Mexican Hot Chocolate Snack Cake

A very simple dense, chocolate snack cake topped with homemade whipped cream, spiced with cinnamon and chili powder.

Happy Cinco de Mayo! I’m popping in to share this super easy, ultra-chocolatey Mexican hot chocolate snacking cake with you to help you celebrate the occasion.

The first memory I have of Mexican hot chocolate was on the freezing streets of Chicago right after graduating from college. It was our first winter together as a married couple and Martin and I decided to escape the tropical Florida climate and spend New Year’s in the Windy City. We layered on coats, hats, and gloves and spent the days traipsing through the city. One evening, we went to dinner at Rick Bayless’ new (at the time) restaurant, Xoco. It was a fast-casual spot, serving piping hot caldos, warm tortas, and of course, thick, creamy spiced hot chocolate. We sipped our steaming chocolate drinks on the train back to the hotel, feeling very cosmopolitan, and I remember thinking that maybe winter wasn’t all that scary.

what is Mexican hot chocolate?

I’m definitely not the ultimate authority on the matter, but drawing from lots of research and my Rick Bayless chocolate experience, Mexican hot chocolate is a thick, rich chocolate beverage spiced with chilis and cinnamon. Drinking chocolate originated with the Mayans and then made its way through Europe. It’s very different from our American hot chocolate in that it is almost closer to a pudding than a liquid beverage, and it’s often a bit more bitter because the chocolate really shines through. The exact spices vary by recipe, cinnamon and some sort of spice, like chilis or cayenne, are often included.

a Mexican hot chocolate snack cake

This cake, like traditional Mexican hot chocolate is dense and rich. It’s easy to whisk together, using only bowl and spoons (no mixers required) that incorporates both cocoa powder and melted chocolate. Dry ingredients are whisked together and set aside while you chop high-quality dark chocolate and butter. The sugars are combined in a saucepan with strong coffee and simmered until the mixture is boiling and the sugars are dissolved. The hot coffee syrup is then poured over the chopped chocolate ganache-style, and the mixture sets to give the chocolate time to melt. Eggs and vanilla are whisked in, followed by the dry ingredients, and the cake bakes in an 8x8 square pan.

I used a fun technique to make the whipped cream that helps minimize the amount of air bubbles created, which results in a thicker whipped cream, a little more like frosting. Heavy cream, cinnamon, chili powder, powdered sugar, and vanilla are immersion blended until the mixture thickens and then the cool, spiced cream is swooped on top of the cooled cake. If you don’t have an immersion blender, you can make traditional whipped cream using a hand-held or standing mixer (or your whisk) to whip cream to medium peaks. Because this cake has such a high liquid content and the whipped cream is more compact, the cake holds well, even after being frosted. Store the frosted cake in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to three days.

bonus: strawberry marigold margaritas and a few other cinco de mayo recipes

Yield: makes one 8x8" square cake

Author: Anna Ramiz

Print

With ImageWithout Image

Mexican Hot Chocolate Snack Cake

Prep time: 15 MinCook time: 30 MinTotal time: 45 Min

An ultra-moist, deep chocolate snack cake topped with chili-spiced cinnamon whipped cream.

Ingredients

for the cake

• 1 cup (120 g) all purpose flour
• 1 tbsp cocoa powder
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp kosher salt
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp chili powder
• 1/2 cup (100 g) granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup (106 g) brown sugar
• 75 g (2.64 oz) dark chocolate, chopped
• 3 tbsp unsalted butter
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 egg
• 1 cup strong coffee

for the frosting

• 1 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp chili powder
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350° F. Line a 8x8 baking dish with parchment paper, set aside.
2. Roughly chop chocolate and place in a large bowl, along with the butter. Set aside.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and chili powder. Set aside.
4. Combine sugar, brown sugar, and coffee in a medium saucepan. Cook over medium heat, until mixture is boiling and sugars have dissolved. Pour the hot coffee mixture over the chocolate and butter and let set for 5 minutes.
5. Whisk the chocolate coffee mixture until smooth and all of the chocolate and butter has melted. Whisk in the egg and vanilla. Add the dry ingredients and whisk again until smooth and no lumps remain.
6. Pour batter into the prepared pan and bake for 30-35 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool for 20 minutes in the pan and then remove from pan and cool completely.
7. To make the frosting, combine heavy cream, cinnamon, chili powder, powdered sugar, and vanilla in a large measuring cup or a medium bowl with high sides. Blend with an immersion blender for 3-4 minutes, until frosting is thick and stiff peaks form. Spoon frosting onto the cooled cake and smooth with a spoon or offset spatula.

