Milo Cupcakes
Chocolate cupcakes made with iconic Australian chocolate malt powder, Milo, topped with rich chocolate buttercream and Malteser dust.
Recipe Updated 17th January 2018
I first made these Milo Cupcakes in 2010. And I think I ate a fair amount of them because they were sooooo good! If you’re unaware, Milo is an iconic Australian chocolate malt powder. Many Australian kids have fond childhood memories of coming home from school on a boiling hot day, pouring a tall glass of icy-cold milk, and stirring in some Milo. The cool thing is some of the Milo stays on top like a crunchy treat, while the milk turns a delicious chocolate malt flavour below.
With Australia Day coming up for us (26th January) I couldn’t resist turning Milo into a Milo Cupcake recipe with swirl of rich Milo frosting too.
I’ve made some improvements on the original Milo Cupcake recipe first published here in 2010. The biggest is the addition of a better, richer, Milo-ier Chocolate Buttercream recipe to swirl on top. If you loved the original icing I’ve kept a copy of that here for you to reference too. The cupcake recipe itself is the same, but the method is more streamlined. And I’ve made them extra decadent by crushing some Maltesers over the top.
Enjoy with a tall glass of frosty Milo milk.
HOW TO MAKE MILO CUPCAKES
Click to watch how to make Milo Cupcakes
Ingredients
cupcakes- 40 g Unsalted Butter softened to room temperature
- 140 g Caster Sugar
- 1 Egg lightly beaten
- 115 g Plain Flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons Baking Powder
- 1 pinch Salt
- 2 teaspoons Cocoa Powder
- 120 ml Full Cream Milk
- 3 tablespoons Milo (chocolate malt powder)
- 300 g Icing Sugar
- 100 g Unsalted Butter softened to room temperature
- 40 g Cocoa Powder sifted
- 40 ml Full Cream Milk
- 200 g Icing Sugar
- 120 g Unsalted Butter softened to room temperature
- 50 g Cocoa Powder sifted
- 50 g Milo Powder
- 100 ml Full Cream Milk
- 1 large Maltesers crush some, reserve 12 for the tops
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius (160 fan-forced; 350F). Line a 12-hole muffin tray with cupcake cases.
- Add the softened butter and sugar to a large bowl. Beat with electric beaters until thick, pale and fluffy. Add the lightly beaten egg and whisk together until smooth and fluffy.
- In a smaller separate bowl, mix the flour, salt, baking powder and cocoa powder. Stir until the dry ingredients are well mixed.
- Make a glass of Milo by adding the milk and Milo together. Stir very well until the milk turns to chocolate.
- Add half of the dry ingredient mix and half the chocolate milk to the beaten mixture. Stir together with a large spoon. Add the other half of the dry ingredients and the chocolate milk and gently fold together until just combined.
- Place a heaped tablespoon of batter into each muffin hole. Place muffin tin on the centre rack in the middle of the oven. Bake for 15-20 minutes, until the tops of the cakes bounce back when lightly touched and a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean.
- Remove from the oven. Let the cupcakes cool in the pan for at least 10 minutes. Then remove onto a wire rack to cool completely. Meanwhile, prepare the chocolate frosting.
- Milo Frosting 2010: Add the milk and milo powder together in a mug. Stir until the milk is chocolate coloured. In the bowl of an electric mixer beat the icing sugar, butter and sifted cocoa together until well combined. Slowly pour in the chocolate milk. Once all the milk is added turn the beaters to high speed. Beat for about 5 minutes, until the frosting is light and fluffy. Slather the frosting onto the cupcakes. Sprinkle with extra milo to finish.
- Milo Buttercream Frosting 2018: Add the softened butter and icing sugar the bowl of an electric mixer. Beat together until fluffy and smooth. Add the cocoa powder and milo. Turn up the speed and beat together for at least 5 minutes so the frosting increases in volume. Beat in about half of the milk to loosen the frosting slightly. If you feel it’s too thick, add more milk to get the consistency you’d like.
Recipe Notes
- Milo is an Australian chocolate malted milk powder. You can substitute other chocolate malted drinking products like Ovaltine and Carnation Malted Milk. You could also try plain malted milk products like Horlicks with added drinking chocolate. There are recipes online for making your own Chocolate malted milk if you struggle to find these products near you.
- The batter makes exacts 12 cupcakes filled equally. There’s not much wiggle room, so if you overfill a few holes you may get less cupcakes.
