• Preheat the oven to 170°C. Line a 12-hole cupcake tray with dark brown cupcake cases and set aside.

Make the buttery biscuit bases:

• Use a food processor to grind the digestive biscuits into a fine, sand-like texture (you could also use a rolling pin to bash the biscuits, but make sure they are finely ground). Remove 15g of the ground biscuits and set aside for decoration later. Tip the remaining biscuit crumbs into a bowl, along with the butter and golden syrup. Mix well, until all of the ingredients are well incorporated. The mixture should look like slightly damp sand, and hold together if you compress it with the back of a spoon.
• Divide the biscuit mixture between the 12 cupcake cases (a little over 1 tbsp per case). Use a teaspoon/the end of a small rolling pin to compact the biscuit base as much as possible. Set the tray aside while you make the cake batter.

Make the chocolate cupcake batter:

• Sift the caster sugar, self-raising flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt into the bowl of a stand mixer. Add the Stork (or softened, unsalted butter, if you are using that), the eggs and the vanilla extract, then, using the whisk attachment, beat on medium/low speed until the ingredients are just incorporated.
• Add the hot coffee, then beat on full speed until the mixture is light and fluffy- about 30 seconds.
• Divide the mixture evenly between the 12 cupcake cases (I like to use a regular-sized ice cream scoop for this), then bake in the preheated oven for 25-30 minutes, or until the cupcakes spring back when touched gently.
• When the cupcakes are baked, carefully remove them from the tin and transfer to a wire rack as soon as they come out of the oven. This will prevent the cupcake cases from becoming greasy. Allow to cool completely before decorating.

Make the marshmallow-y meringue icing:

• Place of all the ingredients for the icing, except the vanilla extract, into a large, heatproof bowl. Set the bowl over a pan of barely simmering water and, using an electric hand whisk, beat on high speed for 5-7 minutes, or until the mixture reaches stiff peaks and all of the sugar has dissolved- you should be able to rub the mixture between your thumb and index finger and not feel any grains of sugar.
• Turn off the heat and remove the bowl from the pan. Add the vanilla extract, then beat on high speed for a further minute off the heat.
• Transfer the icing to a piping bag, fitted with a large, open star tip and set aside while you get everything ready to decorate the cupcakes.

Decorate the cupcakes:

• If you plan to grill the cupcakes instead of blowtorching them, turn the grill on now, to give it time to heat up. If you would prefer to bake the cupcakes, preheat the oven to 230°C. Do not start assembling your cupcakes until the oven has come to temperature (if you plan to use a blowtorch to brown the meringue, skip this step). If you plan to use the oven to brown the meringue, I recommend assembling your cupcakes on a baking tray, so that you do not have to transfer them all in and out of the oven individually.
• Working quickly, place a small scoop of ice cream on top of each cupcake, making sure it is centred. Immediately pipe a swirl of Marshmallow-y Meringue Icing around the ice cream scoop, making sure it is completely covered.
• At this point, either carefully blow torch the meringue (try to evenly brown all of the sides!), or transfer them to the preheated oven/grill for 2-3 minutes, until the meringue is slightly toasted. Sprinkle with the reserved digestive crumbs, then serve immediately, before the ice cream melts!