Similar Recipes

Spiced Caramel Chocolate Lava Cakes

Espresso Tahini Brownies

Classic Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Milk Swiss Meringue Buttercream

Did you make this recipe?

Tag @gatheredatmytable on instagram and hashtag it #gatheredatmytable

Created using The Recipes Generator

Spiced Caramel Chocolate Lava Cakes

It’s Valentine’s Day Weekend and that means really only one thing in the food world—chocolate. I took a poll on my Instagram stories at the beginning of the week asking if people preferred chocolate desserts or pink desserts and I truly don’t even know why I asked. Chocolate is always the winner. My perfect Valentine’s dessert (or honestly anytime dessert) is very simple, very rich, very gooey, and often salted. So basically, little lava cakes.

Back about 7 years ago or so, I pinned a recipe on Pinterest for molten cakes baked in muffin tins. It was from a very random blog, with a poor, artificially lit photo (one that would never stand on my carefully curated Pinterest boards of today!), and my sister-in-law decided to try out the recipe. They were a hit. We made them for party desserts. We made them for my other sister-in-law’s freezer when she had her first baby. I took them on road trips. We just became best friends. And then, like Jessie and her little girl owner in Toy Story 2, we grew apart. Other flashy recipes caught my attention. I started laminating doughs and layering cakes and going to pastry school. Fast forward to about a year ago, I had a craving for lava cakes and set out to sort through thousands of pins to find the recipe, and it was gone! Of course, I had never written the recipe down, so I set out to make my own perfect little molten lava cake recipe and here we are. These lava cakes are the product of lots of testing, lots of suffering through too dry or not-cooked-enough cakes, but we made it friends.

about the spiced caramel

You guys know I can’t just give you a normal, caramel lava cake recipe. It’s against my nature! So here, we spice our caramel with fennel seeds, cardamom pods, and black peppercorns. The spices give a little added flavor contrast to the chocolate and help to cut through some of the sweetness. It’s made using a traditional wet caramel, meaning sugar is cooked with water (which helps prevent that pesky sugar crystallization) until it turns a deep amber color. Heavy cream that has been steeped with your spices gets added, followed by butter and salt. Make sure to chill the caramel well, so that it’s scoop-able when filling the cakes or it will ooze out the sides during baking!

about the lava cakes

The actual cakes themselves are fairly straightforward here. All of your favorite ingredients make an appearance- flour, sugar, brown sugar, butter, eggs, and chocolate. The cakes get baked in muffin tins and the batter can be actually be chilled and baked off later if you want to make them ahead. You can also freeze and wrap baked cakes individually and heat them in the microwave, although you do lose a little of that molten middle. Still chocolate-y and still delicious. They are really the most perfect Valentine’s day treat.

Yield: makes six

Author: Anna Ramiz

Print

With ImageWithout Image

Spiced Caramel Chocolate Lava Cakes

Prep time: 20 MinCook time: 20 MinTotal time: 40 Min

Rich, decadent molten chocolate lava cakes filled with homemade caramel, spiced with cardamom, fennel, and black peppercorns.

