Love and Olive Oil

Mexican Hot Chocolate Cupcakes

Mexican Hot Chocolate Cupcakes

Um, folks, we have another winner. This one was so good it has bumped another cupcake out of the running altogether. Bye bye regular old chocolate, hello hot chocolate! In Taylor’s words, this is a much more sophisticated chocolate. In Robin’s words, mmmmm. The texture was fascinating. So moist, and yet fluffy and slightly grainy (in a good way). Something about the combination of ingredients that go into the batter, it comes out of the oven full of flavors you can’t quite identify. Deep, rich flavors. While we didn’t add enough cayenne to make it spicy, the pinch we did add brings a depth to the cake like adding salt might, but much more pronounced. It’s like the cayenne becomes a super salt – that brings out the fine details of all the other ingredients within the cake.

In other words, it’s darn good.

Hot Chocolate Cupcakes with Vanilla Almond Buttercream

We topped these off with a simple cream cheese buttercream, flavored with almond and a touch of vanilla. I jokingly suggested we add some color to the snow white frosting, and immediately both Taylor and Robin shouted “Purple!”. Right, ok, purple it is. And how purple they are. Topped with some pearlescent jimmies, they make for a very glamorous cupcake.

Mexican Hot Chocolate Cupcakes

Makes 12 cupcakes. Recipe adapted from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World.

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Ingredients:

1 cup coconut milk
1 tablespoon ground flaxseeds
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons corn flour or very fine cornmeal
1/4 cup almond meal
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper (more or less to taste)
1 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon almond extract

For Frosting:
1/2 cup butter or margarine, room temperature
3-3 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon milk or soymilk

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350?F and line muffin pan with cupcake liners.

Whisk together coconut milk and flaxseed and allow to sit for 10 minutes, then whisk in sugar, oil, vanilla, and almond extract.

In another bowl, sift together flour, corn flour, almond meal, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and cayenne. Gently mix in wet ingredients.

Fill cupcake liners with 1/4 cup of batter (approximately 2/3 full). Bake for 22-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Transfer to a cooling rack and cool completely.

For frosting, cream the butter. Slowly add most of the confectioners’ sugar, 1/2 cup at a time, until mixture is smooth and fluffy. Add soymilk, extracts, and coloring (if desired), and mix until combined. Add remaining powdered sugar, adding more if necessary to achieve proper consistency. Mix at medium-high speed until light and fluffy. Spread or pipe onto cooled cupcakes.

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32 Comments

  1. I can’t do the flaxseed…could I simply add the same amount of flour? Thanks, I can’t wait to try these cupcakes!

  2. Great recipe! We love these…such a wonderfly complex flavor.

    Mine were crumbly, and I’m wondering how to avoid this. I’m baking at altitude (7000 feet), but doubt that was the problem. Do you have any ideas? The flavor was outstanding.

  3. Thank you so much! I’ll definitely make them again before I leave Beijing.

  4. Hi, thanks for the amaaaazing website and recipes! I made the espresso cupcakes and they were a big hit, but I discovered that one of my friends can’t have coffee in any form, so I made a ton of these Mexican hot chocolate cupcakes for her. They were fabulous, and vanished very, very quickly :)

    My question is: What’s best to substitute for almond meal? I can’t make me own, because I have neither a blender nor a mortar and pestle, nor can I find almond butter anywhere even remotely close to where I live (which is in the Northern suburbs of Beijing).

    Thank you so much!

    -E

    • If you can’t find almond meal or can’t make finely ground almonds, any sort of ground nut or nut flour would work. If not, just substitute it with more flour and maybe a bit of extra almond extract to make up for the flavor, cupcakes will still be delicious!

  5. Hi sorry, I was wondering how much cream cheese to put in the frosting, it doesn’t seem to say in the recipe. Thanks.

    • Apologies Jay, there is no cream cheese in this frosting. I’ve updated the instructions. Should be accurate now!

