakes

Combine all dry ingredients in one big bowl, so that’s the flour, oats, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and pinch of salt.

In another bowl mix buttermilk, butter, and egg with a whisk, then add the liquid mixture to the dry flour mix, stirring just until moist.

Heat a pan with a little oil and spoon about 2 1/2 tablespoons batter per pancake onto it. Cook until bottoms are browned, which should be when bubbles are coming up on the top (maybe check in between, so they don’t turn dark brown), then flip over and cook until the other side is browned.

Serve with the compote and enjoy…

Quark Pancakes with Spiced Apples

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Now, that autumn has started it’s time to get some new season apples from the farmer’s market – don’t they look great, all rosy! They’ll make a nice accompaniment, sweetly spiced with cinnamon, to Quark Pancakes. When I decided to start this blog, I knew my Quark Pancakes would be one of my first posts. It’s always a winner, as the quark makes the pancakes fluffy and light.

Quark is a German almost fat free soft cheese, a bit like curd cheese or ricotta but creamier yet lighter and more tangy. In the UK quark is now available in big supermarkets but if you can’t get hold of it, you could replace it with ricotta in this recipe.

This brunch dish is quickly made and fills the house with nice smells of cinnamon, apples and sweet pancakes!

For 4 portions you need:

  • 25g butter
  • 50g demera sugar
  • 4-6 apples (depending on size), peeled, quartered and cored
  • ½ tsp ground cinnamon
  • ½ tsp ground ginger
    (for the spiced apples)
  • 200g flour
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 150g quark (if this is not easy to get hold of you could substitue with ricotta)
  • 150ml milk
  • 4 eggs
  • 1 tbsp sugar
  • pinch of salt
  • oil for baking
    (for the pancakes)
  • optional: small pot half fat crème fraiche

Start by preparing your ingredients, i.e. measure them out and peel/core/cut apples, then make the Spiced Apples by melting the butter and sugar in a medium sized frying pan or pot over a low heat. Add apples, spices and cook for a 5-8 mins, preferably with a loosely covering lid, until the apples are softened but not mushy.

Set aside in a bowl and make the pancakes by mixing the flour and baking powder together. In another, slightly bigger bowl whisk the eggs, quark, milk & sugar and then whisk the flour-baking powder mix in.

To bake, heat a little oil in a frying pan and use 2 tbsp of batter per pancake, which should result in pancakes of about 8-10 cms diameter.
They require about 3-4 min baking per side.

If you want to keep them warm whilst baking the rest, pile them up in a lightly heated oven (75 degrees).

To serve pile about 3-4 pancakes on each plate and top with the apples and for an extra treat, a dollop of half fat crème fraiche.

Enjoy!