Lovin' From the Oven

Valentine’s Day Part Two: Malted Milk Cake & Frosting

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My boyfriend & I are some of the biggest fans of whoppers that you’ll find out there. Most people I know don’t like the malt taste, but I adore it! I can eat a box of whoppers all by myself. When I saw this recipe, I knew I had to try it. It’s a malt cake (I could barely taste it) with a chocolate malted frosting. Now, although I couldn’t taste the malt in the cake, the frosting definitely made up for it. It was DELICIOUS! My boyfriend says that the frosting just tastes like chocolate frosting, but what does he know.. 🙂 He doesn’t even like sweets!

I split the batter into a 9×13 pan and an 8×8 pan so that I would have a thinner layer to be able to stack upon one another and it worked out perfectly. I used cookie cutters to cut out the heart shape– TIP: Press the cookie cutter into your cake, LEAVE IT IN THERE, and then use a spatula to slide underneath the shape and cookie cutter. Lift gently, and then press out the cake onto parchment paper. Works like a charm! Don’t bother cutting the shape in the pan, removing the cookie cutter, and then trying to get it out. You’ll ruin the cake for sure!

1 cup softened butter
2 cups sugar
5 egg whites
3 cups sifted self-rising flour
1 cup whole milk
1/2 cup malted powder
2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour 2 (9-inch) cake pans.

Using an electric mixer, cream butter until fluffy. Add sugar and continue to cream well for 6 to 8 minutes. Add egg whites, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Whisk malt powder into milk. Add flour and milk mixture alternately to creamed mixture, beginning and ending with flour. Add vanilla and continue to beat until just mixed.

Divide batter equally among prepared pans. Level batter in each pan by holding pan 3 or 4 inches above counter, then dropping it flat onto counter. Do this several times to release air bubbles and assure you of a more level cake. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until done. Cool in pans 5 to 10 minutes. Invert cakes onto cooling racks. Cool completely.

Chocolate Malted Frosting
1/2 cup shortening
1/2 cup butter
6 T milk
1 cup malted powder
1 cup cocoa
1/2 tsp vanilla
3 1/4 cups powdered sugar

Mix milk and malted powder in electric mixer. Add cocoa and vanilla. Mix until a well blended (as in non-lumpy) paste. Add butter and shortening and cream. Add sugar and beat for 4-5 minutes.

For the writing on top, I used a candy decorating pen bought from Williams Sonoma, but you can find it HERE or HERE. They’re really easy to work with and make life so much simpler. No messy clean up! I probably should have tried piping out a bit before though before writing directly on the cake. Oh well!

OH! and just for kicks, this is what some of the Valentine’s Day cards that I sent out to people look like:
Everything made by hand! Homemade is the way to go. 🙂 The heart is an example of what my cricut machine that I got for Christmas can do. What the heck is a cricut machine anyway? Check out my previous post about it.
You can buy the smaller version or go all out and get the bigger version.

Valentine’s Day M&M Cookies

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Happy Valentine’s Day! I made a little box of goods for my boyfriend (which I still have yet to give him, so hopefully he doesn’t see this before then) filled with cookies and miniature heart cakes. How cute are these M&M’s? I love that M&M’s come in different colors for every holiday season. It makes themed baking so easy! I had a busy baking day today; I baked 4 different types of cookies (3 dozen of each), a cake, brownies, AND truffles! So I’m a bit exhausted and a bit sleep deprived. I had midterms this past week and had about 15 hours of sleep total for those 5 nights. Eeeek! But I was so relieved to be done with tests and finally have time to bake again, so I went a bit overboard. Oh well! Everything turned out cute, that’s all that matters.

These cookies are ok. There’s something a bit off about them, but I haven’t quite bit my finger on it. I prefer the Nestle Tollhouse recipe over this one, along with my ultimate favorite CCC recipe. It seems that even though I’ve found my favorite CCC recipe, I can’t but help and try new ones. Why? I have no idea. Well, enjoy!

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
12 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted & cooled
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup valentine’s m&m’s

directions
1. Adjust an oven rack to lower-middle position and heat the oven to 325 degrees. line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Whisk the flour, baking soda, and salt together in a medium bowl.
2. In a large bowl, beat the melted butter and sugars together with an electric mixer on medium speed until smooth. Beat in the egg, egg yolk, and vanilla until combined.
3. Reduce mixer speed to low and slowly add the flour mixture until combined. Mix in the chips until incorporated.
4. Working with 2 tablespoons of dough at a time, roll the dough into even balls and lay them on the baking sheets, spaced about 2 inches apart. Stud the dough with the m&m’s.
5. Bake the cookies until the edges are set and beginning to brown but the centers are still soft and puffy, about 16 minutes. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for about 10 minutes, then serve warm or transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely.

