So, it was a couple of months between N & O. I felt a little out of sorts with baking. I didn’t have any mishaps, though, so I’m thankful for that.
I was torn between Ovaltine and Orange Creamsicle. Mr Shuck handed me a jar of Ovaltine that he had picked up, so it was decided. (Apologies to Ms Green).
My original thought was a malted milk cake with chocolate buttercream. The Ovaltine that Mr Shuck brought was Chocolate Malt, so the cake ended up being a chocolate malt flavor. I used a standard chocolate cake recipe, except I omitted the cocoa and reduced the sugar since Ovaltine contains both. (It also contains a healthy dose of vitamins and minerals, which I hoped weren’t going to interfere with the baking soda.)
I ended up combining 2 cups Ovaltine, 2 cups flour, 3/4 tsp baking soda and a little salt in a bowl. In the mixer bowl, I mixed 3 eggs with 2/3 cup vegetable oil, a splash of vanilla and 1 cup sugar. I alternated adding the flour with 1 1/3 cups warm milk and mixed until combined. After mixing, I filled mini cupcake cups almost all the way full, hoping they wouldn’t overflow as they baked. As a test, I put the first pan of cupcakes in the oven while I filled the second pan. After 7 minutes, I rotated the first pan and put in the second pan. I removed the first pan after 8 minutes and moved the other pan to the center. I took out the second pan 7 minutes later. Both pans baked at 350 for 15 minutes. I think I like this method. Both pans got some time in the oven solo and spent some time on both sides of the oven. Also, I figured if the first pan turned out overcooked or raw, I could adjust the time the second pan spent in the oven and hopefully end up with at least one pan that was good.
For the icing, I made my usual chocolate Italian Meringue Butter cream, using Warren Brown’s recipe. I had a bowl of it in the freezer from the last time I made it. I tasted it after it defrosted and it was still delicious after a couple of months in the freezer. It needed to be whipped up a little, so I added it to the new batch while I added the butter. This time, I used only 3/4 of a pound butter instead of the full pound and I think it turned out fine. I like using chocolate as flavoring in the butter cream best. Normally the icing starts to look a little curdled after adding the butter. Mixing in the melted chocolate raises the temperature just enough to smooth out the icing and bring it back to fluffy goodness. If I was using a different flavor, I’d have to take out a little icing and heat it up, then beat it back into the rest.
Finished Ovaltine cupcake
These cupcakes turned out quite good. There isn’t much malt flavor in the cake, but overall, I think it’s a good chocolate cake. It’s moist and flavorful and apparently an excellent source of vitamins A, C & D and a good source of iron.
