Chipotle red velvet

For his birthday this year, the husband did not want a fancy cake. He just wanted a spicy red velvet cake. So, that's what he got.

The cake is a chipotle red velvet cake, the recipe for which I found on Salon after googling.

As you can see below, I was lazy and did not level my layers. I usually don't unless they're very much out of whack or the cake construction requires perfectly straight tops. This one did not.

So, it's three 9" layers of chipotle red velvet. The filling in the middle is a roasted jalapeno jelly.

The frosting is a mascarpone cream cheese frosting. The ingredients for the frosting alone were nearly $20, but it tasted so delicious I did not mind. (This cake is a perfect example of why ingredients matter. Cheap mascarpone or cheap chipotle would not have been a good choice here.)

I used the royal icing letters you can buy at the store instead of writing in frosting -- mostly because the mascarpone frosting was not of a good consistency for piping, and I did not think a straight buttercream would be a nice taste combination.

I must confess that the cake was actually too spicy for me to eat much of. I had meant to use a strawberry jalapeno jelly for the filling, and grabbed the roasted jalapeno out of the pantry instead, and that turned out to be too much heat for my poor palate, even with the cooling effect of the icing.  However, the birthday boy was quite happy with it, so that's all I can really ask for.

How about you -- ever made a cake you couldn't eat? The Cake Ninja welcomes your input.