Unbelievable, Amazing, Whopper Cupcakes

This one is for all of those who love malted milk balls and who love malt in general. I mean, who wouldn't like malt?! It's simply the best! And when you put that delicious malted flavor into a cupcake..well your just pushing all the right buttons. I've made these cupcakes twice now, both times I have gotten rave reviews, especially about the frosting. It's quit possibly one of my favorite frostings ever. I got this recipe from the wonderful blog our recipe club.

The only thing I do differently with the recipe is the way I mix the ingredients together. I don't know why but the way this recipe says how to incorporate the ingredients together makes me nervous, even though I'm sure they would turn out just fine! But I am kinda weird in that when I make a cake I always add the dry ingredients into the butter/egg mixture alternating with the wet. So what I do is blend the oil, eggs, and vanilla together and I add the sour cream into the milk/malt mixture. After the eggs are blended into the oil mixture I add the dry and wet ingredients, begining and ending with the dry (I do 1/3 of the dry at a time, so you will do 3 additions of dry ingredients). So you can make these cupcakes with my mixing instructions if you are super anal like me, or just use the directions listed bellow in the recipe, because they will probably turn out just as good. Enjoy!

{natalie's super yummy Whopper cupcakes}

2 1/4 cup flour
1 1/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup milk
1 cup malted milk powder
1 cup vegetable oil
3 large eggs
1 cup sour cream
1 tsp. vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin tins with cupcake liners.

In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder and salt.

In a small bowl, combine milk and malted milk powder, stirring to dissolve. Add milk mixture, oil and eggs to flour mixture, beating at medium speed with an electric mixer until smooth. Add sour cream and vanilla, beating just until combined.

Pour batter evenly into prepared pans and bake for 15-17 minutes. Let cool in pans for 10 minutes. Remove from pans and let cool completely on racks.

Frost and garnish w/malted milk balls if desired

Malt Frosting

1 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup heavy whipping cream
1/2 cup malted milk powder
6-7 cup powdered sugar

Blue food coloring

In a large bowl, beat butter at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy.

In a small bowl, combine cream and malted milk powder, stirring to dissolve. Add cream mixture to butter mixture, beating at low speed to combine. Gradually beat in powdered sugar until smooth. You may need to add more or less powdered sugar depending on desired consistency. Add 6 to 8 drops of food coloring, mix well. Add more if you would like a deeper color. Frost cupcakes, top with a Whopper-malted milk ball & enjoy!