I backed off from baking a lot at the end of last year; I’d been burnt out and try as I might, just couldn’t work up the stamina or interest to consistently tackle new baking projects on a weekly basis.  I feebly waved my hand at some at some cookies and whipped out a bundt and the tried’n’true egg nog cheesecake squares, but really, I wasn’t working very hard.

BUT I’M BACK.  WITH THESE.

It’s a new year, and very suddenly last week I thought to myself “Man.  It’s been way too long since I’ve baked a cake.”  Thusly, my itch for big-kid baking returned!

Some friends of mine were having a gaming party that weekend, so I had the perfect excuse to make something fancy (nobody wants cake sitting around in their apartment being delicious with nobody except for you to eat it).  Since I wanted to do something more complicated than “chocolate cake with vanilla icing” I went directly to Sweetapolita – scrolling through Rosie’s posts always inspire.

Excitedly, I decided on her Campfire Delight: 6-Layer Rich Chocolate Malted & Toasted Marshmallow Cake.  I loved everything about how it sounded, plus I had almost all the ingredients in the cupboard (but not Ovaltine.  I was never an Ovaltine drinker as a kid…were you?  I have no reason to have a can of it sitting around).  So I sat down at home one night, making a list of all the extraneous ingredients I’d need, making sure I had enough butter (eegads – I did not!) when it slowly dawned on me that this project might be a little more than what I wanted to commit to.  I mean, look at this picture:

That’s 3 8×8″ cakes, giant amounts of chocolate malted frosting, and only slightly less giant amounts of toasted marshmallow filling.  It’s pretty intense.

So I stopped and thought reasonably.  I didn’t want to break the bank by doubling the amount ingredients I needed to buy, and I wasn’t sure if in the end I’d have patience for such a gigantic cake.  With that in mind I decided to go in the same vein, but simply ratchet the big’ole cake into a dozen cupcakes.  And I can definitely say it was a good decision. 🙂

The good news is that this recipe calls for the same chocolate cake I made last year for my friends’ wedding, which means that I can make it in my sleep.  I halved the original cake recipe and it yielded 12 cupcakes exactly – hooray!  I also halved both of the other ingredients, which worked, but I still ended up having leftovers of each (some of which may or may not have ended up directly in my stomach).

This recipe was a little time-intensive, but I really enjoyed the process because outside of the time it took it wasn’t terribly complicated.  Plus the result was AMAZING.

Fact: these cupcakes actually called for real-life toasted marshmallows; it wasn’t just marshmallow fluff slapped in the middle of those cupcakes.  And while we’re on the topic of stuffing tasty things with other tasty things (which, as I’ve mentioned in the past, is something I really like doing), the filling for these cupcakes I decided to keep simple: instead of cutting out little cones in each of the cupcakes, I decided to cut an X in each, spread them apart slightly, and then jam some filling in that way.  It actually worked really well until my make-shift frosting bag (IE, a gallon-sized Ziplock) exploded.

Then of course there was the fabulous chocolate malted frosting – holy crap guys, I can’t stress enough exactly how insane this frosting is.  In fact, I actually made another batch of these the following week with the express excuse of making the frosting again.  What’s extra cool is that it’s made with Ovaltine – who would’ve thunk it?  I actually recall really disliking Ovaltine as a kid…I think because I thought it was supposed to taste like chocolate, and not malt.  Turns out I like it a lot now. ^_^

Anyway, the final verdict is that these cupcakes are absolutely insanely delicious.  If you have a party coming up, I highly recommend whipping these up to make friends and impress people.  They just take a little patience (and, I suppose, a lot of ingredients) and they’re absolutely worth the effort.  And you know me – I’m a lazy baker.  If I think they’re worth the time, I’m probably right.  /flex

Chocolate Malted & Roasted Marshmallow Cupcakes

Adapted from Sweetapolita.
Makes 1 dozen cupcakes.

Cupcake Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup + 1 tbsp flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup + 1 tbsp dark cocoa powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup coffee (or just water)
• 1/2 cup buttermilk
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1/2 tbsp vanilla

Cupcake Instructions:

1. Mix all the dry ingredients together.
2. Add all the other ingredients to the dry mixture and beat with a mixer for ~2 minutes (I sometimes mix 1/2 the wet ingredients to get things moist, then add the rest before beating).
3. Load up your muffin tin with cupcake liners and fill each liner ~3/4 full.
4. Bake at 350F for 20 minutes, rotating the pan half way through.

Frosting Ingredients:

• 1 cup butter at room temperature (srsly, room temp will be best)
• 2 cups confectioner’s sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup + 1 tbsp Ovaltine powder (malted flavor, not chocolate)
• 4 oz bittersweet chocolate, melted
• 1/4 heavy whipping cream

Frosting Instructions:

1. Cream together the butter and sugar.
2. Add vanilla and Ovaltine, beat until combined.
3. Add the melted chocolate and beat until smooth.
4. Add whipping cream and beat for ~1 more minute.

Filling Ingredients:

• 8 large marshmallows
• 1/2 cup confectioner’s sugar
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
• 4 oz marshmallow fluff

Filling Instructions:

1. Toast the marshmallows until brown on each side under the broiler (keep a close eye on them – they get black fast!)
2. Cream butter and sugar.
3. Beat in vanilla extract.
4. Add marshmallow fluff and toasted marshmallows and mix ~1 minute.

Assembly:

1. Cut an X in the center of each of the cupcakes.
2. Put the filling in a frosting bag with a long tip with a small hole (filling-style).  Slightly pull apart each X and fill it with a liberal squeeze of filling.
3. Use the frosting to frost the cupcakes however you like!  Piping with another frosting bag works well to cover up the filling.
4. Consume!