- The original Milo frosting recipe I made in 2010 is runnier and less rich. The new Milo frosting recipe I made in 2018 is more like a thick buttercream and it has a lot more Milo in it.
You might like our other cupcake recipes, or our Australian baking recipes like Lamingtons, and Classic Raspberry Jelly Cakes.
And you know, baking and subsequently eating piles of cupcakes while procrastinating is totally offset by the housecleaning that seems to get done when procrastinating too.
Milo is awesome, I can only imagine milo cupcakes are similarly so.
Brilliant! Wouldn’t it be nice to have a warm milo cupcake before bed. Possibly not as sleep inducing as a cup of warm milo, but much yummier.
ahhh brilliant idea!! I shall be giving it a go myself =)
I am a Milo freak. Cold milk with spoonfulls of milo on top. I am making these on the weekend. Yummmm.
Oh, so much Milo goodness! And there is no such thing as procrastination while studying – it’s called ‘taking a break’. Experts say that regular breaks help you retain the information which you are studying *nods head* =D
oh how simply gorgeous are these i have some milo at home that are just waiting to be used up now!! :O)
i made these for my brother’s birthday yesterday… and yes, they were delicious! however the quantites for the icing seem to be all wrong… 40ml of milk to 300g of icing sugar just didn’t work. more milk needed.
You’re right, it’s not a lot of milk. I make my icing in a food processor and when you first add the milk, the mixture is still very firm, almost like it seizes up. But once I let it whip for a good 5 minutes, it softens right up. Of course, you can add as little or as much milk as you desire to get the consistency you like. I love a dense fudgey frosting, but there’s no golden rule for ingredient quantities :)
Amazing. I thought the Red Velvet where my favorite, but these are right up there with them!!!
I added a little more milk to the frosting. And not sure if I over looked the part where you add the cocoa to the cake mix… I added it last to the mix anyway. All turned out perfectly!!
I love all these recipes. Thanks so much :)
it look so cool i wont it now
This looks delicious and am planning to make it since I love Milo! But I have a question. My friends are really concerned with their diet right now and try to cut any calories they can. If I use skim milk for this, will there be any significant difference? Thanks!
Hi Shakirah,
Milo is super awesome indeed. It’s fine to use skim milk in these without there being a massive difference to the taste. Whole milk always gives superior results for flavour and texture, but it will still work out fine with skim milk too.
Happy Baking!
Emma
Hi dear, When do you add the Cocoa powder in the process of making the cupcakes?
I add it along with flour and the rest. Turns out good. Thanks for the recipe!
ZOMG! Thank you Cake Mistress! I had such a crappy day yesterday and today was my last day of leave before I’m back at work, so I decided to make some cupcakes for my return. Came across your website in my search for a twist on ye olde chocolate cupcakes and got so excited. WHY have I never thought of this before?! I had a lovely time baking them and an even lovelier time eating the reject cupcake (a.k.a. the one that I ‘accidentally’ put my finger in the icing so I’d have to eat it)
Just wanted to say thank you for cheering me up with this awesome recipe. Also, I sprinkled a little milo on top of the icing just for a little decoration!
I just finished making a batch of these and they taste absolutely wonderful! A tad too sweet for me so next time I will probably add less sugar but they’re so moist and flavoursome! Also had no problems with the icing – whipped it for 5 mins and it was soft and chocolatey, perfect for piping. Great recipe Cake Mistress!!!
These cupcakes are absolutely delicious! Usually i prefer muffins over cupcakes (due to cupcakes usually having a infamous amount of sugar and butter) but these were so great (and oh so soft) i had to double the batch (but only made 1 batch of frosting) so there was plenty to go around for a baby shower! I made these into tiny ones so baking time was cut down to a little under 10 minutes. Thank you for sharing this recipe! :)
These are my family’s favorite muffins. We add a little extra Milo because the 8yo is crazy for it and make them in mini muffin trays. Perfect for those “Mama, I need to take 24 muffins to school tomorrow” days.
what i do is use your easy chocolate cake recipe ( a family favourite) but add milo with the milk and make them into cupcakes with milo icing it is delicious !
Hi, I’m not sure if this has been asked before but are these in Australian cups or US cups?
Fantasic Little Cupcakes! My only negative is the reciepe on makes 6, will definatly double the next time I make these.
Soooooooo tasty!!! I made these today and they were a hit! They are so light and fluffy with a malty edge. I used around 270g of icing sugar and around 70ml of milk for the icing. It tasted fabulous! I also sprinkled some Milo over the top of the iced cupcakes…OMG…drool… :)
I love chocolate cupcakes