Malteser cupcakes

Cake with Maltesers! An exciting combination. I made these for a friend who loves Maltesers. And who doesn’t? Plus I kept a few back for me. For quality control purposes. Light malty sponge with Malteser flavoured butter icing, topped with whole and crushed Maltesers. Oh yeah. Here’s how to make them, along with a warning below for your consideration…

Ingredients for 12 cupcakes:

For the cake:

• 110g butter
• 110g caster sugar
• 2 eggs
• 110g self-raising flour
• 2 heaped tbsp Ovaltine (I couldn’t find any in my local shop so used Horlicks. It worked. Although I would like to try Ovaltine next time.)

For the butter icing:

• 250g icing sugar
• 125g butter
• 75g Maltesers (for decoration and snacking)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Method:

• For the cake: Pre-heat the oven to Gas Mark 4/160C and place the cupcake cases into a cupcake tray or directly onto a baking tray.
• Beat the butter and sugar together in a bowl until light and fluffy.  Add the eggs, flour and Ovaltine and beat until smooth.
• Spoon the cake mix into the paper cases and bake for 15 – 20  minutes or until a skewer comes out clean and the centres spring back when pressed lightly. (When baking cakes never open the door until the time stated in the recipe has been reached. Otherwise the cakes won’t rise properly and are likely to sink in the middle. Once the time has been reached you can check if they’re ready and pop them back in if not.)
• Once cooked, leave to cool slightly in the tray then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
• For the butter icing: Using a food processor or bashing with a rolling pin (while in a bag), crush the Maltesers into a fine dust and keep in a separate bowl for now. (See the warning below for the significance of this step coming first if using a food processor.)
• Beat the butter and icing sugar together (adding the icing sugar a bit at a time) until the mixture is pale, light and fluffy.
• Then add the vanilla extract and the Malteser dust and beat a bit more.
• Decorate the cakes with the butter icing. I spread mine over these ones. After I had a piping fail.
• Warning: Two pieces of advice – 1) If you decide to pipe the butter icing onto the cakes, the Malteser pieces must be small enough to pass through the piping nozzle. 2) If using a food processor to make the butter icing the Malteser pieces must be crushed before they are added to the butter and icing sugar mixture. Sounds obvious, right? No my friend. Beware. Maltesers are crafty and tempting. I had already beat in the Malteser dust and was ready to start decorating, but was overcome with greed and Malteser frenzy, and added more and more whole ones. I was using a food processor and the whole ones didn’t get crushed enough in amongst the butter icing, which was not detected until it was too late and there was already a jam in the piping bag. A jam in the piping bag is very bothersome so take heed of this warning!
• Break up some more Maltesers using a knife, crumble the pieces over the cakes and top with a whole one. Ta-dah!

I found this recipe online here. Thank you Sunday Girl.

Claire