Second Helpings - Guinness Chocolate Cakes with Whipped Caramel and Espresso Glaze

A simpler take on the whipped caramel cake

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When I posted a little video about the whipped caramel, I was slightly surprised by the sheer volume of comments suggesting how good it would be in a coffee. Whilst I knew these comments were about the drink, I immediately thought of the combination of caramel and coffee in a recipe. Obviously this is a relatively classic combination, so I wanted to add a third element. I settled on Guinness; I thought the stout's bittersweet flavor would be the perfect partner to the other flavors.

This could have been a layer cake, a sheet cake, or even a brownie. Sidenote, how good does a Guinness brownie sound?? I ended up taking a bit of inspiration from Lannan Bakery in Edinburgh. A favorite bakery of mine, I became completely enamored by their take on Jaffa cakes, whilst I was there for my recent pop-up. They use an upside-down brioche mould to create little cakes with beautifully edged sides. They’re incredibly elegant, and since I already own the molds, I thought these would be the perfect recipe to use them for.

The question is, though, are these technically cupcakes? What is the definition of a cupcake? I guess a cupcake is a small individual cake topped with some sort of frosting. With a definition that simple, these surely must be cupcakes, right? The problem is that they just don’t feel like a cupcake to me. Maybe it's because I traditionally don’t love cupcakes and I absolutely adore these, that I can't reconcile the two ideas in my head. Whatever you want to call them, they’re ridiculously good!

The glaze for these cakes is a take on ‘magic shell,’ that classic ice cream topping that sets almost immediately when it comes into contact with ice cream, or anything really cold. The topping works because the mixture is based around coconut oil and chocolate. The oil has two functions. Firstly, it keeps the mixture fluid, allowing a thin layer to be poured over the ice cream. Secondly, the oil and the cocoa butter set very quickly when they come into contact with the ice cream, or in this case the very cold cake and caramel.

Initially I wanted to use a simple ganache glaze, and you certainly can, but I found that when the ganache was the correct viscosity to create a thin glaze, it didn’t set quickly enough, leaving a slightly sheer finish, and I much preferred the look when using the Magic Shell. In both tests, I used instant espresso powder. The grains of this coffee are incredibly fine, and when mixed into the glaze, they have no discernible texture. This sort of coffee is also incredibly useful in baking as it’s great for whipping up strong coffee when making chocolate cakes or for all manner of glazes and fillings.