Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Chocolate Chilli Cupcakes with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Icing


Chocolate and chilli is a combination that people either love, or are really skeptical about. I am a lover of this combo, but am so often disappointed that you can't taste any chilli or get any heat. So when I decided to try this combination for myself, I made sure the flavours and heat were there!

I used the chocolate red wine cake recipe, which is an absolute winner, I use that ALL the time now, it's my go to recipe. It's so versatile - if you don't want the red wine in there, use full cream milk instead. You can add all kinds of flavourings to make this batter into whatever kind of cake you like. It works as a cake, or as cupcakes. This time I used mini cupcake tray, which gives me 24 cupcakes (the mix actually yields more than that, I also filled a 12 hole cupcake tray as well!). This is a great recipe for parties because you get so many cupcakes out of it!

Make sure you try the batter before you cook it - if you can get a hint of chilli, then it's perfect. When the cupcakes bake, the cayenne pepper becomes more pronounced - you can taste it, and it's hotter! Don't worry - the icing balances it out perfectly!



Ingredients
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup caster sugar
2 eggs
3/4 cup red wine
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 generous cup plain flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Method

1) Preheat the oven to 160°C, and non stick your tray/prepare patty pans.

2) In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar until it forms ribbons. Add the egg and yolk and beat well, then the red wine and vanilla. At this point, the cake will look a little split, but it's all good, it'll come together!

3) Sift the flour, cocoa, baking powder, and cayenne together, and add to the wet ingredients. Mix gently until combined, then use a teaspoon to fill the cupcake holes about 2/3 to the top.

4) Place the trays in the middle of the oven for 15 minutes (depends on the size of your trays though!) or until a skewer comes out clean. Allow to cool before icing.

Now, the cream cheese icing... This isn't a recipe. It's just a guideline. I often find cream cheese icing gets really runny. I decided not to follow a recipe and just wing it. It worked.

I used a whole packet of cream cheese, and used my KitchenAid to beat it with about a 2/3 cup of icing sugar until it was sweet enough for me, double cream to take the savoury tang off the cheese, and some full cream milk just to loosen it up a bit (because the double cream was REALLY thick!). I added a heaped tsp of cinnamon as well. Just add these ingredients until you get to a consistency you can work with, whether you're piping or just using a palette knife. Use your instinct. 

I experimented with how I wanted the piping to look, though I'm really not much of a piper. I found out that I pipe slightly to the left! I actually quite like the look of having the stars and swirls mixed up on the stand.


These little cupcakes are perfect for high tea as well, which is handy as that is this months Sweet Adventures Blog Hop theme! Have a look at Delicieux, the host blog for this month!


16 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Thank you Manu! They're so dainty aren't they! I love this mini muffin tin!!

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  2. I def love love love! These look great :)

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    1. Nic they are SO good... seriously... It's lucky I made them so small, its not so bad to have 2 or 3 that way haha!

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  3. Chocolate and chilli is such a great combination. They are perfect for high tea. Thanks for joining this months blog hop :D

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  4. Red wine and cupcakes is such an awesome combination! Love it.

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  5. Great recipe, I have bookmarked for future reference. I have yet to play around with the chilli choc combo, thanks for the inspiration.

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    1. It's a great combo - I love the added kick it gives!

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  6. Chocolate, chilli & cinnamon sounds like an amazing combination! I've always been a little hesitant to try the chilli chocolate combo, but you have convinced me to give it a try.

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    1. Give it a go for sure! Just add a tiny bit to start with and work from there - even if you leave it out the choc red wine cake is such a winner lol

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  7. One of my most favourite combinations chocolate and chilli. Love the idea and love your cakes....what a great and unusual recipe using red wine!

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    1. This cake is my go to recipe! It works so well for mini cupcakes, a big cake... everything! Love it!

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  8. Sounds and looks wonderfully spicy and delicious! Nice! :)

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    1. Thanks Monica! It's really nice, def a winning combo!

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  9. beautiful piping! i never thought you could use red wine in a cake batter - cool idea!

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    1. The red wine is really nice, it doesn't taste like red wine but there is a definate *something* that you can't quite put a finger on - delicious!

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