Malted Milk Ball Cupcakes

Today an old acquaintance from high school mentioned cupcakes, and I immediately perked up. Not just at the mere mention of cupcakes, but she went on to tell me about a store that’s about 30 minutes from here that is a “sprinkle selection paradise.” A store specializing in everything a baker or candymaker would need?  Dangerous waters for me indeed. Every time I go to a food store, I always take a quick peek at their baking aisle to see if there are any special sprinkles or odd items I might not find elsewhere. And now to find out that there’s an entire store dedicated to such things? Mark my words, I’ll be making a trip there very soon.

Now speaking of cupcakes, I’ve got another one to introduce you to … Malted Milk Ball Cupcakes. This is the second recipe I’ve tried from Anne Byrn’s book, Cupcakes!, and although I loved the Orange Marmalade Ricotta cupcakes I made a few weeks back, one bite into this one, and those memories were quickly erased. OMG good. Know this: I’m very careful with deeming a finished recipe OMG-worthy.  If there’s too many, you might not trust me, you know?  And I want you to trust me.  At least when it comes to food.  Out of the nearly thousand recipes I’ve written about here, the list of OMG recipes is still quite short, so you know I take it seriously.

I had to ration myself one of these little malted milk ball babies a day, and quickly gave away half the batch to resist any further temptation. Like Anne’s other recipes, this one is quick and easy and you probably have most of the ingredients on hand already. The addition of the sour cream makes these cupcakes crazymoist, and I daresay this might be my new go-to recipe when it comes to needing to make cupcakes.

Her recipes tend to be a bit lengthy, but only in the wordy sense, not in time expended.  She just goes into a little more detail than most when it comes to the recipes’ instructions, so while it may look long, I promise you, it’s worth it to jump in.  Honestly, it didn’t take more than 10-15 minutes to get the cupcakes in the oven, and that seems about perfect when the results are this good.  I mean, seriously, did you see that picture? Dig in!

Malted Milk Ball Cupcakes
Recipe courtesy of Cupcakes!

24 cupcake liners
1 package (18.25 oz) plain yellow cake mix
1 box (3.8 oz) instant chocolate pudding mix
1 cup sour cream
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup sugar
4 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup milk chocolate chips (I totally forgot to add these, and would forget on purpose next time)
Malted Mill Buttercream (see recipe below)
40 malted milk balls, coarsely crushed, for garnish

Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350.  Line 24 cupcake cups with paper liners.  Set the pans aside.

Place cake mix, pudding mix, sour cream, oil, water, sugar, eggs and vanilla in a large mixing bowl.  Blend with mixer on low speed for 30 seconds until the ingredients are well blended, then stop the machine and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula.  Increase the speed to medium and beat for 2 minutes more, scraping down the sides again if needed.  The batter should look smooth and thickened.  Fold in the chocolate chips, making sure they are well distributed throughout the batter.  Spoon or scoop 1/3 cup batter into each lined cupcake cup, filling it three quarters of the way full.  (You will get between 22-24 cupcakes; remove the empty liners, if any.)  Place the pans in the oven.

Bake the cupcakes until they spring back when lightly pressed with your finger, 18-20 minutes.  Remove the pans from the oven and place them on wire rack to cool for 5 minutes.  Run a dinner knife around the edges of the cupcake liners.  Lift the cupcakes from the bottoms of the cups using the end of a knife, and pick them out of the cups carefully with your fingertips.  (I left mine in their cups).  Place them on a wire rack to cool for 15 minutes before frosting.

Meanwhile, prepare the Malted Milk Buttercream.  Place a heaping tablespoon of frosting on each cupcake and swirl to spread it out with a short metal spatula or a spoon, taking care to cover the tops completely.  Garnish with crushed malted milk balls.

Malted Milk Buttercream

8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter, at room temperature
3-1/2 cups confectioner’s sugar, sifted
5 tablespoons malted milk powder (I used chocolate syrup … shhh; no sense in buying a whole container of Ovaltine when the recipe only needs five tablespoons and the chocolate syrup worked well)
1/4 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Place the butter in a large mixing bowl.  Blend with an electric mixer on low speed until fluffy, 30 seconds.  Stop the machine and add the confectioner’s sugar, malted milk powder, milk and vanilla.  Blend with the mixer on low speed until the sugar is incorporated, 1 minute.  Increase the speed to medium and beat until light and fluffy, 1 minute more.

Print it!