These are the cupcakes I made for the Capital Cupcake Camp this year. The recipe was a bit of an experiment, but a successful one in the end. Katy and I tried out our recipes a couple of weekends before the camp to see if they would work, and my first batch did not turn out so great, possibly because I was substituting a couple of key ingredients (substituting baking powder for baking soda has a ridiculous ratio). The taste was nice enough, but they went dry very quickly. Also, the after burn was a bit much. Luckily, a professional pastry chef I know (Leticia) had a taste and made a couple of recommendations to tweak it. Her best idea was using cream cheese in the icing.

The end result shows its heritage in the Mint Chocolate Cupcakes I’ve posted here before, and has spices and icing inspired by a recipe contributed by barkcreative on nibbledish.com.

I was really pleased with the result, which is more rich than sweet and best served with a cold glass of milk.

Ingredients:

• ½ cup shortening
• 1 cup + ¾ cup sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 3 eggs, separated
• 2½ cups all-purpose flour
• ½ cup cocoa
• 2 tsp cayenne
• 1 tbsp cinnamon
• 1½ tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 1⅓ cups cold water

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°F. Cream the shortening with 1 cup of the sugar. Add vanilla and egg yolks, beating well. Sift in the dry ingredients alternately with the water, beating after each addition. In another bowl, beat the egg whites until soft peaks form (points stay after pulling the beaters out of the bowl). Gradually beat the rest of the sugar into the egg whites. Fold the egg white mixture into the batter with a spatula or spoon. Blend well, but slowly and gently.

Fill about 24 cupcake papers to ¾ full. Bake at 350°F for about 15-20min or until a knife comes out clean from poking the middle of a cupcake. Let cool at least 15min before icing.

Icing

Ingredients:

• ¼ cup butter
• ¼ cup shortening
• ½ cup cream cheese
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 6 chocolate squares
• 4 cups icing sugar
• 2 tbsp milk
• 1 tsp kosher salt

Directions:

Beat together the butter, shortening, cream cheese and vanilla. Melt the chocolate in a double boiler or the microwave on low power and mix in. Slowly beat in the sugar alternately with the milk, adding extra milk if you need to change the consistency. Sprinkle in the kosher salt and mix evenly. Spread on the cupcakes, or use a pastry bag and decorating tip for fancy effects.

Note: If you like, you can replace the butter and shortening with more cream cheese without affecting the flavour too much. However, I believe it gives a better consistency for decorating the way it is above.

If you’re crazy about decorating, you can also make little chili peppers with melted coloured merkens, painting them onto tin foil with toothpicks and then peeling them off carefully to top the cupcakes.

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