  6. I’m not going to lie.. some of these ingredients look a little scary! The cayenne pepper.. YIKES! I’m almost scared of what these will turn out like, (with my luck anyway). I love your pictures and hopefully will get the balls to try these!
    -Sylvia

  7. After months of having this page bookmarked, I finally got around to trying them last night! I used a gluten-free flour instead, and it worked remarkably well. Next time I’ll add a bit of xanthan gum to help them stick together a bit better. But they were absolutely delicious! So gooey and chocolatey and just divine!!!!

  8. Found you stumbling…GORGEOUS cupcakes!!

  9. I really want to try this recipe.
    It does not say how much creamcheese to put in the icing!?

  10. these are beautiful cupcakes! they sound so delicious im going to make some for myself tomorrow!! gotta runto the store first :P that frosting is gorgeous I have never thought of making that color in all my cupcake baking years!! and I love the pearl sprinkles. thank you for the recipe

  11. I love Mexican Hot Chocolate! This sounds so interesting and creative!

  12. This recipe is amazing! Instead of mixing the blackberry puree into the frosting, I filled the cupcakes with homemade blackberry jam. Who woulda thought almond, vanilla, and blackberry would be such a winning combination!

  13. Wow, that looks absolutely delicious! You did a great job presenting the pictures too, I will definitely have to try this recipe when I have some time this weekend :)

  14. I made these and the strawberry lemonade cupcakes for my neice’s 5th birthday today, they were amazing and the recipe worked out perfectly but I couldn’t get either icing to be so thick and fluffy and to pipe like these, so in the end I just spread it, what kind of mixer are you using?

  15. I love love love this recipe! I was so excited the first time I found this because my dad and his girlfriend both love chocolate with chili powder, so I knew I had to make these for them. Now my dad asks me to make these every time I visit!

  16. I think I love you… :)

  17. I love the first picture. So beautiful with that lilac icing.

  18. Stunning cupcakes! Two days ago I sipped my first Mexican Hot Chocolate—man, I’ve been missing out…Very psyched about this recipe.

  19. that is some of the prettiest frosting i have ever seen! beautiful cupcakes-and they sound delicious :)

  20. Hi Rockaroo –

    We did make a ‘grown-up’ hot chocolate last year, that was basically a drinkable chocolate bar:
    http://www.loveandoliveoil.com/2008/01/grown-up-hot-chocolate-with-amaretto.html
    Very rich. I’ve found the best cocoa is just a simple mix of milk (or soymilk), cocoa powder, sugar, and vanilla. I made a soy version recently, since I can’t have pretty much all of the hot chocolate mixes, and it was quite good. Maybe I’ll make it again and write down the recipe. :)

  21. I love that bright purple color! Beautiful cupcakes with a great flavor idea.

  22. Looks great!! Your photos are beautiful. A lady who was in the Norfolk Craft Mafia has an online store with lots of items perfect for cupcake decorating- http://www.bakeitpretty.com/ just wanted to pass it on.

  23. Mexican recipes are always my favorite. I keep trying these recipe, but never tried out cupcakes.

    I liked this recipe very much.

    Thanks.
    Julia

  24. Does your greatness ever cease!!! I love the icing color. I tried making some homemade hot chocolate over the holidays and I bombed it big time. Would love to hear if you have one that is a winner :)

  25. Everything about those cupcakes is beautiful! Thanks for the recipe.

  26. Cupcakes are my favorite, especially chocolate! This looks adventurous and fun!

  27. Yum, I’d love to give those a try. I am not a fan of chocolate cupcakes or cake but these just might win me over to the dark side! ha-ha!
    ~ingrid

  28. the purple frosting was probably our best idea all week. i kinda wish i had eaten one more before i left… it would hit the spot right now. miss you guys already!!!

  29. Awesome combination! I love the experimental cupcake recipes you’ve been posting. I have lost my motivation to bake cupcakes. I thought they were kind of dull. But you have changed my opinion. Hopefully I get to make these bad boys soon :)

  30. I love Mexican hot chocolate.
    You’re assured that whatever it touches turns to gold.

    Beautiful icing too.

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