It’s Cinco de Mayo today, and while I’m not Mexican, I appreciate a celebration of any country with such excellent food. I didn’t have time to make my all-time favourite Mexican dish (tacos) today, but I did make some cupcakes with chili in them. Here’s the recipe I came up with. It works as either a cake or cupcakes (as most cake recipes do). I think it would be best as a layer cake though.

Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups all-purpose spelt flour (if you can’t find all-purpose, get as light as you can!)
2 cups granulated sugar
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups hot water
1/2 cup bourbon
1-2 tbsp chili flakes
2 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup old milk (if you don’t have any, use buttermilk)
2 large eggs

Preheat oven to 350 F/180 C. Boil water, chili and cayenne pepper together. Take off heat and let it cool down a bit. Add vanilla and bourbon. Mix together dry ingredients and sugar. Add butter and beat. Add milk slowly while beating, then add eggs one at a time. Gradually add water-chili-bourbon mixture while beating. Add mixture to greased pan (or two smaller, shallower pans), or cupcake tins. Bake cupcakes for 25-30 mins, bake cake for 35-40 mins.

I used a variation of butter cream icing with cocoa and bourbon and a touch of cayenne to ice them.

Boil