Maltesers Cupcakes

I wanted to make something different for the latest cake sale in my youngest daughter's school. So I went hunting for a recipe of Maltesers cupcake. There were quite a number in the internet and I chose Amy Jones' of She Cooks She Eats food blog. Thanks Amy for this scrumptious cupcake. I just tweaked it a little here and there to fit our taste. But for a first time bake it was fabulous! It would have been better if I had the proper piping nozzle for the icing. As you can see, I smeared it on using only a spoon which isn't so bad though it could have looked as good as Amy's.

Maltesers Cupcakes

175 g  butter - softened
175 g  caster sugar
175 g  self-raising flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
3 medium eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
3 Tbsp Ovaltine or Horlicks
2 Tbsp milk

1. Preheat oven to 180°C/fan 160°C/350°F. Grease or line muffin pans.
2. Combine the flour, baking powder, and Ovaltine in a bowl.
3. In another bowl, beat the butter and sugar until fluffy.
4. Add eggs one at a time beating well after each addition.
5. Add vanilla, mix well.
6. Add in the flour mixture - beat just enough to make batter smooth.
7. Divide batter among the prepared muffin tins filling them up to 2/3 full.
8. Bake for 13-15 minutes or until a skewer poked in the middle comes out clean.
9. Cool in the tin for 10 minutes then transfer to a rack to cool completely.
10. Decorate cupcakes with Milk Chocolate Icing and top with a Maltesers each.

Milk Chocolate Icing

100 g  milk chocolate
125 g  butter - softened
200-300 g  icing sugar (about 1 1/2 - 2 cups) - sifted
2-3 Tbsp cocoa powder (optional) - sifted
2-3 Tbsp milk
bag of Maltesers

1. Very gently melt the milk chocolate on a double boiler. Watch carefully, if you see that the chocolate is getting lumpy at the bottom remove from double boiler and stir like crazy to keep it melted and not clumpy.
2. Leave to cool slightly.
3. Beat the butter until pale and fluffy.
4. Add the icing sugar in batches beating well after each addition.
5. Pour in the melted chocolate and cocoa (if using), beat and mix well.
6. Beat in milk adding just enough to make the icing smooth.

Father's Day Devil's Food Cake

It's one of those weekends where you want to bake something for the sake of trying a recipe. Father's Day Sunday was one of those excuses for the trialling a Devil's Food Cake - also known as a dark rich layered chocolate cake. Even though the husband is not fond of cakes I still went ahead. ;)

This recipe came from an old ripped page from Saveur magazine which I've tried before just not with the icing. They titled it "Aunt Fan's Devil Food Cake". The cake itself is very good and rich enough for our endeavour. The icing sugar (confectioner's to some of you) was halved but I still find it too sweet. So I was wondering what it would be like with 6 cups of icing sugar! *shudder* I further reduced it to 2 cups but I'll find out when I try it again if I have to reduce further. The other problem I had was the size of the pans. It did not say that you should use high-sided pans and all I had were two 1-inch high layer pans. Maybe it could have risen higher if I had the right pans.

Like all popular recipes there are hundreds, if not thousands, of versions of this scrumptious cake. I would venture with other renditions later but for now here is my adapted recipe from Saveur.

Devil's Food Cake

1 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
1/4 cup boiling water
2 1/2 cups plain flour - sifted
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter - softened
2 cups light brown sugar - tightly packed
2 eggs
1 cup buttermilk
170 g  dark chocolate (70%) - melted and slightly cooled

1. Preheat oven to 160°C/fan 140°C/325°F. Grease and line two deep 8-inch (20 cm) round baking pans (sides should be at at least 2 inches high).
2. Combine and stir together the bicarbonate of soda with the boiling water in a small bowl and set aside.
3. Mix the flour and salt in a medium bowl and set aside.
4. In a big bowl, beat the butter with the brown sugar until fluffy.
5. Add the eggs one at a time, beating after each addition.
6. Beat in the buttermilk and flour mixture alternately in 3 batches.
7. Add the bicarbonate of soda mixture and melted chocolate and beat until smooth.
8. Divide the batter between the two prepared pans.
9. Bake until a skewer poked in the middle comes out clean - about 45-55 minutes.
10. Set cake pans on a rack to cool. Remove from pans.
11. Place 1 cake on a plate and spread about 1 cup of the icing on top.
12. Put the 2nd cake on top and spread the remaining icing on top and all around the cakes.

Chocolate Buttercream Icing

1/2 cup butter - softened or melted
1/2 cup double cream (heavy cream)
2 cups icing sugar (confectioner's) - sifted
1/4 cup cocoa powder - sifted
2 tsp vanilla extract

• Put all ingredients in a bowl and beat until fluffy and well combined.

In this last picture the cake has spent the last 24 hours in the fridge so the icing did not look glossy anymore. But it's still scrumptiously good!