GUINNESS CUPCAKES

Steps:

• For the cake:.
• Preheat the oven to 170 degrees celsius (325 Farenheit).
• In a pan, on the hob on a low heat, melt butter and Guinness together.
• Keep pan on heat, so long as the mixture isn't bubbling too much and add cocoa and sugar.
• Beat the sour cream with the egg and the vanilla. This will look like you've scrambled the egg, don't be concerned.
• Stir sour cream and egg mixture into the pan.
• Combine baking soda and sifted flour in a separate bowl. It's important to do this because the baking soda is going to react with the wet ingredients.
• Stir in the flour/baking soda mix to the mix in the pan. You will get what looks like brownie mix. Dark in colour, brilliant smelling.
• Pour this mix into cupcake cases in a cupcake tin. (For British people, this recipe makes what we would think of as muffin sized cakes, so use muffin cases and a muffin tin) Aim to fill the cakes two/thirds of the case, but you'll probably go over.
• Put in the oven for approximately 25 minutes. They will go from not ready to ready very quickly, so be careful not to burn them.
• Cool on a wire rack.
• For the icing:.
• Beat together the icing sugar and the butter. I use my hands for this, but a paddle mix would do just as well. The mix should look ever so slightly yellow in colour when you're done.
• Add the cream cheese and stir in all the sugar/butter mix.
• Beat until stiff.
• This makes a very stiff icing and I pipe it onto the cupcakes, but if you use a warm spatula you should be able to get it moving enough to coat the cupcakes from that. The stiffer the icing is, the more like a little pint of Guinness your cupcake will look.