Milo Cupcakes with Condensed Milk Buttercream Frosting

My mum gives me Milo to go, and go, and go - I remember my daughters returning from a trip to Australia and singing this slogan for a popular Milo commercial upon their return.  I grew up in Australia drinking Milo, so I thought it was kind of cute that my American-raised daughters would be singing along to such and iconic Australian product - Aussie accents and all.

Milo is a chocolate and malt powder that can be mixed into milk or water (either hot or cold) to make a delicious drink, although my favorite use for it as a kid was to sprinkle it over vanilla ice cream. It is quite granular and does not completely dissolve if mixed with a cold liquid, which gives you these little crunchy bits in your drink.  It was developed in Australia in the 1930's to help combat childhood dietary deficiencies during the depression, and remains popular today.

My favorite Milo - with extra malt.

I don't know about your pantry, but mine always seems to be overflowing with items that I purchased for a recipe and either forgot about, or didn't use completely.  Hoarding also became something of a habit whilst living in Guam because I never knew when the next shipment of an item would arrive, so I tended to purchase multiples of everything.  Anyway, I noticed the tin of Milo in the back of a cupboard and thought that it would be great in a cupcake.  Well, actually I made myself a glass of milk and Milo first, and then thought about the cupcakes. A search for a recipe led me to Raspberri Cupcakes, and the idea grew from there. I had a favorite chocolate cake already, but I loved the idea of condensed milk buttercream frosting.

These really are delicious cupcakes and I loved them even without the frosting.  The Milo adds a really nice chocolate-malt flavor to the cupcakes, and I loved the crunch on the top of the frosting.  I realize that Milo is not readily available in the US, although you can buy it on Amazon, so I would suggest Ovaltine as a substitute.

Milo Cupcakes with Condensed Milk Frosting 

Milo Cupcakes with Condensed Milk Buttercream Frosting
(Printer Friendly Recipe)

Ingredients
Cupcakes ~

• ¾ cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
• ¾ cup hot water
• 1 teaspoon espresso powder
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1¼ teaspoons coarse salt
• ⅓ cup Milo
• 1½ cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter
• 2 cups sugar
• 4 large eggs, room temperature
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup sour cream, room temperature
• ½ cup milo, additional

Frosting ~

• 1 cup unsalted butter, softened 
• 4 cups powdered sugar, sifted
• 5 tablespoon condensed milk
• ¼ cup Milo

Preparation
Cake ~

1. Preheat oven to 350℉.
2. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. 
3. Whisk together cocoa, espresso powder, and hot water until smooth. 
4. In another bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and ⅓ cup Milo.
5. Melt butter with sugar in a saucepan over medium-low heat, stirring to combine.
6. Remove from heat, and pour into a mixing bowl.
7. With an electric mixer on medium-low speed, beat until mixture is cooled, 4 to 5 minutes.
8. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until each is incorporated, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Add vanilla, then cocoa mixture, and beat until combined. 
9. Reduce speed to low and add flour mixture in two batches, alternating with the sour cream, and beating until just combined after each.
10. Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling each three-quarters full. 
11. Sprinkle the additional ½ cup Milo evenly over the cupcakes.
12. Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until a cake tester inserted in centers comes out clean, about 20 minutes.
13. Transfer tins to wire racks to cool 15 minutes; turn out cupcakes onto racks and let cool completely before frosting them. 

Frosting ~

1. Beat butter for a few minutes with a mixer with the paddle attachment on medium speed.
2. Add condensed milk and mix to combine.
3. Reduce speed to low and add powdered sugar one cup at a time, stopping mixer after each addition to scrape down the side of the bowl. Refrigerate for 15 minutes.
4. After cupcakes are fully cool, frost and sprinkle with Milo.

Recipe adapted from Raspberri Cupcakes.

All That's Left Are The Crumbs

Streaking Vanilla Cupcakes

Ok, so these cupcakes are not naked and running down the street. I totally drew a blank when naming them - I mean vanilla cupcakes with blue-streaked buttercream isn't the most enticing name is it? My daughter suggested the name and thought it was really funny, so I decided to go with it.

