Secret Recipe Club - Malt Chocolate Cupcakes

ByBluebonnet Baker
53 Comments

It's time for another Secret Recipe Club post! I'll tell you, I really love how being part of the club forces you to get to know someone's blog, writing style, and photography style. It can be too easy to hit the StumbleUpon button, like what you see, but then move on in your everlasting quest to get to the end of the Internet.

Secret Recipe Club

This month I was assigned Savvy Eats - All About Smart Food & Fitness. Written by Julie, she is passionate about living savvy - being smart about what you eat, how you exercise, and about continuing to learn. That's something I can definitely get down with - I'm a firm believer that you should never stop learning!

Sidebar: It's a secret wish of mine to name my future little girl Savannah, and then call her Savvy. How adorable is that as a nickname?

Where were we? Oh yeah - leave it to me to find what is probably the most unhealthy recipe Julie's dared to post - Chocolate Malt Cake. There was never a chance I'd start with anything else from her blog once I saw that though. You see, The Brit loves anything and everything malt. How could I resist the opportunity to make a chocolatey dessert like this when I knew it would make his day?

I turned Julie's Chocolate Malt Cake into cupcakes. And because I'm lazy, I simplified her marshmallow filling a little bit. I have to tell you, this turned into one SUPER delicious cupcake. I added malted milk balls for garnish, and really love how they look like a jaunty little top hat of an accent.

I used Scharffen Berger baking chocolate in powdered and melting form, and it is just gorgeous. If you have the chance, I highly recommend getting some for any chocolate dessert you make.

I hope you'll make these for your favorite person - for a birthday, like Julie did - or just because, like I did.

Malt Chocolate Cupcakes

Adapted from Savvy Eats
Makes 24 cupcakes

Ingredients

For the Cupcakes
2 ½ cups All Purpose Flour
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
½ teaspoon Salt
¾ cup Malted Milk Powder (I've linked you to King Arthur Flour, where I got mine)

1 cup cold Coffee (I used Green Mountain Coffee Donut House)
½ cup Canola Oil
½ cup Butter (1 stick)
⅓ cup Unsweetened Scharffen Berger Cocoa Powder
2 oz Unsweetened Scharffen Berger Baking Chocolate

3 Egg Yolks
½ cup Half & Half
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract

Directions

Preheat oven to 325F. In a small bowl, combine Flour, Baking Soda, Salt, and Malted Milk Powder. Set aside.

In a medium saucepan over medium heat, combine Coffee, Oil, Butter, Cocoa Powder, and Baking Chocolate squares. Heat slowly and steadily until both the butter and baking chocolate are melted. Watch carefully, because if this overheats, it will expand and spill over quickly. Allow to cool while you combine the next ingredients.

In a large mixing bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer, combine Egg Yolks, Half & Half, and Vanilla Extract. Mix until well combined and frothy. Slowly pour in the chocolate mixture from the saucepan with the mixer on low. This will allow the eggs to temper. If you pour a semi-hot liquid in all at once, it will cook and scramble the eggs, which is not what you want in a chocolate cake!

Once chocolate mixture has been added, add the flour mix in increments, mixing well and scraping the sides after each addition.

Line 2 12 cup or 1 24 cup muffin tin(s) with cupcake liners. (You'll notice I used cute little Scharffen Berger ones - a little swag I picked up 2 years ago at BlogHer Food!) Using a ¼ cup measure, scoop batter into each cup. By using the ¼ cup measurement, you should end up with uniform and perfectly cooked cupcakes.

Bake for approximately 22-26 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center of the center-most cupcake comes out clean.

Allow to cool completely before filling or frosting.

Maple Marshmallow Filling

Ingredients
1 7 oz. tub of Marshmallow Cream (Found near the Peanut Butters & Jellies)
2 tablespoons Grade B Maple Syrup

Directions

Empty Marshmallow Cream into a small bowl. Add 2 tablespoons of real maple syrup (not imitation!) and whisk to combine. It will take a few minutes to whisk and combine fully, so don't give up!

Pour bowl contents into a pastry piping bag equipped with a Wilton 230 Tip, then poke the tip into each cupcake, squeezing the pastry bag to fill the cupcake until you see just a tiny bit of the marshmallow cream poking out of the top. Do not do this until cupcakes are COMPLETELY cool, or mashmallow filling will melt into the cupcake.

