Smoked Chilli Salted Caramel Popcorn Chocolate Cake

Smoked chilli with salted caramel, popcorn and chocolate!? Yes, you heard me right. Smoked chilli with salted caramel, popcorn and chocolate, everything in a cake. These were the flavours I used for the cake for my birthday, which happened just couple days ago. I'm pretty excited to pen down the recipes because I love it so much and also because my bestie is visiting at the end of week and I'll be busy, busy, busy again, no time for posting.

Initially I just wanted to make a salted caramel chocolate cake for my birthday. But it was ohhh-sooo-boring. So I decided to "spice" things up by adding chilli to the flavour list. I have always enjoy chilli in my chocolate so I know they'll work together. And of course, there has to be popcorn to celebrate my birthday. And I need an excuse to open the bag of chilli caramel popcorn, we bought at the market just a few days before. It has been taunting me since and I need to munch on it!

I need to admit though, the addition of smoked chilli was a huge risk, totally impromptu, totally unplanned for. I stumbled upon smoked paprika while searching for my chilli powder. Out of nowhere, I decided to go with my guts and added it straight. Even though my head was telling me that the smokiness may (or may not) throw off the delicious combination of chilli, salted caramel and chocolate. Thankfully, my guts were right, and they were really happy when I chomped down the cake.

Smoked Chilli Salted Caramel Popcorn Chocolate Cake (makes 6" round)

"American" Mud cake (makes 2x 2"x6" cake)
(recipe adapted from CakePaperParty)

 150g     Butter, unsalted
 140g     Chocolate couverture, 70% cocoa and above
 100g     Caster sugar
 100g     Brown sugar
 200g     Coffee
   10g     Vanilla extract
     2       Large eggs
 190g     Plain flour
   40g     Cocoa powder
     3g     Baking powder
  4.5g     Baking soda
  2.5g     Salt

Preheat oven to 175ºC
1. Sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, salt and reserve.

2. Melt butter and chocolate couverture over a bain marie. Stir with a spatula till the mixture is smooth and remove from bain marie.

3. Whisk in both sugars till incorporated. Then slowly stir in the coffee in a few additions, whisk until smooth before adding in the vanilla extract, followed by the eggs, one at a time.

4. Add in the cocoa flour mixture in a few additions and mix till batter is smooth and fully combined. You don't have to worry about overworking the batter for this recipe. In fact, overworking helps develop the gluten which results in a dense texture which is sought after in this cake.

5. Pour into lined cake tins and bake 30-35 mins or till cake tester comes out clean. It will take significantly longer time if only 1 cake tin is used.

6. Let cool in tins for 10 mins before cooling completely on a wired rack. Check that the cake has cooled completely before frosting.

Smoked Chilli Salted Caramel Ganache
 150g     Dark chocolate couverture, 70% cocoa and above
   50g     Heavy cream
 100g     Salted Caramel
dash of smoked paprika to taste
dash of chilli powder to taste
more salt to taste

1. In a small sauce pot, heat heavy cream till it's simmering and pour over the chocolate couverture. Let sit for 1 min or so before stirring to incorporate.

2. Stir in the salted caramel, smoked paprika, chilli powder and salt to taste.

3. Let the ganache cool slightly before frosting. It will be very difficult to frost if ganache is too warm and runny.

Assembly
1. Divide cake into 4 equal layers. Sandwich each layer with ganache. Then frost the whole cake in ganache, smooth the exterior as you frost. Reserve and wait for ganache to set completely.

2. Pour chilli caramel popcorn (or just regular popcorn) over the top of the cake to garnish. Drizzle with more salted caramel to decorate.

Thoughts: If you like your chocolate cake to be dense and fudgy, you are in for a treat. This is by far, the best, the "fudgiest" chocolate cake I have come across. Honestly, I don't know where mud cakes originated from, CakePaperParty says Australia whereas I found America, but when I bite into that cake, I seriously don't care. It is really good, so good my hubs asked me to make it again for his birthday which isn't going to happen until November. Usually it takes him a long while to decide what cake flavour he wants. Not for this cake.

I was pleasantly surprised how well the smokiness got incorporated with the rest of the flavours and ties in with the savoury aspect of it. There was more depth in its flavour, more "dynamic" and set the cake apart from the usual salted caramel chocolate cakes. However, I did wish for it to be hotter and that I had use a heavier hand when adding the chilli powder. There was just a mere lukewarm sensation at the back of my throat, not exciting enough for me. I was particularly careful with the chilli powder because I love my chillies and can take a lot of heat, more than what most people can take comfortably. I didn't want to end up having to finish the whole cake by myself, although I absolutely wouldn't mind that, but I might have to change my whole wardrobe after that.

And the chilli caramel popcorn? Never enough. I took out more to go with the cake since it provided a good textural contrast, plus it gave me more of the chilli kick I was looking for. Oh yes, and more salted caramel, drench me in that gooey goodness!

All in all, I LOVE my birthday cake. No one suffered from my abomination. Hubs loved it. I loved it. And of course, my guts loved it.

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