Chocolate Malteser Cake

Chocolate Malteser Cake

From "Feast", Nigella Lawson (2004)

O-M-G!!! What a fantastic combination for a really naughty chocolate cake!  

I’m putting on pounds, just looking at this one, I have been baking this one today for the music festival on Friday - I can’t just wait to try a piece!

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For the cake (makes 8-10 slices)

150g soft brown sugar (muscovado sugar is best for flavour)

100g caster sugar

3 large eggs

175ml milk

15g unsalted butter

2 tablespoons Horlicks powder

175g plain flour

25g cocoa, sieved

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

For the icing and decoration

250g icing sugar

1 teaspoon cocoa

45g Horlicks

125g soft unsalted butter

2 tablespoons boiling water

2 x 37g packets Maltesers

Take whatever you need out of the fridge so that all the ingredients can come to room temperature (though it's not so crucial here, since you're heating the milk and butter and whisking the eggs.

Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 3/170C. Butter and line two 20cm loose-bottomed sandwich cake tins with baking parchment.

Whisk together the sugars and eggs until light and frothy. Heat the milk, butter and Horlicks powder in a small saucepan until the butter has melted and the mixture is hot but not boiling. Beat the milk mixture into the eggs a little at a time. Fold in the dry ingredients thoroughly. Divide the cake batter evenly between the two tins and bake in the oven for 25 minutes, by which time the cakes should have risen and will spring back when pressed gently. Let them cool on a rack for about 5-10 minutes and then turn them out of their tins.

Once the cakes are cold, you can get on with the icing. I use a processor just because it makes life easier: you don't need to sieve the icing sugar. So: put the icing sugar, cocoa and Horlicks in the processor and blitz to remove all lumps. Add the butter and process again. Stop, scrape down, and start again, pouring the boiling water down the funnel with the motor running until you have a smooth buttercream.

Sandwich the cold sponges with half of the buttercream, and then ice the top with what is left, creating a swirly pattern rather than a smooth surface. Stud the outside edge, about 1cm in, with a ring of Maltesers or use them to decorate the top in which-ever way pleases you.

NB:

Nigella's Chocolate Malteser Cake (from Feast) is given a Malteser (malted milk ball) flavour with the addition of malted milk powder. There are two well-known brand names, Horlicks and Ovaltine, but a store own brand malted milk powder would also be fine. You should be using the traditional, just malt, version and not an alternative flavoured version.

We would also mention that you need to use the type of malted milk powder that is added to hot milk, and not the "instant" type that would be added to boiling water. The instant drinks contain skimmed milk powder and could affect the finished cake.

ALSO:

Nigella's Chocolate Malteser Cake (from Feast) does have a slightly liquid batter but this is necessary for the cake to have a moist texture once baked. The dry ingredients are folded in at the very end to reduce the risk of the gluten in flour being over-worked, which could cause the cake to become tough. If you are using a free-standing mixer then you can usually mix in the dry ingredients gently by using the lowest speed setting.

If you are folding in the flour by hand then you can try using a large metal spoon, or you could try gently mixing using a large metal balloon whisk. Sometimes the whisk can help to break up any small lumps. If you are adding the flour in batches then you could try a method favoured by many American recipes which is to mix in 1/3 of the dry ingredients/flour mixture, half of the liquid ingredients, another 1/3 of the dry ingredients, the remaining half of the liquid ingredients and finally the remaining 1/3 of dry ingredients.

You may find it is actually the cocoa powder that is forming the lumps. If this is the case then sift over and mix this in thoroughly on its own first, before folding in the flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda.