Sugar & Spice & Everything Nice!

Wanting to spice up the holidays, Krisa and I  found a Mexican chocolate cupcake recipe and got to baking! At first I thought the 3 piece recipe would be a challenge but once we suited up in our Christmas colored cupcake and chili-pepper aprons and started mixing the ingredients for the spicy chocolate cupcakes I realized it'd be a piece of cake.

We started by making then baking the cupcakes but before we put them into the oven we got  the nutella chili chocolate ganache started seeing as it had to cool for 30 minutes before we would have to fill the cupcakes with it. 

        For the cupcakes:

• 2 cups sifted cake flour
• ½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• ½ teaspoon ground red pepper flakes (add more if you like it spicier)
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• ⅔ cup vegetable oil
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup milk

 We used to work at a French bakery so it was exciting to be making our own ganache from scratch!

      For the ganache: 

• 6 ounces (170 g) good dark chocolate, chopped
• ½ cup (146 g) Nutella
• 3 Tablspoons (43 g) unsalted butter
• ⅔ cup (158 ml) heavy cream
• 1 teaspoon ancho chili powder

It was time to make the chili cream-cheese frosting: as the ganache cooled Krisa whipped up the frosting and I prepped the cupcakes by scooping out the middle of each one to fill with ganache then we did a spicy chocolate cake taste test. . . deliciouso!


       For the Frosting: 

•  1 teaspoon ancho chili powder
• ⅛ teaspoon cayenne pepper
• ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 2 cups confectioners’ sugar (original recipe calls for 4 cups)
• 1 package, 8 ounces (228 g) cream cheese, at room temp.
• 8 Tablespoons (114 g) unsalted butter, softened
• ½ teaspoon (2.5 ml) vanilla extract, clear
• cinnamon sticks for decoration

Once the cupcakes were filled and frosted it was time to try what we call the Feliz Navidad Cupcake. 

The cake itself is not too chocolatey which you'll quickly learn isn't a bad thing because the nutella chili chocolate ganache filling sure is rich! Krisa and I decided that next time we would add more butter to the cupcake recipe so that they would come out a bit more fluffy and moist. The chili cream cheese frosting was the right amount of sweet heat on top and really pulled everything together. Red pepper flakes in the cake, ancho chili powder in the ganache and cayenne pepper in the frosting gives this cupcake a kick which can be turned up or down by simply adding more or not putting in as much.

Our Feliz Navidad Cupcakes go great with a cold glass of milk!