Chocolate Chili Cupcakes

I have been playing with the idea of putting fresh chilies into chocolate cake. My friends know that I love eating spicy food. So why don't I make my sweets spicy as well? It might be gross but it's worth a try.

Since I'm making these cupcakes not only for myself but for other people too, I toned the spice level down a bit. I used 7 chilies in the cupcake batter and 5 more in the frosting.


I keep pounds of chilies in the freezer so that I have them whenever I need them.

After tasting the cupcakes, I wish I had been more heavy handed with the chilies. These are not spicy! Not even close! I could feel a leeeeetle hint of chili if I happened to bite into a seed. Oh well....



I came across this chocolate cupcake recipe from MarthaStewart.com. It's weird. Actually, it's not weird. It's just vegan. It contains no butter or egg. How do the cupcakes hold themselves together I have no idea. I decided to try it out with added chopped chilies.



The cake batter was super easy to make. I didn't even need to wait for butter to get to room temperature because the recipe uses oil. The cupcakes came out not gross but I wouldn't say they are delicious. As I took a bite, I was longing for fluffy texture and eggy flavor you get from recipes with butter and eggs.



Since the cake didn't come out impressive. I had to impress with the frosting. Here's what I came up with.

Frosting Ingredients

• 1 stick butter - room temperature


• 3/4 cup cocoa - sifted


• 2 cups confectioner sugar


• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract


• 2 tablespoons heavy cream


• 2 tablespoons milk


• 5 chilies - finely chopped

Directions

Beat butter until light with an electric mixer. Add cocoa powder and sugar. Start from low setting and increasingly higher with the mixer - beat the frosting. Sprinkle the other wet ingredients into the frosting. Add the chopped chilies. Add more sugar or milk to get the right consistency.

This is probably the most delicious chocolate frosting I have ever put together. Adding heavy cream into buttercream was genius. I got this cross between buttercream and ganache. Fluffy and intense. Or maybe it's the brand of cocoa powder that I used (Lake Champlain Organic Cocoa Powder from Whole Foods). I don't know. I just know that I couldn't stop myself from licking the bowl.