My daughter couldn't play basketball this year so she is the team manager for both the Junior Varsity and Varsity teams. A few days ago was Senior Night and she wanted to bring something to help the team celebrate. She decided that cupcakes would be popular with the team, and that we could easily incorporate the team colors - white and blue.

I love this recipe that I found on Martha Stewart's site.  All I had to do was swap out the strawberry for vanilla extract in both the cupcakes and the frosting.  This cupcake recipe produces a really nice soft crumb and a moist cake.  After mixing up the batter I separated about one cup and dyed it blue.  To produce a tie-dye effect I filled the cupcake liners with some vanilla batter, then blue batter, topping them off with a little more vanilla batter and then swirled it with a toothpick.






To top the cupcakes I decided to try and put blue streaks around the side of the piping bag so that I would get a swirl effect.  It probably would have worked out better had I used a small paintbrush, rather than a toothpick, but I had to go with what I had in the house.  In the end I used the toothpick to swirl the blue color straight into the buttercream, and then spooned it into a ziploc bag to pipe it.

The team was thrilled with the cupcakes and even better, they won the game.

I could have swirled this one a little better

Streaking Vanilla Cupcakes  
(Printer Friendly Recipe)

Ingredients
Cupcakes

• 2¾ cups all-purpose flour
• ½ cup cake flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 8 ounces (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 2 cups sugar
• 4 large eggs
• 1 cup whole milk
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• blue gel paste as needed

Buttercream

• 4 large egg whites, room temperature
• 1¼ cups sugar
• ¾ pound (3 sticks) butter, softened, cut into small pieces
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• blue gel paste as needed

Preparation
Cupcakes

1. Preheat oven to 350℉. 
2. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. 
3. Whisk dry ingredients in a large bowl. 
4. Cream butter and sugar with a mixer until light and fluffy. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating after each addition. Reduce speed to low. 
5. Mix remaining wet ingredients in a bowl. 
6. Add dry ingredients to butter mixture in 3 additions, alternating with wet ingredients and ending with dry, scraping the sides of bowl between each addition.
7. Divide batter among muffin cups, filling each full (or tie-dye as suggested above).
8. Bake cupcakes until testers inserted into centers come out clean, about 20 minutes.
9. Let cool in tins on wire racks.

Buttercream

1. Place whites and sugar in a heatproof mixer bowl set over a pot of simmering water. Whisk until sugar dissolves and mixture registers 160 degrees on a candy thermometer.
2. Remove from heat, and attach bowl to a mixer. 
3. Whisk on medium speed for 5 minutes. Increase speed to medium-high, and whisk until stiff, glossy peaks form, about 6 minutes.
4. Reduce speed to medium, and add butter, 1 piece at a time, whisking well after each addition. 
5. Add vanilla and whisk to combine.
6. Use immediately, or cover, and refrigerate. 
7. If using gel paste either dye buttercream or use a small paintbrush to line a piping bag before decorating cupcakes.

Recipe adapted from Martha Stewart.  Makes approximately 30 cupcakes.

The Cake Slice Bakers December 2012 - Mississippi Mud Cupcakes with Marshmallow Frosting

This month the Cake Slice Baker's are making Mississippi Mud Cupcakes with Marshmallow Frosting from Vintage Cakes: Timeless Recipes for Cupcakes, Flips, Rolls, Layer, Angel, Bundt, Chiffon, and Icebox Cakes for Today's Sweet Tooth by Julie Richardson. When I first saw that these cupcakes had won the vote for December I was thrilled.  Just the name alone sounds delicious and brings to mind a cup of hot chocolate with marshmallows on top.  I know what you are thinking, why would I need to have hot chocolate where I live? Well, when those trade winds start blowing at 30 miles an hour from the Alaskan direction, and the temperature drops in the low 60's and it is raining, I need something to warm me up.  Don't laugh - yes, I can see you laughing - when you are used to high 80's or above every day I get cold when the temperature drops.

I had very high hopes for these cupcakes since I wasn't a big fan of last month's cake. Also, I have never made homemade marshmallow so I was excited to try out my candy thermometer.  I have been told that once you try homemade marshmallow you will never want to eat the commercially-made ones again, so we will see.