Malt Chocolate Frosting

Adapted from SavvyEats

Ingredients

1 cup (2 sticks) Unsalted Butter, softened
2 ⅓ cups Powdered Sugar
⅓ cup Malted Milk powder
¼ cup Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
1-3 tablespoons Half & Half

Directions

Whip butter in a stand mixer or by hand on high until light and fluffy. Add powdered sugar in increments until fully combined, then malted milk powder and cocoa powder as well. Whip for a solid 7-10 minutes, until all sugar, malted milk powder and cocoa powder are fully incorporated. Add half and half, one tablespoon at a time, until frosting is your desired consistency.

Frost cupcakes and refrigerate. When frosting has hardened somewhat, insert a malted milk ball into each cupcake for garnish. I also used some sparkling sugar for garnish, but both are completely optional.

[wpurp-searchable-recipe]Secret Recipe Club - Malt Chocolate Cupcakes - - - [/wpurp-searchable-recipe]

More Baking

53 Comments

  1. Gosh those look wonderful. Love the malt in there and the topping. Those malt balls look precious on top!

    1. Thanks, Deeba! They were kind of a last minute addition.. I even had to run to the store for them.. but they seemed like the perfect 'cap'. 🙂

    1. Thank you, Sara! What a lovely compliment. They certainly were tempting. After eating a few cupcakes each, I pawned the rest off onto the guy removing our Hurricane Irene fallen tree. Two hours later, my husband forlornly asked me, "You gave them ALL to Ed?"

  4. Looks like alot of steps but I'm sure it's worth it. I bet these taste delectable! Nice photos too... they have me drooling!

    1. Desi, they really weren't that bad. With the simplified marshmallow filling, it was really only as much work as filling 2 different pastry bags - one for marshmallow cream, and the other for frosting. If you didn't want to make your own frosting, you could always use a can from the grocery store, and add malt powder and a little milk to it to make it the right consistency.

  6. Love malt anything, whether it be vanilla or chocolate. These cupcakes not only look amazing, they sound amazing. Great choice for the SRC!

  7. We call my husband Mr. Extra....and extra malt in his malt is always his request. He will be shocked if I make these for him...(I have him on a diet!)

    1. Susie, that cracks me up. You should so make him these as a surprise. We all need a treat now and then, even when we're on a diet. What we do around here is to have one or two of whatever I make, and then give them away - the dentist, the vet, my husband's coworkers.. it makes us quite popular!

    1. Thanks so much, Katrina! I'll tell you, they were a big hit around here. I gave the majority of the cupcakes to the guy who finally came to remove that darn tree, and he was muy happy with me! 🙂

  9. You made a great choice, in scanning the ingredients I was happy to find coffee listed. Having malt, chocolate and coffee together in a cupcake certainly gets my vote. However, your pictures certainly had an influence! Well done.

    1. Tina, I almost always replace water with coffee when it comes to chocolate desserts. It just brings out so much more of the chocolate flavor!

  10. You always make food that makes my mouth water. The whole cupcake looks good but that icing! Mmmm. Plus, now I am tempted by 75 other recipes that all call for me to click and find out more. Going to be a busy day.

    1. Haha! I'm glad, Nancy. I'd love to see you make a gluten free version of this - though I'm not sure malt is gluten free? Maybe we can figure out another flavor that mimics it? Let's work that out!

  11. Hi there....I had your blog this month. I love it! I know I'll be back....to find other great stuff to make and bake.
    I've had such fun with the Secret Recipe Club.

    and that Tortilla Soup really was a great soup. I can't wait for leftovers tonight....yes, I did procrastinate and not make it until yesterday. But as I said, it was the perfect day for soup.

    1. Debbie, thanks so much! I'm headed over there to comment when I finish work tonight. I did read it this morning, and I'm so glad you enjoyed it. I love that soup too, and you reminded me that I haven't made it in a long while.

  12. These cupcakes are just so adorable. I love the malt ball topping... it's perfect. 🙂
    I'm going to have to see if I can hunt down some malt powder to try these out. There's no way I could pass up a recipe that includes a Maple Marshmallow Filling! Yum.

    1. Isabelle, I highly recommend ordering it directly from King Arthur Flour. Their product quality is excellent, and they ship pretty quickly. Thanks for visiting!

  13. Oh, wow! They are beautiful! And I bet they taste as good as they look. I'm with The Brit, bring on the malt! 🙂

    1. Thanks, Stefanie. Those were a last minute addition that I think just put those cupcakes into cuteness overload.

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