Does it have to be chocolate? I have a recipe for a hot pepper layered cheese cake.

Yeah, they sort of do want chocolate...and something that can be eaten out of hand.

But I would love that layered cheesecake recipe.

Here is one of my favorite cupcake recipes.

Chocolate Chipotle Cupcakes
1 cup Scharffen Berger unsweetened cocoa
3/4 cup boiling water
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 Tbsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
3 tsp chipotle powder
2 cups sugar
1 cup butter, room temperature
4 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1 cup buttermilk
2 Tbsp canned chipotles in adobe sauce, pureed

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Line cupcake trays with baking cups (36)
Puree canned chipotles and set aside.
Boil water. Transfer 3/4 cup of boiling water to bowl. Stir in cocoa until dissolved to form chocolate mixture and set aside.
With a wire whisk, mix flour, baking soda, cinnamon, salt and chipotle powder in a separate bowl and set aside.
In a large mixing bowl, mix sugar, butter and eggs until light and fluffy. Add buttermilk and vanilla and mix well.
Add flour mixture to the wet ingredients in three additions, alternating with chocolate mixture in two additions, ending with flour mixture. Beat until combined with each addition.
Add pureed chipotles and beat until combined.
Scoop batter into prepared cupcake trays,
Bake for 13-15 minutes and cool completely.

Chipotle Cream Cheese Buttercream Frosting

2-3.5 oz. chocolate with chipotles (Vosges Red Fire Bar) ***
1 8 oz. package cream cheese
1 stick butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 Tbsp. chipotle chili powder
1 tsp cinnamon
4 cups confectioner's sugar

Melt chocolate in microwave in 30 sec intervals., stirring in between until melted. Let cool.
Sift sugar and add chili powder and cinnamon. Set aside.
Cream butter and cream cheese and vanilla in a large mixing bowl on low until combined.
Add sugar in small batches until combined. Scrape down sides of bowl in between.
Add melted chocolate and mix until combined well.

*** I used Lindt chocolate with chipotles, but think you could use plain and the icing would be fine.

This recipe makes quite a bit of icing, you may want to halve it.

This one is good and easy to make -- not sure if you want something this casual

Chill Chasers

1 20 oz box devil's food or dark chocolate cake mix (tested with Duncan Hines)
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ancho chili powder
1/4 to 1/2 tsp cayenne (I used 3/8 tsp)
1 egg
1/4 c water
1 cup mini semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup sliced almonds, very finely chopped

Stir spices into cake mix in mixing bowl. Add egg and water, then stir in chocolate chips. Divide dough (a bit sticky) into half and shape each into a roll about 1-1/2 inches in diameter. Roll each roll in the finely chopped almonds, then wrap in waxed paper and chill or freeze several hours. Slice chilled dough about 1/4" thick and place on greased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees about 12 min. Makes about 3 dozen.

I was thinking that a Texas Sheet Cake would also be good made with a similar amount of chili and cayenne in the cake batter. I want to try that. Here's the classic recipe --

Texas Sheet Cake

2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 cup butter or margarine
4 Tbsp. cocoa
1 cup water
2 eggs
ý cup buttermilk
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla

Prepare a 9x13 pan or a sheet pan (11x15 �" cake will be thinner) by greasing and flouring or spraying with nonstick spray.

Measure flour, sugar and cinnamon into a mixing bowl. Place butter, cocoa and water in small saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring frequently. Turn off heat and pour hot mixture over flour mixture and stire to blend. Add eggs. Dissolve baking soda in buttermilk and add to mixture with vanilla. Blend together.

Bake at 350 until cake tests done in center (about 25-30 min for sheet pan and about 35 min for 9x13).

Make frosting while cake is still hot and pour over warm cake. Spread just enough to cover cake and let cool without disturbing.

If you want to use buttermilk powder, add the powder (2T) to the flour and sugar and mix well. Dissolve the baking soda in ý c water and add with vanilla.

Chocolate Fudge Icing

1 cup sugar or 1 lb powdered sugar (1 box or ý large bag)
ý cup (1 stick) butter or margarine
4 T cocoa
ü cup milk
2 tsp vanilla
1 cup pecans (optional)

Mix all ingredients in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat. Mix well from beginning to avoid lumps. Stir constantly and boil for 1 minute. Remove from heat and beat until thick enough to spread on cake. Spread over warm cake, spreading just to move into corners. Icing will cool and form a skin that will crack and crinkle if you continue to spread, but it will usually settle over the warm cake on its own.

You can buy chocolate that already has chili in it. My sister in Austin sent me some for my birthday - it was made by Lindt. Mexicans have been mixing chocolate and chili for hundreds of years, and it is a very good combination, although in Mexico it is frequently made into a drink. Hot chili has the effect of intensifying the chocolate flavor/experience, unless it is overdone. I watched a Dotch Cooking Show from Japan a few years ago, and a Japanese chef there thought he had come upon a new idea by adding cayenne to chocolate, possibly not knowing that this idea was centuries old. It was a silly show, but I watched it faithfully every week and taped it when I couldn't watch it.

I don't have a recipe for you, but I will say that the chili in the chocolate that I have is primarily an aftertaste that prolongs the chocolate experience. I highly recommend the Lindt chocolate with chili (available at CVS for $2.79), but personally, I do not like chocolate with cinnamon, even though that is traditional in Mexico. The cinnamon becomes the overpowering flavor, but if you combine chocolate with chili and leave out the cinnamon, you will get a more intense chocolate experience. It's too bad you don't have time to experiment, as this is fun to do.

Lars

Thanks, Marigene and Laskatx. I may make both the cupcakes and cookies if I get motivated next Friday. The cupcakes sound interesting...I've had different hot peppers with chocolate, but never chipotles. I can see the Chill Chasers on certain friends' Christmas cookie trays.

Lars, that's why I wanted someone else's proportions...I like it hot and so tend to overdo.

I'll look for the Lindt bars and the Red Fire bars. Good chocolate's hard to find locally (less than an hour's drive).