Malteser Cupcakes

After a scary scary trip to the dentist a few weeks ago I spent the next few days eating only custard and drinking malt smoothies. Malt is something I usually only have in the occasional milkshake, so I was excited to have a whole tin with lots left over for some baking . As soon as I was able to eat normally again I put my malt powder to good use in some Maltester themed cupcakes (breaking my oven in the process).

I was pretty happy with how these cupcakes turned out, between the malt powder and the crushed maltesers in the mix they had the prefect level of malty goodness. For the cupcakes themselves I slightly modified my favorite vanilla cupcake recipe and toped them with a two tone swirl of chocolate and malt buttercreams.

For The Cupcakes

1 3/4 cups self raising flour

1/2 cup malt powder

180 grams softened butter

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup caster sugar

4 eggs

4 tablespoons milk

1/2 cup Maltesers (crushed)

To make the cupcakes- Preheat oven to 180°c, line cupcake trays with papers.

Sift flour and malt into a mixing bowl, add the butter, vanilla, sugar, eggs, and milk.

Beat all the ingredients on low until combined, increase the speed to medium and beat until the mixture is pale (it will be pretty yellow from the malt). Gently fold in the crushed Maltesers.

Divide the mixture between the cupcake pans, filling each two thirds full. Bake for about 20 minutes until the cupcakes spring back when poked.

Leave the cakes in the pan for 5 minutes before placing on a wire rack to cool completely.

Wait untill the cupcakes are completely cool before icing.

For The Buttercream

100g butter (softened)
2 ½ cups icing sugar
2-3 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup malt powder

1 tablespoon cocoa powder

Crushed Maltesers

To make the icing- In a bowl beat butter until pale. Gradually beat in the icing sugar and malt and then the vanilla and milk. The buttercream should be light and fluffy. If too thin gradually add a little more icing sugar, if too thick add a little more milk.

Spoon a quarter of the buttercream into a second bowl and mix in the cocoa powder.

Fit a piping bag with a large star shaped tip. Spoon the plain malt icing into one side of the piping bag and fill the remaining half with the chocolate buttercream.

Pipe a swirl of icing onto each of the filled cupcakes. Sprinkle with some crushed Maltesters.

I hope you enjoy these as much as I did.