Who says cupcakes can’t be manly? Yes, this weekend I experimented and made some cupcakes with Black Label beer in them. The first batch were a bit of a disaster (I tried to adapt a root beer bundt cake but it did NOT work), and then I remembered Nigella Lawson’s recipe for Chocolate Guiness cake. With a few adaptations, it made for DELICIOUS beer cupcakes.

I don’t know what it is with the sour cream – I’ve never put it in cake before – but wow it works like a charm. The cake texture was amazing. And the cake is not as sweet as ordinary chocolate cake, which some people seem to prefer. If you still want a sugar rush you can always just add loads of cream cheese icing, like I did. :)

OK, here’s the recipe.

Black Label Cupcakes (adapted from Nigella Lawson’s Guiness Cake)

Makes about 18 cupcakes

Ingredients

• 250ml Black Label Beer
• 250g butter (I used salted butter, and then didn’t add any extra salt to the cake)
• 30g cocoa powder
• 400g sugar
• 125ml sour cream (weird, I know, but it works)
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 320g cake flour
• 2.5 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C and set aside  two 12-cup cupcake trays with liners.
2. In a heavy based saucepan, heat the beer and butter on low heat until the butter has melted.
3. Whisk in the sugar and cocoa powder, and leave it to cool slightly.
4. Beat the eggs, sour cream and vanilla together and pour into the beer mixture (make sure the mixture has cooled down enough so the eggs don’t cook!)
5. In a mixing bowl, combine the flour and bicarb. Slowly pour the beer mixture into the flour bowl, stirring constantly.
6. The cake mixture will be more liquid than your ordinary cake mixture, so you can literally pour it into the cupcake liners from a measuring jug (or something like that).
7. The liners should be about 80% full, since the cake doesn’t rise all that much.
8. Bake for about 15 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean.