Malted Chocolate Cupcakes

I made these delicious Malted Chocolate Cupcakes yesterday. The recipe is from The Hummingbird Bakery's wonderful cookbook, Cake Days. If you are in London, be sure to visit one of their shops (which are located in Soho, South Kensington, Notting Hill, Spitalfields and Islington). The Spitalfields branch is my favourite. The daily specials are changed quite regularly, and the seven current flavours (running from Monday to Friday) are Tiramisu, Apple Streusel, Panettone, Crème Brûlée, Key Lime, Eton Mess, and Grasshopper. Now that I can't visit their shops, I am forced to make my own! And I was very happy with how this recipe turned out. The frosting alone would be delicious spread over a basic chocolate sponge. Although the recipe has quite a few ingredients, it is actually very easy to make: it mostly consists of beating different ingredients together! And I found that most the ingredients I either had, or could buy quite cheaply. I would strongly recommend it.

From Cake Days:

Malted Chocolate Cupcakes

Makes 12 to 16 cupcakes

For the sponge

150ml sunflower oil
75ml whole milk
75ml buttermilk
1 large egg
1 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
240g plain flour
25g cocoa powder
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
330g caster sugar
150ml boiling water

For the frosting

200g dark chocolate chips
240ml double cream
115g malted milk powder (I used Horlicks)
50g full fat cream cheese (I used Philadelphia)
35g caster sugar
Malteasers, to decorate

Preheat the oven to 190°C (375°F), Gas Mark 5 and fill a muffin tin with muffin cases.

I love my cupcake cases: my mum bought them for me in John Lewis

Using an electric whisk, beat together the oil with the buttermilk, egg and vanilla essence on low speed until well blended. Sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt, then stir in the sugar. Add a third of these dry ingredients to the oil and milk mixture and beat in slowly until evenly incorporated.

Beat in a third of the boiling water, followed by another third of the dry ingredients, then repeat with the remaining ingredients, mixing together until they are are all combined. Remember to scrape down the sides of the bowl after each addition, to ensure a well-mixed batter.

Finished sponge batter

Divide the mixture between the paper cases, filling each by two thirds. (I tried doing this with a spoon to begin with...so messy. So I used a jug to pour the mixture in which was much easier!) Any remaining batter can be used to fill one to four more cases in seperate tin. Place in the oven and bake for 18 to 20 minutes or until springy to touch. Allow to cool a little before removing from the tin, then transfer to a wire rack to cool down completely before adding the frosting.

Springy to touch!

To make the frosting, place the chocolate chips in a bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water and allow to melt, then remove from the heat to set aside to cool.

Meanwhile, using the electric whisk, whip the cream with the malted milk powder until it forms soft peaks. In a seperate bowl, beat the cream cheese with the caster sugar until combined, then add the cooled chocolate and mix again.

Carefully fold the whipped cream into the cream cheese mixture, adding half of the whipped cream at a time. Divide the frosting between the cupcakes, smoothing and swirling with a palette knife (which I don't have: maybe that's why mine are not that smooth!), then decorate each cupcake with 3 Malteasers.

Frosting, which should probably come with a health warning it's so good!

Halfway there!