Jalapeno Cupcake

The little guy in the back is a lemon. Made for my friend who doesn't
care for jalapenos. The sprinkles around the side of the jalapeno one
up front got the added kick of a little chili powder.

That's right baby, I'm bringing the heat! So I initially messed around with a jalapeno cupcake for the Cupcake Hero but I never got around to submitting them. Largely I'll admit because my photos of round one were less than riveting. That time I added blueberries to the cake and topped them with a very unplanned slapdash blueberry cream cheese mousse concoction. It tasted pretty decent, but I didn't take any great amount of pride in it. The next two times I made these spicy babies I just added them to my vanilla recipe then topped them with cream cheese frosting. I can assure you, take some of these bad boys out with you and you'll become the center of attention.
Oh, and sorry I missed the Daring Bakers challenge. Not only have I been crazy busy, but since my husband was out of town the for the last half of the month it was hard to motivate myself to bake. It would just sit there, taunting me, telling me to eat it all or else it would go to waste. And who wants that kind of pressure from a cracker?

Candied Jalapeno

4 Jalapeño Peppers, cut into rings
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cups water

In a saucepan, add sugar and water. Heat over low heat until the mixture forms a syrup. Add jalapeno slices and heat 3-4 minutes. Remove the jalapenos and allow to cool. Repeat by adding the pepper slices to the syrup until the jalapeno peppers are thickly candied.

I used most of the candied jalapenos in the cake, then tosses a few in the frosting. It gave them just the right kick to me, but you can adjust according to your taste, and to the size of your peppers (mine were not terribly large)

Cake

1/4 lb butter (not rock hard, not mushy. Just a little soft)
1 cup sugar
2 eggs (room temp)
1/2 cup milk (room temp)
1 1/2 cup cake flour
1/2 and 1/4 tsp baking powder
candied jalapenos

Cream butter and sugar until extremely light and fluffy. Seriously. When you think it might be light enough, scrap down the bowl and cream it some more. Just cream the living daylights out of it. Got it? Maybe you should cream it some more. (if your kitchen is hot and you start to get a soupy mix, pop it in the fridge for a bit)
Add eggs a little at a time on medium speed. Allow to mix 20 seconds or so after each addition. Scrape down bowl and mix 20 seconds more. If it looks curdled, you added the eggs too quickly (tut tut). It won't make a big difference in the end, they just won't be quite so domed.
Sift together dry ingredients. (well, really you should have done this back while the butter and sugar were taking their sweet time getting all creamified and fluffy). Add one third of the dry and mix on low. Add one half of the milk and continue mixing. Repeat, finish with the last bit of flour. Once flour is mixed in, scrape down bowl and mix again on medium speed for about ten seconds (if you are using regular flour you'll want to handle the batter a little bit more delicately, maybe just mix for one mississippi). Fold in jalapenos. Bake at 350 until slightly golden and springy (no, I don't know how long it takes. I generally don't time them, I just poke my head in when it seems like enough time has elapsed. So you'll just have to figure that part out on your own)
Tada! You have cakes.

Frosting

I can't find anywhere that I've written it down. I may have just been making it from memory. Or it could be on one of the bank stubs and junk mail envelopes pilled up in my cabinet. I tend to write my recipes on these things. And my recipes tend to be comprised of just a list on ingredients. No title, no directions. It can get a little confusing. So for now, how's about you just use your favorite super cheesey frosting and toss some jalapenos in it? Heck, just whipped cream cheese might work!