Chocolate Malted Cuppycakes

These were a test run for a cupcake recipe I'm hoping to use when I bake (OMG) 4 dozen cuppycakes for my dad's 60th birthday party in a couple weeks. I "borrowed" this recipe from a nice girl who I met in the "curiouscupcakes" LiveJournal community. The cupcake recipe came from Martha Stewart's cupcake cookbook, and the frosting is a recipe she made up herself (which I then tweaked). The cuppycakes are topped with Whoppers candies.



I really liked the way the cake part turned out. So moist! And the frosting was yummy, too... though I think I want a stronger malt taste when I do the "real" batch of cuppycakes for my dad's party.

Here are a couple of pics of the cuppycakes pre-frosting and pre-Whoppers.






Chocolate Malted Cupcakes

Ingredients:
2-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup Dutch process cocoa powder
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup light brown sugar (packed)
1-1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup milk
1-1/4 cup Carnation malted milk powder
1 cup vegetable oil
3 large eggs (room temp)
1 cup sour cream (room temp)
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees (or 325 degrees if using a dark or nonstick pan). Line 2 12-cup muffin tins with cupcake papers.

1. Whisk together flour, cocoa, sugars, baking soda & salt. In another bowl, whisk together milk and malted milk powder until powder is dissolved.

2. With mixer on Medium High, beat flour mixture, milk mixture and oil until combined. Add eggs one at a time, beating until well incorporated. Add sour cream and vanilla. Beat until just combined.

3. Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filled halfway (NOTE: I actually filled them about 2/3 full). Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until until cake tester comes out clean or baked about 20 minutes.


Chocolate Malted Frosting

Ingredients:
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
6 cups confectioner's sugar
1/4 cup milk
1/8 - 1/4 tsp salt
3 oz Lindt 85% Cacao bar, melted
4 tbsp Carnation malted milk powder (I think it actually needs more than this)

Beat half of the sugar and all of the other ingredients on low until just combined. Slowly add the rest of the sugar and beat on low until combined. Beat on medium until fluffy and uniformly blended.

(NOTE: The girl from whom I borrowed this recipe made up this frosting recipe herself but didn't note the exact amounts of the ingredients she used. She just remembered that she used "powdered sugar, pinch of salt, 3 oz of melted chocolate, 2 sticks of butter, and a few tablespoons of malted milk powder." As I am becoming ever more adventurous with my frosting escapades, I decided to try to guess at the correct proportions.

The ingredients above are what I ended up using. I think that next time, I need to use 2 and a half sticks of butter because Mike said the texture was a little rough when he was piping the frosting. Also, I had to add milk because it was too clumpy without it. This probably means that I used more sugar than I "should" have, but I liked the frosting otherwise, so more butter it is.

I also want to add more malt next time. I feel that the frosting could be more "malty.")