Ingredients

for the spiced caramel

• ½ cup (100 g) granulated sugar
• 2 tbsp water
• ½ tsp lemon juice
• ¼ cup heavy cream
• ¼ tsp fennel seeds, roughly chopped
• 8 whole cardamom pods
• ½ tsp black peppercorns
• 1 tbsp unsalted butter
• pinch of salt

for the lava cakes

• 3 oz + 2 tbsp unsalted butter, divided
• 6 oz dark chocolate, roughly chopped
• 1 egg
• 3 egg yolks
• ¼ cup (50 g) granulated sugar
• ¼ cup (60 g) brown sugar
• 3 tbsp all purpose flour
• 2 ½ tsp cocoa powder, divided
• ¼ tsp kosher salt
• ¼ tsp vanilla extract
• spiced caramel, recipe included, chilled

Instructions

to make the spiced caramel

1. Place heavy cream, fennel seeds, cardamom pods, and black peppercorns in a small saucepan set over medium heat. Bring to a simmer and then immediately remove from heat. Cover and let steep for 30 minutes. Strain out the spices and set cream aside.
2. In a medium pot, stir together sugar, water, and lemon juice. Set over medium heat and cook without stirring until the sugar is dissolved and the mixture begins to take on a light brown color. At this point, you can gently stir the caramel. Continue to cook until the caramel reaches a deep amber color.
3. Remove the caramel from the heat and whisk in the reserved heavy cream. (The mixture will bubble up, this is okay, just keep stirring). When all the cream has been added, return it to the heat and cook for one more minute.
4. Remove from the heat again, stir in butter and a pinch of salt and then transfer to a clean bowl to cool.
5. Store caramel in an air-tight container in the fridge for up to a week.

to make the lava cakes

1. Preheat the oven to 425° F. Melt 2 tbsp of butter and divide between six muffin tins. Sprinkle 1 ½ tsp of the cocoa among the six muffin tins and use your fingers to mix the butter and cocoa powder and rub the mixture thoroughly up the sides of the tins to prevent sticking.
2. In a heat-proof bowl set over a pot of simmering water, melt the chocolate. Set aside.
3. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, add 3 oz of butter, sugar, and granulated sugar. Cream for 2-3 minutes, until light and fluffy, scraping down the sides as needed.
4. With the mixer on low speed, add eggs and egg yolks one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add the vanilla extract.
5. Add the flour, remaining 1 tsp of cocoa powder, and salt and mix on low speed until just combined. Stream in the melted chocolate and continue to mix for 1-2 minutes until homogenous. Remove the bowl from the mixer, scrape down the sides, and fold with a rubber spatula to ensure that the batter is evenly mixed.
6. Use a 2 ½ tbsp cookie scoop and place one scoop of batter in each of the prepared muffin tins. Place one teaspoon of cold caramel in the center of the batter, and then top each with another 2 ½ tbsp scoop of batter. Tap the pan gently once or twice to settle the batter.
7. Bake for 8-9 minutes and then let cool for 10 minutes in the pan. Invert and serve immediately with ice cream and more caramel sauce.
8. Leftover lava cakes can be wrapped tightly in plastic wrap and frozen. To reheat, remove from the plastic and microwave from frozen for 30-45 seconds, until warmed through.

Similar Recipes

Chocolate Soufflés with Beet Crème Anglaise

Chocolate Truffles 3 Ways

Zaitoun: A Cookbook Review and Coffee Cardamom Molten Chocolate Pots

Did you make this recipe?

Tag @gatheredatmytable on instagram and hashtag it #gatheredatmytable

Created using The Recipes Generator

Hawaij Snickerdoodles

An autumnal spin on the classic snickerdoodle. This easy snickerdoodle recipe features a homemade hawaij spice blend, sticky molasses, thin crunchy edges and soft chewy centers.

This past weekend, Tahini and I made a short trip to South Florida to host a small, socially-distanced baby shower for my sister-in-law, Laura. Laura and I met 10 years ago this month at a sorority rush event during my sophomore year of college and we became best friends right away. It took us about five minutes to realize that we were going to be great buddies and so began a lifetime of sleepovers and cookie baking. And then, lucky for us, I met Laura’s brother, Martin, and we fell in love and got married and now Laura is my real-life sister and it’s a really wonderful set-up. All of this to say, my best friend and sister is having a baby this year and that makes this new addition to our family a little extra special for me.

