Chocolate Malted Cupcake w/ Dark Chocolate Frosting

Every year our work donates to United Way and kicks off the donation season with a United Way auction.  Different clients, organizations, and people within our work donate items to be a part of the silent / live auctions.  This year I decided to donate two dozen cupcakes for 12 months.  Well...

it ended up raising $120 for United Way.  I was excited to find out that Susan, a girl I work with, won my cupcake package.  It makes my life super easy because I can just bring the cupcakes to the building I work at (all of us usually work at different client sites).

So here are the December cupcakes -- Malted Chocolate Cupcakes with Dark Chocolate Frosting out of Martha Stewart's Cupcakes cookbook.  Her recipe calls for vanilla frosting, but Susan and I are both suckers for Chocolate Frosting.  These cupcakes tasted great and retained their moisture, the only downside was I couldn't taste the malted milk powder (you know, that malt milkshake taste?).  I'm not sure if it's because I used chocolate frosting or what.  Regardless they tasted great and Susan was pleased.

My recommendation is to stick with the Devil's Food cupcakes if you want the chocolate taste.  The malted powder didn't stand out like the recipe claimed and the ingredient can be hard to find (usually it can be found in specialty stores like Central Market).

Chocolate Malted Cupcakes
Martha Stewart's Cupcakes cookbook
Makes roughly 28

Ingredients:

2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup Dutch process cocoa powdered
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup light brown sugar (packed)
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup milk
1 1/4 cup malted milk powder
1 cup vegetable oil
3 large eggs, room temperature
1 cup sour cream, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:
With oven preheated @ 350 Degrees F.

1.Whisk together flour, cocoa, sugars, baking soda & salt. in another bowl, whisk together milk and malted milk powder until dissolve.

2.With mixer on Med- High, beat flour mixture, milk mixture and oil until combined. Add eggs one at a time, beating until well incorporated. Add sour cream and vanilla. Beat until just combined.

3.Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filled half way. Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until until cake tester comes out clean or baked about 20 minutes.