Oh yeah! I managed to do a little blog-makeover the other day that seriously took me FOREVER redoing my gadgets and what not. What do you think?

Cookie Dough Cupcakes

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These were made in celebration of my dad’s birthday two days ago– Happy Birthday Dad! I originally baked a brown sugar cupcake, but those didn’t turn out so great for me… probably because I didn’t have brown sugar on hand and made my own by creating a mixture of white sugar & molasses. So after disposing a batch of failure cupcakes into the trash can, I decided just to go with a simple french vanilla based cupcake instead.

I was planning to put cookie dough in the middle of the cupcake, but in order to do that, you have to use well-frozen cookie dough so that it doesn’t cook all the way while baking inside the cake batter. Since I didn’t have time to freeze the cookie dough, I just left my cupcakes the way they were and focused on the frosting. The next time that I attempt these (there will definitely be a next time, if not a third and a fourth), I’ll make sure to have enough time to freeze the cookie dough in advance. Cookie dough inside the cupcake would have been a welcomed addition! The frosting itself was very rich and decadent. It’s EXTREMELY sweet before mixing in the eggless cookie dough. I couldn’t stop eating the eggless cookie dough batter that you mix into the frosting. It’s so addicting! PLUS, it’s okay for you to eat because it’s eggless! Double points.

Have I mentioned how much I hate piping frosting? I swear I’m terrible at it and always make the biggest mess while doing so. I envy the talented pipers out there! This frosting was a bit frustrating because the mini chocolate chips would get stuck in the tip, causing my frosting to go all over the place. I’d have to use a toothpick to unjam my tip every now and then. I wouldn’t waste time piping frosting onto cupcakes if they weren’t so gosh darn cute. Curse the cuteness (but not really because we all know how everyone’s a sucker for a good lookin’ cupcake)!

Brown Sugar Cupcakes

(Recipe from Cupcake Bakeshop. Makes about 12 cupcakes)

  • 3/4 cup (1-1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
  • 3/4 cup light brown sugar
  • 2 large eggs, room temperature
  • 1-1/3 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/8 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 cup milk
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Beat butter on high until soft, about 30 seconds.
  3. Add sugar. Beat on medium-high until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
  4. Add eggs one at a time, beat for 30 seconds after each.
  5. Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a bowl.
  6. Measure out milk and vanilla together.
  7. Add about a fourth of the flour to the butter/sugar mixture and beat to combine.
  8. Add about one third the milk/vanilla mixture and beat until combined.
  9. Repeat above, alternating flour and milk and ending with the flour mixture.
  10. Place previously prepared frozen cookie dough ball (mine were fairly big) into cup liners, then fill about half to three-quarters full of cupcake batter.
  11. Bake for 20-22 minutes until golden and the cake springs back when lightly touched. (Testing by using a toothpick would be insufficient because of the gooey cookie dough in the center).

Cookie Dough Frosting

(Recipe from The Cupcake Review. Makes enough to frost 12 cupcakes.)

  • 1-3/4 cups confectioners sugar
  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter, chilled
  • 1/8 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 tablespoon milk
  • Eggless cookie dough (recipe below)
  1. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine 1-1/4 cups confectioners’ sugar, unsalted butter, salt, and vanilla, scraping down the sides of the bowl with a spatula as necessary.
  2. Add milk and continue mixing until well combined, scraping down the sides of the bowl with a spatula, as necessary. With the mixer running, slowly add remaining 1/2 cup confectioners sugar, mix until well combined.
  3. At this point you can mix in the eggless cookie dough. Mix in enough cookie dough to suit your taste. Any cookie dough leftover you can gladly eat! There are no eggs in it so it is safe. Yum!

Eggless Cookie Dough

(Recipe from How To Eat A Cupcake)

  • 1/4 cup butter, softened
  • 1/4 cup brown sugar, plus 2 tablespoons
  • 2 teaspoons water
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1/2 cup flour
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/3 cup mini chocolate chips (optional)
  1. Cream the butter and brown sugar in a small bowl. Add water and vanilla and mix well. Add flour and salt and stir to combine. Stir in mini chocolate chips (optional).
  2. Store in refrigerator until ready to use.

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