The shower itself was pretty low-key, so we wanted the food to reflect that same vibe. I made one big, grazing counter filled with fruits, veggies, dips, jams, charcuterie, cheeses, and lots of hunks of bread. We had sparkling lemonade and I made a chocolate cake with caramel ganache frosting that almost sweated off the sides on the three hour drive down south, but we covered it up with flowers which did an excellent job masking the saggy sides of the cake. And then I made these Hawaij snickerdoodles which taste like a dusting of fall and everyone was very into them.

Hawaij (pronounced ha-why-udge) is a Yemeni spice blend that is used in all sorts of dishes, from meats and soups to desserts and coffee. The spices tend to vary depending on the usage of the blend and the word Hawaij actually means “mixture” in Arabic so I think that gives a bit of freedom in the makeup. I first discovered hawaij in Molly Yeh’s book Molly on the Range, and started keeping some around the house to grind with my coffee beans in the mornings. I’ve very lightly adapted her version with the addition of coriander and will occasionally add a crank or two of black pepper. It’s the perfect spice blend to make your snickerdoodles a little more interesting and my cousin says that these cookies taste like cinnamon toast crunch which feels like a win in my book.

Yield

20-22 cookies

Author

Anna Ramiz

Prep time

15 Min

Cook time

10 Min

Inactive time

30 Min

Total time

55 Min

Print

With ImageWithout Image

Hawaij Snickerdoodles

An autumnal spin on the classic snickerdoodle. This easy snickerdoodle recipe features a homemade hawaij spice blend, sticky molasses, thin crunchy edges and soft chewy centers.

Ingredients

for the hawaij spice blend (lightly adapted from Molly Yeh)

• 1 tbsp ground ginger
• 1 tbsp ground cardamom
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp ground cloves
• 1/8 tsp ground coriander

for the cookie dough

• 2 cups (240 g) all purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp cream of tartar
• 3/4 tsp kosher salt
• 1 1/2 tsp Hawaij spice blend
• 1 cup (200 g) granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup (56 g) brown sugar
• 1/2 cup (113 g) butter
• 1/3 cup (43 g) olive oil
• 1 egg, at room temperature
• 2 tbsp molasses
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

for rolling

• 2 tbsp granulated sugar
• 1 tbsp demerara sugar
• 1 tsp Hawaij spice blend

Instructions

1. To make the spice blend: combine all of the spices in a small bowl and whisk together.
2. Place butter in a small saucepan and set over medium heat. Cook, swirling every minute or so, until butter is foamy and beginning to brown, about 6 minutes. Remove from heat and transfer the butter to the bowl of a stand mixer and let cool to room temperature.
3. Meanwhile, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, cream of tartar, salt, and Hawaij spice blend. Set aside.
4. When the butter is cooled, add sugar, and brown sugar to the mixing bowl. Beat with paddle attachment for about 1 minute, until all of the sugar is coated and the mixture has the consistency of wet sand. With the mixer on low speed, stream in olive oil and continue mixing until combined and homogenized.
5. Add the egg, vanilla, and molasses, and mix until combined, then gradually add dry ingredients, mixing until just incorporated and no dry streaks remain. The dough will be very wet, that’s ok!
6. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and transfer to the refrigerator. Chill for at least 30 minutes. When the dough is chilled, scoop onto a parchment lined baking sheet. At this time, you can bake the cookies or transfer them to the freezer and bake them off a few at a time.
7. When you’re ready to bake, preheat the oven to 375° F and line a sheet pan with parchment paper. In a small bowl, combine sugar, demerara sugar, and Hawaij spice blend. Roll each cookie ball in the Hawaij sugar and place on a baking sheet, spaced 1-2” inches apart. Bake for 8-10 minutes, until the tops are dry and cookies are set. Let cool on the pan for 5 minutes, then enjoy!

Similar Recipes

Salted Almond Dark Chocolate Cookies

Soft Ginger Cookies

Citrus, Earl Grey, and Caramelized White Chocolate Sugar Cookies

Did you make this recipe?

Tag @gatheredatmytable on instagram and hashtag it #gatheredatmytable