Each year, you know its approaching Easter once the Valentines Day products disappear and the Easter eggs and chicks come out. For some reason I have a bizarre liking for these tiny little yellow chicks. I even made a miniature nappy with safety pins for one. A year ago, we had put them in our mini cactus garden but I accidentally watered one and once you get water on these little chicks, they are ruined. I knew my Easter cupcakes had to include these chicks, in memorandum of the one I accidentally killed with water. RIP little chickadee. And don’t worry, these ones will live the life of a free range chick in our cactus garden afterwards.

Making a cupcake of the chocolate variety would surely be the obvious choice for Easter So I used a double chocolate raspberry cake. The main problem was that my royal icing was not as stiff as it needed to be. Perhaps I need to use meringue powder or something like that to get my icing rock hard.

Now for the technical bits and picking the original recipe apart (from a book I shall not name). Their recipe says to pipe directly onto the cake but when I did, this odd white bloom formed between the cake and the icing the next day after I left it to dry overnight. So luckily I had piped the basket weave onto the cupcake paper for some of them and that seemed fine-although eating the icing off the paper doesn’t make for good eating. Also I wasn’t able to pipe onto the cupcake all at once, I had to do it in two batches – one half and then the other half, as my royal icing was not that firm so I didn’t want them to sit upright as the effects of gravity on setting icing are obvious. So put plenty of time aside for this-2 days to be certain that the icing dries.

I’d also recommend using the a straight edge cupcake paper pan as you will want to pipe upwards and it makes it easier. Of course its up to you but I did use one of the brown paper ones that you can get at stores. It did mean that since they are larger, I got half the amount of cupcakes though so be sure to adjust for numbers. There’s nothing worse than a kid missing out on a cupcake-or an adult for that matter.

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I have officially fallen in love with my pink Kitchenaid, especially its dough hook. I have even bought a cover to protect it-not that my kitchen is a target for stray missiles, but to keep the greasy stickiness that inevitably envelops everything at bay. Previously, I had shunned most dough and bread baking, mainly because I didn’t have the strength or will to knead for the 10 minutes required. Now I pop all of the ingredients in the big bowl, attach the hook and I can come back 6-7 minutes later and it will be kneaded. I say I can come back but I never do, as I prefer to watch the dough hook mix it all in in some sort of perverse food porn observation ritual.

These are so ridiculously moreish that I found myself eating 5 of these babies for lunch and forgoing my usual relatively healthy lunch. And this is from a girl that rarely has seconds. So I warn you, make these with caution and at someone else’s behest. Invite a large group of friends or lumberjacks in for morning tea. Anything to put some distance between yourself and 20 of these tempting, deliciously scented, buttery buns.

Norwegian Cinnamon buns

For the dough:

• 600 g flour (I added some extra flour as the dough was too sticky)
• 100 g sugar
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 21 g (3 sachets-yes, really) easy blend yeast or 45 g fresh yeast
• 100 g butter
• 400 ml milk
• 2 eggs

For the filling:

• 150 g soft, unsalted butter
• 150 g sugar
• 1 ½ teaspoons cinnamon
• 1 egg, beaten, to glaze

• Roasting tin approximately 33cm x 24cm or large brownie tin, lined with baking parchment bottom and sides

Preheat the oven to 230°C/ gas mark 8 (I wouldn’t do this until the end of Step 3)

The ginormously risen yeast beast

1. Combine the flour, sugar, salt, and yeast in a large bowl. Melt the butter and whisk it into milk and eggs, then stir it into the flour mixture. Mix to combine and then knead the dough either by hand or using the dough hook of a food mixer until its smooth and springy-add extra flour until the dough becomes a good rolling consistency. Form into a ball, place in an oiled bowl, cover with clingfilm and leave it to rise for about 25 minutes.

Vast tundra of dough with buttery cinnamoney sugar filling

2. Take one-third of the dough and roll it or stretch it to fit your tin; this will form the bottom of each bun when it has cooked. Roll out the rest of the dough on a lightly floured surface, aiming to get a rectangle of roughly 50x25cm. Mix the filling ingredients in a small bowl and then spread the rectangle with the buttery cinnamon texture (you can made this mixture up during the 25 minutes of proving the dough in Step 1). Try to get even coverage on the whole of the dough.

