Choc-Malt Cake

Happy Birthday LINUS!

It was my eldest son's 13th birthday on Saturday. We had bacon and eggs for breakfast. We ate sausage rolls and hot dogs for lunch.  We had a pasta party for dinner. We ate ice-cream while we watched Thor: The Dark World. And of course, there was birthday cake. This Choc-Malt Cake took pride of place at the celebration table, then took up what room we had left in our bellies. Now we are all on a strict diet of broccoli and Brussels sprouts for the rest of the week and I am going to be spending some quality time with the treadmill.



Choc-Malt Cake
Serves 10

For the Cake: adapted from Hershey's Kitchen

2 cups sugar
1-3/4 cups plain flour
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1-1/2 teaspoons bi-carbonate of soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil (I used Grapeseed Oil)
1 tablespoon malt extract
1 cup boiling water

300ml cream, whipped

Maltesers for decorating

For the Frosting: adapted from Nigella Lawson's Feast

250g icing sugar
1 teaspoon cocoa powder
2 tablespoons malt extract
125g unsalted butter, room temperature
2 tablespoons boiling water

Make the Cake:
Heat oven to 180 degrees C. Grease two 20cm round cake pans and line the bases with baking paper.

Sieve the sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, bi-carbonate of soda and salt into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment.

Whisk the eggs, milk, oil and vanilla together in a separate bowl. Add them to the dry ingredients and beat on medium speed for 2 minutes. 

Put the malt extract and boiling water into a jug and whisk them together until the malt extract has melted. Add it to the batter and mix until incorporated. The batter will be thin, which is what we want as this is what will make the cake moist and light. Pour the batter into the prepared pans.

Bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until wooden toothpick inserted in centre comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes, remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely.

Make the Frosting:
In the bowl of a food processor, whiz the icing sugar to get rid of any lumps. Add the cocoa powder and pulse again to combine. Add the butter and malt extract and process again. Add as much boiling water as is needed to achieve a spreadable consistency.

Assemble and Decorate the Cake:
When the cakes are completely cool, place one cake on a cake stand or platter and top with the whipped cream. Put the other cake on top of that and top with the frosting. Spread the frosting evenly over the top of the cake. Place Maltesers around the edge of the top of the cake.