Chocolate Malted Cupcakes

I wish I could have gotten around to this idea earlier. I thought I was coming up with something SO unique when I thought about making a malt ball cupcake. No such luck. The blogosphere has been exploding with malty recipes, so I'm just jumping on the band wagon with this one.

Taken almost verbatim from Pennies on the Platter, indirectly linked via a post by BrownEyedBaker, I whipped these up last night. Critique: Tasty, kind of light (in other words you could eat a bunch of them without noticing; be that a good or bad thing), but I'm not sure how "malty" they are. Subtle at best, but this could have just been a side effect from eating half the box of malt balls while baking, making the flavor of the cupcakes pale in comparison. Regardless, they were very tasty. The cupcake was moist, which fulfills basically 50% of my cupcake critique.

Chocolate Malted Cupcakes

• 2 1/4 cups flour
• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup milk
• 1 1/2 cups malted milk powder (original flavor)
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 3 large eggsre
• 1 cup sour crea
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Frosting

• 2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1/2 cup malted milk powder (original flavor)
• 3 tsp cocoa powder
• 5 cups confectioner sugar
• Chocolate Covered Malt Balls (such as Whoppers) to garnish (optional)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350˚F.  Line cupcake pans with liners.

In a large bowl, whisk attachment to blend the milk and malted milk powder.  Mix until the powder is dissolved.  In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa, sugars, baking soda and salt.  Slowly add the flour mixture and the oil to the milk mixture until incorporated.  Add eggs one at a time until incorporated.  Stir in the sour cream and vanilla until just combined.
Fill cupcake liners 3/4 full. Bake for 20 minutes.
Cool completely before frosting.

Make Frosting:
Whip the butter in bowl of an electric mixer on high speed for several minutes until very light and fluffy.  Stir in the malted milk powder and cocoa.  Whip on medium-high speed for 1 minute.  Slowly add the powdered sugar about 1/2 cup at a time. Mix until the frosting becomes thick enough for piping.

Pipe frosting on top of cupcakes and top with a chocolate covered malt ball.