Chocolate Malt Cupcakes
These pudding-filled chocolate malt cupcakes come topped with all the milkshake fixings: vanilla buttercream frosting, hot fudge, a chocolate milkshake straw, and a maraschino cherry on top.
Until very recently, I was staunchly opposed to pudding. I did not care for it, never ate it as a child, it just didn’t do it for me. BUT THEN we went to a place called Liliha Bakery and tried their signature coco puff (a chocolate pudding filled cream puff, topped with an absurdly delicious frosting) and I was forever changed. I’m team pudding now. I’ve been converted. So in honor of that conversion, I present to you this chocolate pudding-filled cupcake recipe, my first ever dessert involving pudding, but certainly not the last.
Servings: 12 | Prep Time: 1 hour 40 minutes | Cook Time: 15 minutes
12-cup muffin pan
Cupcake liners (light blue or clear)
Sifter or fine-mesh sieve
Wire racks
Small saucepan
Small heat-safe bowls
Plastic wrap
Hand-mixer / Stand-mixer
Large and small piping bags
Large star piping tip
Chocolate Malt Cupcakes:
¾ cup + 2 tbsp flour
1 cup sugar
4 tbsp cocoa powder
3 tbsp malted milk powder
¾ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
1 egg
½ cup buttermilk
¼ cup butter, melted
2 tsp vanilla
½ cup hot coffee
Chocolate Malt Pudding:
â…“ cup sugar
2 tbsp cocoa powder
â…› tsp salt
1 ½ tbsp cornstarch
2 tbsp malted milk powder
1 cup milk
½ tsp vanilla
Striped Chocolate Straws:
2 oz bright white candy melts
2 oz red candy melts
1 oz corn syrup, divided
Vanilla Buttercream:
1 ¾ cup powdered sugar
¾ cup butter
1 tbsp milk
1 ½ tsp clear vanilla extract
Purple food coloring
Assembly:
12 stemmed maraschino cherries
2 tbsp fudge topping
½ tsp milk (optional)
Chocolate Malt Cupcakes (15 minutes prep + 15 minutes baking)
Preheat oven to 375° F.
Line a muffin pan with cupcake liners and set aside.
In a large bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, malted milk powder, baking soda, and salt. Whisk to combine.
Add in the eggs, buttermilk, melted butter, and vanilla, and whisk until smooth.
Whisk in the hot coffee until thoroughly combined.
Pour batter into each cup of the muffin pan until two-thirds full.
Bake for 15 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely while preparing the rest of the recipe.
Chocolate Malt Pudding (15 minutes)
In a small saucepan, whisk together sugar, cocoa powder, salt, cornstarch, and malted milk powder.
Whisk in the milk.
Over medium heat, bring the mixture to a simmer and cook until thickened, about 2 minutes.
Remove from the heat and add in the vanilla.
Transfer pudding to a small bowl.
Cover with plastic wrap directly touching the surface of the pudding.
Transfer to the fridge to chill until assembly.
Striped Chocolate Straws (30 minutes)
In a small heat-safe bowl, warm up the bright white candy melts in the microwave in 30-second increments until fully melted. Set aside.
In another small heat-safe bowl, warm up ½ oz of corn syrup for 5 to 10 seconds, just until you see small bubbles start to form.
Pour the corn syrup into the candy melts and stir gently with a silicone spatula until the candy melts just begin to seize and the mixture resembles soft serve. Do not overmix!
Immediately transfer the mixture to a piece of plastic wrap and cover completely, flattening slightly so it is evenly spread out.
Let the mixture cool on the counter until it is mostly set up and firm, about 5 to 10 minutes depending on the temperature of your kitchen. (If your kitchen is very warm, you may put it in the fridge to finish cooling down.)
Once the mixture has firmed up, remove the plastic wrap, and knead it with your hands until it becomes homogenous and smooth. If at any point the mixture starts to separate and leak, stop kneading, and let it cool down again before continuing.
Repeat the same process as above for the red candy melts and remaining ½ oz corn syrup to make your red modelling chocolate.
Once you have both colors of modelling chocolate, with clean hands, cut off about ⅛th of the white modelling chocolate, keeping the rest of the chocolate covered with plastic wrap so it doesn’t dry out.
On a clean, flat surface, roll out the modelling chocolate with your palms into a long thin tube and set aside.
On a separate flat surface (so as not to cross-contaminate the colors with each other), roll out â…›th of the red modelling chocolate into a long thin tube the same size as your white one, keeping the remaining chocolate covered.
With clean hands, twist your white and red tubes around each other at a slight diagonal, so they create a pattern like a candy cane.
Then carefully roll the whole thing under your palms until they press together and form a new tube.
Use a knife to cut the tube into sections about 2 inches long to create your straws.
Repeat the above process with the remaining chocolate, or until you have enough straws for all your cupcakes.
This recipe makes more modelling chocolate than you need, but it may take you a couple attempts to get the hang of it, so just keep trying until you’re happy with it!
Discard the remaining modelling chocolate or store covered in the refrigerator for a future recipe.
Place the finished straws onto a small plate and refrigerate until firm.
Vanilla Buttercream (15 minutes)
In a large bowl with a hand-mixer, or stand-mixer, whisk the butter on medium speed until smooth and creamy.
Add the powdered sugar, milk, and clear vanilla and mix until combined.
Add a tiny amount of purple food coloring at a time and mix thoroughly, to counteract the yellow of the butter and achieve a whiter frosting. Be careful not to overdo it though! You don’t want purple frosting.
Transfer to a large piping bag with a large star piping tip. Set aside.
Assembly (25 minutes)
Using a small knife, core a small cavity in the center of the cupcakes that reaches about halfway down the cupcake (do not go all the way through to the bottom).
Scoop out the cored centers with a spoon and discard.
Transfer the cooled chocolate pudding to a small piping bag, snip off the corner, and pipe pudding into the cupcake centers all the way to the top.
Using the large piping bag, frost each of the cupcakes with the buttercream frosting.
In a heat-safe bowl, warm up the fudge topping about 10 seconds, so it’s pourable. If needed, add a ½ tsp of milk, and whisk together to loosen it more.
Drizzle the fudge topping onto the cupcakes in a swirl.
Carefully push a chilled chocolate straw into the frosting of each cupcake at an angle.
Top each cupcake with a stemmed maraschino cherry. (The cherry juice may drip down the cupcakes over time. If you want to avoid that, you can wipe the cherries off with a paper towel before topping.)
Serve immediately. Leftovers should be stored in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.
Enjoy!
Be sure to check out my Best Practices page for tips on how to make this recipe yourself. Let me know in the comments if you have any questions and feel free to tag me on Instagram @made.by.shade if you make it!
-Shade