Jenny's Bakes: Malteser Cupcakes with Popping Candy

Maltesers are probably my favourite chocolate. They're just so light (and one of the lowest calorie chocolates, am I right?).. However, this can be problematic, since once I open up one of those big 'to share' bags, I won't stop until they're all gone. I was chatting to my friend Beth the other day about how I'm a sweets/choc fan and she's a crisps fan, and she coined the term 'empty bag syndrome', i.e, the consumer of a bag of crisps cannot be satisfied until the contents of the said bag are entirely devoured. It's definitely something I suffer from! But alas, until they find a cure, looks like I'm stuck with a collection of empty Oreo wrappers and bags of haribos.

Anyway, Malteser cupcakes were one of the first things I ever baked (back in the day). The batter is my standard vanilla one (the basis of this recipe is identical to that of my Oreo and Rolo cupcakes, the decorations are just different), and I've garnished the frosting with a Malteser and a sprinkle of popping candy, something I only just discovered! It's so cool!!

So, let's get started!

Ingredients

170g unsalted butter, softened

120g caster sugar

35g brown sugar

3eggs and 1 extra yolk

1/2tsp of vanilla extract

170g all purpose flour

1tsp baking powder

pinch of salt (don't forget this, I always do!!)

huge bag of Maltesers. Keep 12 separate.

Method

Preheat the oven to 180C and line a muffin pan with 12 liners. Cream the butter and sugar with a handmixer, and add in the eggs one by one and then the vanilla, maintaining a medium speed. Next, move the mixer to one side, and fold in the flour, baking powder and salt until just incorporated. Fold in all of the Maltesers (not the 12 you reserved at the beginning). If you put all the Maltesers into the batter (minus the 12), it'll prevent you from nibbling on any surplus ones left in the bag!! Smart move eh?

Use an ice cream scoop to fill the cupcake cases, ideally 2/3 - 3/4 full. The Maltesers make the batter much bigger, so you can either fill the cases much higher than usual, or use any extra to fill a couple more cupcake cases. When I made them, I just equally distributed it between the 12 cases and filled them to the brim. They don't rise that much, so they won't overflow if the batter is near the top.

Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes, or until a knife inserted into the centre (try not to poke into a Malteser) comes out clean and the cakes are firm and golden.

Remove from the oven and leave to cool on the side.

FROSTING

My normal cream cheese frosting is a favourite, but I thought I'd try using less cream cheese and replace it with butter. It just makes it a bit denser and creamier.

100g cream cheese, softened

75g unsalted butter, softened

300g icing sugar

1/2tsp vanilla extract.

popping candy sprinkles (these ones can be found in Waitrose)

Beat all the ingredients together at a low speed. Make the effort to get more icing sugar in the bowl than on the kitchen walls (and yourself). I'm only speaking from experience....

Pipe onto the cupcakes, place the leftover Maltesers on top, and then sprinkle over the popping candy.

My lovely friend Lauren asked me to make these for her brother's birthday, and since his favourite thing is popping candy, she gave me the container of the sprinkles. I'd never actually seen these before, so when she handed them to me my face just displayed a look of total surprise!! They're just so much fun!