Chocolate Chili Cupcakes & Orange Curd

Today was never intended to be a bake-off day.  I only meant to make orange curd.  No, really.  But then I realised I had the ingredients in already to test a recipe a friend sent to me, and I couldn't help myself.

But first, Orange Curd.

The recipe I used is here, and although it's nice it's not quite to my taste.  It's just a bit too eggy for me.  I'm reserving proper judgment until after it's been cooled and stored, since the flavour should develop a bit more, but of course you know I didn't stick to the recipe.  I added:

• Two extra teaspoons of orange zest (before cooking)
• The zest of one lemon (just before putting into jars)

I wasn't going to add any lemon, but it just needed more zing.  I believe if you're going to make something that's meant to have a distinctive, strong flavour, you should just go for it.  It can always be tamed down, but it's more difficult to jazz it up.  I think so, anyway.

So here they are:

Orange Curd

I also sieved it right at the end because I was sure I'd seen a couple of little white bits in the mix (solid egg white).  I was right, there were a few but not many.  It also meant about half of the orange zest didn't make it into the jars, which was another good reason to add a bit of lemon.

You know I already have plans for one of these jars, and you know I'm not going to tell you what.  Stop looking at me like that!

Right, next up: Chocolate Chili Cupcakes

These are not disappointing in the slightest.  Oh no, no no.  I used a chocolate cake recipe that a friend sent me, and although it's a huge faff (seriously, I ran out of bowls!), it's absolutely delicious.  It uses real chocolate, separated eggs, and more steps than Whitby Abbey!

Chocolate Chili Cupcakes with cream cheese icing

The effort put into these cakes gives an incredibly light, moist sponge, but I think in future I'll reserve it for special occasions.  It's just so much work, and I'm used to the simplest all-in-one method that never fails.

The icing, rather than going for an ultra rich ganache, is cream cheese lightly sweetened with icing sugar.  I tried first with a mix of cream cheese, icing sugar and sweet chili dipping sauce, but it was just too zingy for the cake and overpowered it completely.  For a special occasion cake I think this icing would work well as a sandwich filling, with ganache to cover it, but for these I really do like them just the way they are.

But maybe it would work with a lime icing too... hmmm...

Oh, I just thought of a cruel little game.  Spike one cupcake with extra hot chili and play cake russian roulette!  I just know I'd be the one to end up with the extra chili  :/