Hearing: 
Adam and the Ants – “Kings of the Wild Frontier”
Last fall I made Mexican Hot Chocolate cupcakes for Thanksgiving, and they were much loved. So loved, in fact, I didn’t even get to have one once they were finished- I only got to eat some batter before they were made. But anyway everyone raved about them and my dad ended up eating most of them, not to mention he got very territorial about them. So I’m always looking for ways to top myself, or at least vary a theme thats well-known and loved. So I decided I’d make this recipe this year for Thanksgiving.. and no, you didn’t just wake up from a coma and miss the past 2 months. Its nowhere near Thanksgiving yet. I basically wanted to test it out since it was originally a cake recipe and the frosting was made up in my own head, so I wasn’t 100% sure that it would work very well. And I figured, if I tested it out now, I’d also be able to enter it in Cupcake Hero’s latest challenge. Two birds with one stone- thats what I’m all about, baby.
I love Mexican Hot Chocolate. We used to drink Abuelita (made by Nestlé using artificial cinnamon) and Ibarra (more authentic) all the time ’round here. Its different than regular Swiss Miss, in case you don’t already know that. Its hotter, and spicier, and doesn’t come powdered. It comes in blocks of chocolate you have to break apart and cook on the stove top to melt, with milk. Its absolutely delicious and if you’ve never had it- go do so right now. I command you. Go ahead, I’ll wait.. .. . . . … . . .. . *whistles* .. . .. .. . .
Okay, you back? Good. So anyway like I was saying, I love Mexican Hot Chocolate. I think its a great concept to apply to baking, whether its cookies or cupcakes or cake or frosting. And since I’ve done the cupcake thing, this time its the frosting thing. I also love anything Dia de los Muertos related, so of course I made sugar skull cupcake toppers. And the cinnamon vanilla cake is simply to die for. This recipe was adapted from a wedding cake recipe by Michelle Doll, of Michelle Doll Cakes. I not only made it into cupcakes, but also completely re-did the frosting recipe based on my needs and what I had handy. I made my buttercream without using measurements, so this is the best idea of what I did that I can give you. If you try it and its wrong in some way, please let me know.
CINNAMON VANILLA CUPCAKES
Ingredients:
- 2 sticks unsalted butter
- 2 cups sugar
- 4 large eggs
- 3 cups sifted all-purpose flour
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup whole milk
- 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
Directions:
- Cream the butter in a stand mixer until smooth and light. Add sugar and continue to mix until fully incorporated and fluffy.
- Add 1 egg at a time, beating well after each addition. In a medium bowl sift together flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt.
- Preheat oven to 350° degrees F.
- Combine milk and vanilla. Add portions of the flour mixture and milk mixture to the electric mixer, alternating, starting and ending with flour. Pour evenly into cupcake pans lined with paper liners, about ½ – ¾ full.
- Bake for 30-35 minutes or until cupcakes spring back to the touch.
MEXICAN HOT CHOCOLATE BUTTERCREAM
Ingredients:
- 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
- 4 -5 cups confectioner’s sugar
- ¼ cup milk
- ½ cup cocoa powder
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
- 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 tablespoons coffee (2 tablespoons MADE coffee, not just 2 tbsp coffee granules)
Directions:
- Cream butter in the bowl of an stand mixer.
- Add 1 cup sugar, cocoa powder, chili powder, cayenne pepper, coffee and ¼ cup milk. Mix until thoroughly combined.
- Add 2 cups sugar and vanilla. Mix. Add the rest of the sugar, 1 cup at a time, and mix. If needed, add ¼ cup more milk, or 1 cup sugar. Continue until consistency is satisfactory.*
- Frost completely cooled cupcakes. Enjoy.
*I added shortening for a quarter of the amount of butter to stabilize it, but if you don’t have shortening, you can use a smidge cream of tartar to help stabilize it, as the coffee sometimes causes it to separate and get wilty, but when I say smidge I mean smidge… its very acidic tasting so if you go overboard you’ll ruin the flavor of the frosting.
Okay so these were pretty awesome. And they look really pretty. ¡Qué linda! I kinda figured they would be awesome. Its just good to test drive a recipe sometimes. I think the frosting came out really spectacular, but then again like I’ve mentioned, I love Mexican hot chocolate and I like hot and spicy stuff. Its very subtle hot though, its not really in your face, so I don’t know if anyone would complain about it. Unless they weren’t familiar with Mexican Hot Chocolate and didn’t understand why there was chili in their buttercream. In which case- you should not be friends with those people, they’re crazy. Go feed ‘em to el chupacabra (and while you’re at it, I know a few more people you can throw to the goat sucker… contact me for a complete list).
They were a success! Although when I make ‘em for turkey day I probably won’t use skulls on top. Heh. You can definitely tell theres cayenne and chili in it, its got a kick after the initial taste. But its not overpowering.
¡Viva la cupcakes!
Comments 31
I AM MAKING THIESE FOR SURE AS SOON AS IT STARTS TO COOL DOWN!
Posted 22 Sep 2008 at 2:32 am ¶THEY LOOK SOOOOO YUMMY AND I CAN’T WAIT FOR THE SISTER TO TRY THEM
That buttercream sounds amazing! And the toothpick art – adorable.
I might have to try making these; how great would they be for dia de los muertos with actual sugar skulls sitting on top? (miniaturized, of course).
Thank you!
Posted 22 Sep 2008 at 12:14 pm ¶Yoyo: the cake is amazing… I mean the frosting came out pretty damn good but the cake… you can eat it by itself!
Carrie Mae: The sugar skull idea is great- I always wanted to make them! And I love your website
Posted 22 Sep 2008 at 1:59 pm ¶omfg YES.