I started grabbing ingredients and chose to use some of my black cocoa from King Arthur Flour because it has a really deep flavor and would make the color of the cupcakes almost black and more "mud-like".  I decided on using 1/2 cup of black cocoa and 1/4 cup of dutch-processed cocoa to get the desired result.  Dutch processed cocoa has been treated with an alkali to neutralize its natural acidity. Being neutral, it does not react with baking soda, and it must be used in recipes calling for baking powder (unless there are other acidic ingredients in sufficient quantities used). It has a reddish-brown color, mild flavor, and dissolves easily in liquids.  After mixing some of my morning Ka'u coffee with the cocoa I felt like I had struck oil.  The combination was just like liquid gold.  I had a feeling that I was going to like these cupcakes.

Next I went searching for my chocolate chips.  I know I have semi-sweet, white, and bittersweet in my pantry.  After I quick look I could only find the bittersweet.  Everything else was ready, and I could have spent the next 15+ minutes searching for them in the pantry, but I made an executive decision to just use the bittersweet chips.  I was going for a dark cupcake anyway so these could only help the cause.  I also made the executive decision not to use the pecans in the recipe this time - well I had a little help from the peanut gallery stating they did not like nuts and showing me their sad faces - so out they went.

After they came out of the oven I could not resist trying one.  OMG, so good!  They are exactly want I want in a chocolate cupcake - deep, dark, and delicious.  I almost decided to forgo making the marshmallow because they were so good on their own, but I was determined to christen my candy thermometer, so on I pressed. And I am glad I did because it was good.  I added vanilla bean paste instead of vanilla essence so the frosting had some really nice flecks in it.  At first I thought that I may have burned the sugar mixture - watch it because mine came up to temperature really quickly and turned a little dark - but it worked out just fine.  A drizzle of chocolate on top completed the cupcakes.

These were definitely a winner for me.  I can imagine so many variations that I could make using the base recipe.  I loved the flavor and the fact that they were so easy to put together.  They will definitely we making an appearance again very soon.

Click here to check out the blogs of my fellow Cake Slice Baker's and see all of their cupcakes.


Mississippi Mud Cupcakes with Marshmallow Frosting
(Printer Friendly Recipe)

Ingredients

Cake

• 1 cup hot coffee
• 3/4 cup lightly packed Dutch-processed cocoa
• 2 cups flour
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 cup chopped pecans, toasted
• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 2 eggs, at room temperature
• 1 cup buttermilk, at room temperature
• ½ cup canola oil
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Marshmallow Frosting

• 1 cup sugar
• ¼ teaspoon cream of tartar
• ½ cup water
• 4 egg whites
• ⅛ teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons vanilla

Preparation

Cake

1. Center oven rack and preheat oven to 350℉.
2. Line a standard-size muffin tin with 24 paper cups.
3. In a small bowl, whisk the hot coffee into the cocoa. Set aside to cool
4. Sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and baking soda in a large bowl. Whisk the mixure together by hand to ensure that the ingredients are well mixed then stir pecan and chocolate chips.
5. In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, buttermilk, oil, vanilla, and cooled cocoa mixture. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir batter together with a rubber spatula until just combined (too much mixing will cause the tops of the cupcakes to be unevenly domed).
6. Pour batter evenly among prepared cupcake tins, filling each well about 3/4 full. Place cupcake tins in middle rack of the preheated oven. 
7. Bake until cupcakes have domed nicely and bounce back when lightly pressed, about 20 minutes.
8. Cool the cupcakes in their tin on a wire rack. 
9. Once they have cooled, remove them from the pan and pipe a mound of marshmallow frosting on each.
10. These cupcakes will keep for 3 days in an airtight container at room temperature.