A little uneven, I’m sure you’ll do better than my rather poor effort

3. Roll it up from the longest side until you have a giant sausage. Cut the roll into 2 cm slices which should make about 20 rounds. Sit the rounds in lines on top of the dough in the tin, swirly cut-side up. Don’t worry if they don’t fit snugly together as they will swell and become puffy when they prove. Brush them with egg and let them rise again for about 15 minutes to let them get duly puffy.

Snug as a bug in a rug

4. Put in the hot oven and cook for 20-25 minutes (a couple of mine were a bit black at the top by 20 mins so watch out for them), by which time the buns will have risen and will be golden brown in colour. Don’t worry it they catch in places. Remove them from the tin and leave to cool slightly on a rack-it’s easy just to pick up the whole sheet of parchment and transfer them like that-before letting people tear them off, to eat warm.

From How To Be A Domestic Goddess by Nigella Lawson

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OK please forgive me if I am rolling out all of the stereotypes by having a Guinness flavoured cupcake decorated with green shamrocks. But I am assured by airyfairy’s post that Guinness is indeed a national obsession within Ireland and well, stereotypes are mostly borne of typical behaviors. I used a Nigella recipe, her Chocolate Guinness cake but made in a cupcake form. I also halved it to make a dozen cupcakes so if you would like to make it a regular sized cake, double all of the proportions below and cook in a lined 23cms springform tin for between 40 minutes to an hour and let cool in tin.

What I wouldn’t have done for a shamrock cutter but I’m afraid that in the short time space I had I couldn’t find any as the stores are packed with Easter goodies and I didn’t have enough time to order one from overseas. So the slightly odd shamrocks that I made I’m afraid will have to do for the time being. I admit I didn’t make the cream cheese topping as I used a buttercream one that I had make an excess of a few days before. I chose these high pleated soufflé cups as I wanted them to resemble a tall glass of frothy Guinness.

The resultant taste is unusual, certainly the pleasure wasn’t in the actual eating as much as the aftertaste which I found pleasantly different and lingering and Nigella’s description of a “ferrous aftertaste” is quite spot on. I have tried Guinness once and for someone who doesn’t like beer at all, it’s one of the more palatable beers. And my husband was only too happy to volunteer to drink the remaining 315ml of the can. Aren’t husbands good that way?

Chocolate and Guinness Stout cupcakes for St Patrick’s Day

This cake is magnificent in its damp blackness. I can’t say that you can absolutely taste the stout in it, but there is certainly a resonant, ferrous tang which I happen to love. The best way of describing it is to say that it’s like gingerbread without the spices. There is enough sugar – a certain understatement here – to counter any potential bitterness of the Guinness, and although I’ve eaten versions of this made up like a chocolate layer cake, stuffed and slathered in a rich chocolate frosting, I think that can take away from its dark majesty. Besides, I wanted to make a cream cheese frosting to echo the pale head that sits on top of a glass of stout. It’s unconventional to add cream but it makes it frothier and lighter which I regard as aesthetically and gastronomically desirable. But it is perfectly acceptable to leave the cake un-iced: in fact, it tastes gorgeous plain.

FOR THE CUPCAKES (makes 12 regular sized cupcakes)

• 125ml Guinness
• 75ml sour cream
• 125grams unsalted butter
• 1 egg
• 1/2 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
• 40g unsweetened cocoa
• 140grams all-purpose flour
• 200grams caster sugar
• 1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda

FOR THE ICING

• 150g Philadelphia cream cheese
• 65ml heavy cream
• 75grams icing sugar
• Green coloured fondant and shamrock shaped cutter (I just printed an outline of a shamrock, placed it on top of the fondant and traced along it with a sharp, light knife)
• Green sugar crystals
• Silver cachous

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C, and butter and line a cupcake tin with papers. Pour the Guinness into a large wide saucepan, add the butter – in spoons or slices – and heat until the butter’s melted, at which time you should whisk in the cocoa and sugar. 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 baking soda.

2. Pour the cake batter into a measuring jug-it will make this infinitely easier to pour into the cupcake cups and pour the thick chocolate-y batter into the liners about 3/4 of the way up, it will rise up a little but not too much. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes and remove to cool on a rack.

3. Lightly whip the cream cheese until smooth, sift over the confectioners’ sugar and then beat them both together. Or do this in a processor, putting the unsifted confectioners’ sugar in first and blitz to remove lumps before adding the cheese.

4. Add the cream and beat again until it makes a spreadable consistency. Ice the top of the black cupcakes so that it resembles the frothy top of the famous pint.

Recipe adapted from Feast by Nigella Lawson

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