Posted 22 Sep 2008 at 4:28 pm ¶Haha Tito
Posted 22 Sep 2008 at 5:05 pm ¶ooh these sound so delicious! i will have to try them this weekend!!
lol @ feeding them to el chupacabra lmaoooo
i always scare kids with el cucuy
Posted 22 Sep 2008 at 6:24 pm ¶They are indeed yummy!
LOL@ el cucuy..
Posted 22 Sep 2008 at 8:11 pm ¶would it alter the taste of the frosting if i used regular butter instead of the unsalted butter??
thanks!
Posted 23 Sep 2008 at 5:38 pm ¶Carina- I don’t think there would be any noticable difference. I’ve used salted butter before in frosting and it seemed just fine to me. If you’re using salted butter in a frosting recipe that calls for a pinch salt, just omit that extra pinch of salt.
Posted 23 Sep 2008 at 6:43 pm ¶I freaking love cinnamon, it is my crack. Looking forward to trying these beauties!
Mostly I’m jealous of the Day of the Dead picks, I’ll have a song I learned in Spanish class of yore in my head for the rest of the day.
Posted 03 Oct 2008 at 3:16 pm ¶I love cinnamon too, its a fantastic spice isn’t it?
Haha I love those picks, I think they’re my favorite ones I’ve made. Now that you mentioned Spanish class, I’m thinking of the ‘Days of the Week’ song I learned in mine!
Posted 03 Oct 2008 at 6:46 pm ¶Just made these for my roommates….oh my goodness they turned out amazing! That icing is to die for! and cinnamon really is the best spice.
OM NOM NOM NOM CINNAMON
Posted 05 Oct 2008 at 6:43 pm ¶LOL@ om nom nom nom! I can has cinnamon?
I’m so glad you liked it!
Posted 05 Oct 2008 at 7:35 pm ¶wow, these look fantastic!! I’ll certainly have to give these a try!
Katie xox
Posted 12 Jul 2009 at 10:35 am ¶Yeah they are fantastic!
Posted 12 Jul 2009 at 2:02 pm ¶the cocoa powder…do you use sweetened or unsweetened? thanks!! going to make the recipe today!
Posted 16 Aug 2009 at 5:18 pm ¶Hi Tina- I always use unsweetened cocoa powder
Posted 16 Aug 2009 at 9:37 pm ¶i’m venturing to make these for my office, wish me luck! i’ll let you know how they turn out
Posted 08 Oct 2009 at 9:19 am ¶Yay. Good luck
Posted 09 Oct 2009 at 3:47 pm ¶Yum! Just finished making these and they are delish. I like the kick of the icing. Thanks for sharing the recipe!
Posted 31 Oct 2009 at 8:02 pm ¶You’re welcome Heidi!
I’m glad you liked them!
Posted 01 Nov 2009 at 4:29 pm ¶I just finished making these wonderful cupcakes. I have a few questions. My cupcakes came out mostly hard on the outside and spongy on the inside. Even when I baked them for 10 minutes less, they still came out kinda hard. I followed the instructions to the T minus using a stand mixer (because I don’t have one.) Would that make the difference? Or maybe, I only had extra large eggs, would the extra egg make the difference? Maybe I added the flour too fast? Any ideas?
Last question, the recipe for the frosting calls for cinnamon, but no where in the instructions does it call to add it in. Is it just to dust the cupcakes after icing them? Or should I have added it when adding the chili powder etc.?
Posted 21 Jan 2010 at 8:52 pm ¶Hi Sarah Kristin!
About the cinnamon- yes, that was me omitting it in the typing of the ingredients. It should go in with the chili powder. Hope that helps.
About the hardness of the cake, I doubt the stand mixer would make a difference, if anything usually stand mixers make batter tougher if you aren’t careful. SO I can’t really imagine why that happened to you. I don’t know if it’s the egg, perhaps it is, I’ve only ever used medium or large in my baking unless the recipe called for extra large, so really I’m not sure. It could be your oven too, the humidity/dryness of where you live, altitude, etc… there are lots of variables in baking. But that’s the best answer I can give you! Sorry
Posted 22 Jan 2010 at 3:42 pm ¶Thanks for the speedy reply! My mother in law, who is an avid baker, says that they probably came out harder because my muffin pan is dark silver and the darker pans run hotter. Do you think that might be it? She said to turn the oven down by 25 degrees and it would come out right. I do plan on remaking these as soon as I recover from my sugar overload.
Posted 22 Jan 2010 at 4:18 pm ¶Oh there ya go! Yes, darker pans heat up at a different temp than lighter ones
I’m glad you figured it out 
Posted 22 Jan 2010 at 5:11 pm ¶Thank you for sharing this recipe! I am completely excited to try…I want to make them for a friend’s baby shower. My question–based on your recipe above, how many cupcakes can I expect to yield from the recipe as written?
Posted 24 Feb 2010 at 2:22 pm ¶Thanks!
Hi Kathryn.. I *believe* it made 24… it definitely made more than a dozen. It very well may have made a little over 24!
Posted 24 Feb 2010 at 8:51 pm ¶Excellent. Thank you!
Posted 27 Feb 2010 at 11:10 am ¶Anytime!
Posted 27 Feb 2010 at 1:00 pm ¶Mmm I just made these for me and my boyfriend for dessert tonight. They came out beautifully and tasted delicious! Thanks so much for the recipe.
Posted 18 Mar 2010 at 9:04 pm ¶You’re welcome Bethany. And thank you
Posted 19 Mar 2010 at 12:52 pm ¶Trackbacks & Pingbacks 5
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