IronCupcake:Earth - Challenge 1 - CHILI PEPPER

As many of you know, I bravely signed up for the first ever Iron Cupcake Earth challenge. I am always in awe of the amazing cupcakes created during the now famous Iron Cupcake challenges started by Sandy the Milwaukee Cupcake Queen who has the rad blog No One Puts Cupcake In A Corner

So the first challenge ingredient was announced and it was Chili Pepper. Eek! I'm not a big chili person, so I struggle with getting it right when I use it in normal cooking dishes. Cupcakes and chili was going to be an interesting challenge for this baker!

So after an initial mini panic, I had a think about what I could do and of course, chili and chocolate cupcakes came to mind. But I figured this combo would prove to be popular and I needed to step up and meet the Iron Cupcake Earth challenge head on.

So I decided to do a fruit based cupcake. As random as this may seem, my inspiration came from the chili and lime flavour corn chips that Chris and I sometimes buy. These are incredibly tasty, so why not transfer all that yumminess to cupcakes.

I figured I'd need something else to help mellow out the chili, especially for wussy people like myself when it comes to hot stuff. So I decided to pop some chopped up tinned mango in, figuring it would make a great contrast to the chili and lime. Then to top it all off, creamy, delicious cream cheese and lime frosting, to help those tingling tastebuds calm down!

I must say, these cupcakes are quite exciting to eat and even a chili wussy like myself enjoyed them. You bite in and there is an awesome mixture in your mouth of creamy frosting, with that little lime zing to it, and then the cupcake with its mouth warming chili flavour, along with smooth, chunks of mango. Its a party for your mouth!

I'm currently typing up the recipe so I can officially enter my cupcake in the Iron Cupcake Earth Challenge. When its done, if any of you would like it, let me know and I can post it on here for you to try yourselves! If there is one thing I'd change next time, it'd be reducing the chili powder from 2 teaspoons to 1, however, that may just be me and my wussy mouth. My hubby Chris loves them and doesnt think they've very hot at all!

Here are a few pics of my adventure. Unfortunately I was so busy getting my bake on at the beginning there are no photos of mixing the ingredients before they went into the oven!

Two crucial ingredients:


Fresh out of the oven (spot the half eaten one I couldn't resist sampling!):


Lots of lime cream cheese frosting left over:


Icing them all:


A cross section of cupcake that shows the mango chunks:


George the pug with the final creation. It was killing him to not eat some!!



* Voting will begin on Sunday, August 31st at 12 noon at NO ONE PUTS CUPCAKE IN A CORNER and will be open through Thursday, September 4 at 12 noon. So make sure you pop by and vote for me!!

* Winner will be posted the night of August 4th, before 11:59 p.m.

* The next ingredient will be posted on Friday, September 5th.

* Visit IronCupcake:Earth to become a part of the excitement and join for the next challenge!

Prizes for Iron Cupcake Earth - Challenge 001 are awesome! I would love to finally get my hands on a Jessie Steele apron (and if I don't win I'm going to keep dropping hints to everyone for my big 30th birthday coming up in Nov!).

The prizes are kindly donated by one of my favourite ETSY artists, CAKESPY



and the 3 corporate sponsors:

JESSIE STEELE APRONS



CUPCAKE COURIER



and TASTE OF HOME