Chocolate chile cake – Twice the recipes, twice the yum

Chocolate chile pepper cake sticks

So I couldn’t make up my mind which chocolate chile recipe to use and ultimately just made two separate cakes that were similar but were from different sources.

Awesome Cake #1 is from Janespice.
Awesome Cake #2 is from Kelsey’s Apple A Day.

Because this is the second…well, third…time I’m writing this post, you’ll be getting mostly pictures:

Dried chile peppers and Aero candy bars

The main ingredients for both cakes….dried chile/chilli/chili peppers and mini Aero candy bars.

How many seeds are in dried chile peppers Roasted chili peppers

I was shocked by how many seeds were in 4 tiny peppers. The second is what they looked like after I roasted them for a bit.

Make your own chile powder

Mmm, all ground up in a spice/coffee grinder.

melted aero chocolate bars

Mmm, melting Aero bars. If you’ve never had one before, they’re all airy and full of bubbles in the middle, which is what you’re seeing in the main bar. 

Messy kitchen

The mess from after making the first cake. I rinsed and repeated all over again while it was in the oven.

almonds in spice grinderground up almonds

The second recipe called for ground up almonds. I don’t have a blender and the food processor was dirty, so I just went back to the spice grinder. Take note in the first picture that I didn’t clean it after grinding the peppers…only dumped out the pepper and went at it, which left my almond flour with a nice, peppery heat.  

egg whites in kitchenaid mixer - soft peaksegg whites in kitchenaid mixer - soft peaks

Mmm, egg whites. They’re not quite as peaky as I’d like, but it still worked.

messy kitchen after making cakes

Mess #2….looks about the same, huh? But you can tell they’re different because the batter colors are different.

uncooked cake batteruncooked cake batter from chocolate chili cake 
The first cake is definitely more chocolatey, but you can tell the second was fluffier with the egg whites.

 Sliced Aero candy barsAero bar sliced flower

Cake #2 didn’t call for more chocolate, but you know….more chocolate was needed anyway.

chocolate chili cake with aero candy barschocolate chili cake with aero candy bars

I didn’t mix them in but just added them to the top before tossing it in the oven. 
 

Chocolate chile cakeChocolate chile cake Chocolate chile cake

1. First cake in the pan. 2. First cake after I flipped t onto a cutting board while still warm. What? I needed the pan. :P 3. Third cake. Clicky if you want them bigger, but they’re nothing special.  

Chocolate chile cake sticks with ginger icing

I wanted to make a ginger icing to balance out the heat of the chile peppers, but honestly, neither one was very good, so I’m not even going to recommend either. It was a great idea, but not very good in the execution department.

Chocolate chile cake from Jane Spice

1 cup or 7oz. best quality cooking chocolate, I used 72% unsweetened chocolate (I obviously didn’t stick with this one, considering the quality of Aero chocolate, ha)
6 ⅓ tablespoons unsalted butter, softened (4 TB butter, 2 TB oil, because I was running short and had another cake to make still!)
2 tablespoons all purpose flour
½ teaspoon chili powder (Give or take…I tasted the batter and added more…also used fresh powder)
1 cup super fine sugar (Regular sugar here!)
3 eggs, separated

Clicky her link for the baking instructions. I cooked mine an extra 5 minutes or so, and got a nice crispy edge.

Chocolate chile cake from Kelsey
I halved this recipe to make it about equal to the first

2 TBSP ancho chile powder, divided
1 tablet (3 oz.) Mexican chocolate, coarsely chopped OR 
3 oz. bittersweet chocolate plus 1 tsp. ground cinnamon (used Aero….so not quality, but worked)
1 c. blanched almonds, toasted
1/3 c. all-purpose flour
1/4 c. Dutch process cocoa powder
1/2 c. unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 c. granulated sugar, divided
6 large eggs, separated, at room temperature
1 TBSP Kahlua or creme de cacao (used Kahlua)
1/4 tsp. pure almond extract (skipped this)
pinch salt

Visit the link for the directions. Again, I ended up baking mine a bit longer, but that’s likely because I added chocolate bars to the mix.

Cooking blog food challenge contest

Comments

  1. Leave a Reply

    Lynn Gardner
    February 8, 2012

    Aero bars in a cake! Best idea, ever! (Millions of pounds of Christmas chocolate left at my house and everyone is sick of eating it).

Leave a Comment toLynn Gardner

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