Friday, January 30, 2009

Dark Chocolate Azteca Cupcakes with Cinnamon Buttercream

With all the cold, snowy, icy weather a lot of you are struggling through this week I thought I'd make a cupcake that would warm you up a little.
Dark Chocolate Azteca Cupcake with Cinnamon Buttercream
This dark chocolate cupcake is flavored with ancho for a nice chile flavor & cayenne for a bit of heat. After you mix the batter test it for heat. If it seems subtler than you wish or just where you want it add a little more cayenne, as it will lessen a little more during baking. I've also added cinnamon to the cupcake & frosting as that is traditional is Mexican chocolate.
This morning's baking
I love that dark chocolate color!

Dark Chocolate Azteca Cupcakes with Cinnamon Buttercream

1/4 c unsalted butter
2 T Hershey's Special Dark Cocoa Powder
3 T water
1/2 c granulated sugar
2 T well beaten egg
2 T buttermilk
1/2 T vanilla
1/2 c all-purpose flour
1/8 t baking soda
1/4 t baking powder
1/4 t cinnamon
1/4 t ancho chile powder
1/8 t or more of cayenne depending if you like some heat
pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 350 F. Prepare 5 - 6 muffin tins.
Melt butter in a large heavy saucepan over moderately low heat, then whisk in cocoa. Add water and whisk until smooth. Remove from heat. Whisk in separately sugar, egg, buttermilk, and vanilla. Sift flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, ancho, cayenne and salt into the cocoa mixture and whisk until just combined (it will be a little bit lumpy).

Fill muffin tins to about 2/3 full for rounded cupcakes. Bake for 20 minutes until a skewer or toothpick comes out clean. It's a moist cake, so don't worry if a few crumbs stick to your tester.
Allow cupcakes to cool.

Cinnamon Buttercream

1/2 c unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 c powdered sugar
1/2 t cinnamon
dash of vanilla
pinch of salt

Beat the butter until light & creamy. Beat in 1/4 c of sugar, cinnamon, vanilla & salt until combined. Continue to add the sugar 1/4 c at a time. Taste & add more cinnamon if you wish.

Makes 5 - 6 cupcakes

I'm submitting this to the Cinnamon Celebration over at A Southern Grace. You have never met anyone who loves cinnamon as much as Grace!
cinamon

28 comments:

Stacey Snacks said...

great photo in the oven!!! how cool is that?

Anonymous said...

This looks delicious! I've got to try them. I love the idea of a cinnamon buttercream, and the chiles in the chocolate is fantastic.

Dewi said...

Kat, this cupcakes look so gorgeous. And the recipe, wow... it's really tempting.
Cheers,
Elra

Anne Coleman said...

I'll be right over! They're gorgeous and HAVE to be delicious.

Finla said...

Wow these looks so yummy delicious. Don't give all to annie i am aslo comming over :-)

Jen said...

Oh yum...

eatingclubvancouver_js said...

Something chocolatey with some heat -- love it. And the cinnamon buttercream just makes it even more wonderful!

grace said...

i reiterate: these are phenomenal. thanks again. :)

Chocolate Shavings said...

That's a beautiful photograph!

Amanda said...

Beautiful! I just wanted to let you know that on Sunday morning I am starting a new weekly posting (Sunday Shout Outs) where I blog about some of my favorite posts from other bloggers. This week your Dark Chocolate & Lavender Cocoa made my list. Thanks for posting such great stuff!

toontz said...

Mmmm, I love cocoa and pepper together! I am bookmarking this to try the cinnamon buttercream. What a great idea!

giz said...

Nice entry Kat. You're lovin' that dark chocolate cocoa these days :)

Peter M said...

Kat, it's stunning...is there any extra icing left...I want to smear more on the bottom part.

Jess said...

Yum! I made the cinnamon buttercream tonight to go with a batch of Mexican chocolate cupcakes I freehanded. That icing is amazing! I love your recipe because it only makes 5-6 cupcakes!! That's the perfect number! If I make a whole bunch then I eat them all! Especially with that fantastic icing on it!

Anonymous said...

I just made these today, and I have to tell you, these are the best cupcakes I have ever had in my entire life. I am not kidding. My husband, who is not a sweets person at all, just about swooned when he took a bite. I can not even begin to adequately describe how great these are. I posted about my experience on my site (linked).

Also, I have to echo what the commenter above said: the 6-cupcake batch is just brilliant. I don't have to commit to having a house full of cupcakes to make these. I can just whip these up whenever my husband and I feel like having them.

The only thing I would say is that I found the frosting recipe actually made much more than was necessary, even for pretty generously frosted cupcakes. Hard to complain about that, though! You could practically just eat that frosting with a spoon, it's so good.

Hats off to you. This recipe is a winner.

Mia said...

hi there...such a pretty cupcake! i love the way you piped it...which tip did you use? i always have trouble piping a smooth pretty cupcake with the round tips...
:) thanks!

kat said...

Mia - I didn't use a tip at all just the coupler the tip would normally go on to. I find that its important to try to get the air out of the frosting before piping.

Mia said...

thanks kat! i am going to try!!
by "...getting the air out of the frosting..."
do you mean once in piping bag? burp the bag so to speak? thanks again!!

kat said...

Mia - Yes, try to make sure you've got the frosting pushed to the end of the bag so you don't have lots of air bubbles.

Mia said...

thank you!! thank you!
will try and post pics...
www.buttergoodness.wordpress.com
:) mia

Ashley said...

These look insanely good! Yum!!

Donna-FFW said...

Found you on A Southern Grace's Cinnamon Celebration post. These look wonderful.. Love your blog, photos are to die for.

Cookie baker Lynn said...

What a stunning cupcake! It sounds as good as it looks.

Anonymous said...

I found these on Grace's Cinnamon Celebration-- they were so gorgeous we just had to try them. They turned out great, if not as pretty as yours! DC (my Darlin' Companion) LOVED the heat! Such a great idea! I know we'll be making these again. Thanks for sharing!

:) Karen

Anonymous said...

I just made these cupcakes and they are awesome! The cayenne adds the perfect touch that makes them unique, definitely a keeper recipe!
Thank you.

Anonymous said...

2T of egg? Not 2 eggs?

kat said...

Anonymous - Yes, 2 Tablespoons of beaten egg. You'll notice this is a small batch of cupcakes, only 5 - 6. So what you are using is about 1/2 an egg.

Caitiln said...

WOW sounds delish!!! I am going to attempt these this weekend! Im from MN as well, and this weekend doesnt look particularly spring-y yet! I cant wait to warm up with these!

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