Short, dark and handsome

BROWN SUGAR CHOCOLATE CAKE 

I've been watching the TV show, 2 Broke Girls. It's not the best, or even cleverest, show around and a lot of things don't make sense: like how two penniless women can keep a full-grown horse (all they seem to feed him is skinny carrots), or how they can stand on the job in a diner in six-inch heels (and keep wearing them throughout the day). Err, why am I watching it?

In one episode it was pointed out that the cupcakes are made from prepared box mix. Well, it doesn't surprise me that they're not made from scratch – after all, none of the chain bakeries and some standalone shops do that. How else would they be able to produce hundreds of cakes a day? (What's not right is calling their business Max's Homemade Cupcakes. Again, why am I watching the show?)

However, a couple of the flavours those girls have on the show sound intriguing. Beer batter with maple bacon frosting? Oh yeah, I can see that being a hit (especially with the stoners, said Martha Stewart in the episode in which she appears).

In contrast, a brown sugar chocolate cupcake with treacle chocolate fudge icing may not sound as compelling. But this chocolate-on-chocolate ensemble – surely the direct opposite of Max's Very Very Vanilla Cupcake – doesn't need a fancy name after you peel off a little of the cupcake case, lick the icing off your fingers (yes, it is gooey) and then take a bite.

Mind the gooeyness 

These cupcakes are made from Dan Lepard's recipe for Brown Sugar Chocolate Cake (which he makes in a loaf pan) and covered with Treacle Chocolate Fudge Icing from his book, Short and Sweet (see him talking about it in this video.) Mr Lepard provided the recipe for the cake in The Guardian way back in 2005 and the recipe for a similarly named frosting two years later. That frosting contains egg yolks, however, while the one in the book doesn't. If the icing is left in the fridge, it becomes firm and I can imagine it becoming delicious truffles. Or drop a spoonful of it into chocolate cake batter baked in a ramekin and the cake would come out with an oozy molten lava centre.

A little bit about Short and Sweet: A lot of the recipes can be found on The Guardian website, but this book is so much more than a collection of recipes. And it's not filled with the mundane me-me-me writings of celebrity chefs who come out with books to coincide with their TV shows. Short and Sweet is an excellent baking reference – which is why I got the book – with recipes that I know are going to keep my oven in constant service and my family and mates in baked goods for a while.