Marshmallow Frosting

1. Combine the sugar, cream of tartar, and water in a small saucepan that has a tight-fitting lid. Place the pan, uncovered, over medium heat. Bring the mixture to a boil, the cover and cook for 2 minutes. Uncover the saucepan and continue to boil until the sugar syrup reaches the soft-ball stage, 242 degrees on a candy thermometer.
2. While the syrup is heating to the desired temperature, combine the egg whites with the salt in the clean bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment and beat beginning at low speed and gradually increasing to medium-high speed. Beat the whites just until soft peaks form. Timing is crucial at this point in the game; if the syrup is close to reaching 242 degrees, continue whipping the whites to firm peaks. If the syrup is not this warm yet, let the whites wait at the soft-peak stage before whipping them into firm peaks as the syrup approaches the desired temperature.
3. Once the sugar syrup has reached 242 degrees and the egg whites are whipped to firm peaks, run the mixer at medium-high speed and begin slowly pouring the syrup down inside the bowl. Continue whipping until the frosting becomes thick and holds stiff peaks, about 5 minutes. Add the vanilla and whip to combine.
4. This frosting should be used immediately.

From Vintage Cakes

Pot O'Gold Cupcakes

Tomorrow is St Patrick's Day and we will have our traditional corned beef, potatoes, and something green - I love cabbage but the rest of the family does not.  Somehow bok choy seems a little strange for an Irish dinner, but I just go with the flow.

Recently there have been some wonderful recipes for  cupcakes with a St. Patick's Day theme -  Irish Coffee Cupcakes by 52 Kitchen Adventures, St. Patrick's Day Cupcakes by Susi's Kochen Und Backen Adventures, and Guinness Cupcakes by My Baking Addiction, to name a few.  All sound so good, and I have bookmarked them so that I can try them soon.  I couldn't decide on one, so I took a little something from all of them and came up with Pot O'Gold Cupcakes.

As much as I love chocolate cupcakes I wanted to make a basic yellow cupcake, so I used a tried and true recipe from Martha Stewart. A good friend of mine brought back a jar of Ladurée Caramel au beurre salé for me when she went to Paris last year, and I have been saving it for a special occasion.  I am always torn when I get gifts like this because on the one hand want to use it, but I also want to save it because I can't replace it.  I decided that this was a good time to break that seal and enjoy the contents.  The caramel is so thick and delicious, so after I made the cupcakes I cut a small portion from the top and filled them with the caramel.  A buttercream frosting seemed to be the perfect topping, so I went with it, and added Bailey's® Irish Cream in a caramel flavor as a little something extra. I may have gone a little overboard with the Bailey's®, so I adjusted it in the recipe below.  

Well, I think that I may have just found the Pot O'Gold at the end of the rainbow. Happy St. Patrick's Day!  And remember, many an opportunity is lost because a man is out looking for four-leaf clovers. 

Pot O'Gold Cupcakes
(Printer Friendly Version)

Ingredients

Cupcakes:

• 1½ cups all-purpose flour
• 1½ teaspoons baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ cup milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
• ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
• ¾ cup sugar
• 2 large eggs

Frosting:

• ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 3 cups confectioners' sugar
• 3 tablespoons Bailey's® Irish Cream (I used the caramel flavor) 
• 1 tablespoon cream
• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions
 

Cupcakes:

1. Preheat oven to 350°.
2. Line the cups of a standard (12-cup) muffin tin with paper or foil liners.
3. In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside.
4. In a liquid-measuring cup, mix milk and vanilla; set aside. 
5. In a large bowl, with an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes.
6. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. 
7. With mixer on low speed, add half of dry ingredients, followed by milk-vanilla mixture, then remaining dry ingredients. Do not overmix. 
8. Divide batter evenly among prepared muffin cups. 
9. Place tin on a rimmed baking sheet; bake until a toothpick inserted in center of a cupcake comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes.
10. Cool cupcakes 5 minutes in tin, then remove and cool completely on a rack before frosting.

Frosting:

1. In a medium bowl, with an electric mixer, beat unsalted butter, confectioners' sugar, cream, Bailey's, and vanilla extract until smooth.
2. Mix in up to 1/2 cup more sugar or a few more teaspoons of milk as necessary to achieve a spreadable consistency. 
3. Makes enough for 12 cupcakes. 

Recipe adapted from Martha Stewart