More and more I find myself gently hitting my forehead with the palm of my hand wondering why in heavens sake I hadn’t thought of this or that (insert whatever it might be) 30, 40, even 50 years ago?!?! And my latest revelation that demanded a personal head and hand altercation involved malted milk. What would happen if I added malted milk powder to a luscious chocolate buttercream frosting? And holy malted milk batman, what an absolutely whopper of an idea that turned out to be!

Now I have to give credit where inspiration is due.

Recently while we were out and about at lunchtime, the urge for a cheese burger with extra pickles overcame us both. And as is often the case, Mr. C. ordered a chocolate malted milk shake to go along with his burger. I try to stay away from ice cream and sugar as much as possible, but that day I just had to have a sip of his shake. OMG. With one little sip, my love for malted milk came rushing back with a vengeance. Leap forward a couple of weeks.

While coming up with a dessert for our last 2 JazzVox (afternoon and evening concerts on the same day), I decided on cake. First I thought about baking one of my favorite chocolate cakes Mocha Chocolate Cake with Sour Cream Frosting or Chocolate Sheet Cake with Chocolate Hazelnut Topping. (Both on this site BTW) But then I decided I wanted to fix something brand new for our guests. And as I was pondering my choices, malted milk popped into my head. I had never used malted milk powder before, so I needed to figure out how I could incorporate it into my baking. I didn’t even really know what it was. So in case you too might be interested – malted milk is a powdered gruel made from a mixture of malted barley, wheat flour, and evaporated whole milk. So no, it is not gluten free. But oh my, what it does for chocolate frosting is amazing.

So if you too love the taste of malted milk, give this recipe a try. And as I discovered when doing my research, I am not the only cook who wants to use this amazing product. So go online. There are some fantastic looking recipes out there.

So please enjoy this recipe. And look for more malted milk recipes to come. I just have to believe that there is a malted milk brownie recipe out there just waiting for me to develop. Yum. I can almost smell the brownies baking ……almost ……

Yellow Sour Cream Cake: recipe fromJocelyn Delk Adams (Grandbaby Cakes web site)

• 1 c. (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature 
• 1/3 c. vegetable oil
• 2½ c. granulated sugar
• 6 lg. eggs, room temperature
• 2 lg. egg yolks, room temperature
• 2 T. pure vanilla extract
• 3 c. fluffed up or sifted cake flour (see how to make cake flour below)
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• ½ tsp. salt
• 1 c. sour cream

In the bowl of your stand mixer, cream the butter, oil, and sugar on high until light and fluffy, about 5-6 minutes. (Do not skimp on the time for this step. Very important.)

Add eggs and egg yolks one at a time until well incorporated. Scrape the bowl as needed. Add in the vanilla extract and mix until well combined.

In a medium sized bowl whisk the cake flour, baking powder, and salt together.  

With mixer on low speed, alternate adding in flour mixture and sour cream. Do not over mix.

Grease and lightly flour a 12×16-inch (half-sheet) cake pan. Pour the batter evenly into the pan. Shake to help even off the batter.

Bake in a pre-heated 350 degree oven for about 30 minutes or until a toothpick stuck into the middle of the pan comes out clean. Do not overbake. Check after 25 minutes to be sure. Remove from oven and allow to cool completely before frosting.    

Store at room temperature.

Chocolate Malted Milk Buttercream Frosting:

• 1½ c. (3 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
• lg. pinch fine sea salt
• ¾ c. malted milk powder
• ½ c. good unsweetened cocoa powder (I use Valrhona)
• 3 c. powdered sugar  
• 3 T. whipping cream, plus more as needed

Beat the butter, vanilla, and salt together until creamy in the bowl of your stand mixer.

Whisk the malted milk powder, cocoa powder, and powdered sugar together in a bowl.

Gradually add the cocoa mixture to the butter mixture alternating with the heavy cream until the frosting is super smooth and at your desired consistency. Scrap down the sides of the bowl several times during this process.  

Homemade Cake Flour:

For each cup of cake flour you will need:

• 2 T. cornstarch
• 1 scant c. all-purpose flour

Measure out 2 tablespoons of cornstarch and place it in a 1-cup measuring cup.   Gently spoon fluffed up all-purpose flour into the cup over the cornstarch. Don’t pack the flour down in the cup. Use the back of a table knife to level off the cup. 

Sift the mixture 2-3 times to thoroughly combine and aerate the flour. Measure again. (You may have a bit of extra cake flour left. Great! Save it for the next time you need cake flour.)