De la Rosa Cupcakes

My dentist is going to hate me for this. She just told me a couple weeks ago that I'm not allowed to eat dried fruit anymore because it's messing up my teeth. But she didn't say I'm not allowed to eat cupcakes!

There's a market right by my house that sells four De la Rosa candies for a dollar. I used twelve for this recipe. If you've never had them, they're crumbly, dry, and taste like peanut butter. I don't remember exactly how or why this idea came to me, but I do remember it came to me on the walk home from that market, probably while eating one of these candies.

They're mostly powdered sugar. Buttercream frosting is mostly powdered sugar and butter. Makes sense, no?

This creamy frosting will have small bits of peanut in it, just like the candy does. You'll notice the chocolate cupcake recipe calls for chili oil. It didn't turn out quite as spicy as I wanted, so maybe next time I'll try with some dried, powdered hot pepper, like cayenne.

For the cupcakes:

-1 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
-1/2 cup cocoa powder
-1 cup boiling water
-2 tsp. baking powder
-1 3/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
-1/4 cup Asian chili oil
-1 cup white sugar
-2 eggs
-2 tsp. vanilla extract

For the frosting:

-1 cup (2 sticks) butter, room temperature
-12 De La Rosa candies, crushed up to a powder (comes out to about 2 cups)
-1 cup powdered confectioner's sugar

Make the cupcakes:

Preheat oven to 375 F.

Mix boiling water with cocoa powder, set aside to cool. If you're like me and bad at planning ahead, put it in the freezer to cool it at supersonic speed! Just take it out and stir every 10 minutes or so.

 Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt.

Use an electric mixer to beat the butter smooth and fluffy. Beat in the chili oil, then beat in the eggs one at a time. Finally, add the vanilla extract and beat until smooth.

Add the flour mixture, and beat until just incorporated (don't over-beat). Stir in the cooled cocoa water. The freezer should bring it to room temp in about a half hour.

Line a muffin tin with 12 cupcake liners, and fill each liner about 3/4 full. Bake 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Make the frosting:

Just like with the cupcakes, beat the butter until smooth and creamy. Gradually add the De La Rosa candy powder. If you found the candy to be lumpy, run it through a coffee grinder or food processor before adding it to the butter. Beat until incorporated, then add the powdered sugar. Beat until smooth.

Once the cupcakes are cooled, frost them and sprinkle with a bit of cocoa powder, if you want them to be real pretty.