Maltesers Cake

The very first time I made this cake I was in school, probably in year 10 or 11. I hadn't been baking for very long and I thought that all cocoa powdery substances were the same. So, what I did all those years ago was use hot chocolate mix instead of cocoa powder... I can see you wincing your faces because the truth is I do that whenever I remember that cake. Thankfully, my friends and I were no more the wiser and thought it was a delicious cake (thanks guys) and it was finished that afternoon. Fast forward ten or so years and I have the best quality cocoa powder going into this cake. This recipe is from Nigella Lawson's Feast, and I remember we had a copy of it in the food tech room in school and I photocopied the pages to take it home and make. I wish I still had that photocopy, but with everything online now, it's no hassle to get the recipe from Nigella's site. The method of making this cake is very easy, and that's because there isn't any creaming involved: the butter is melted on the hob. And even though Nigella makes the icing in a processor, you can easily do this with a bowl and whisk because the boiling hot water loosens the mixture for you. As for the flavour, I absolutely love the combination of malt and chocolate. I don't know what it is, but when you add malt to chocolate, it makes it so moreish and delectable. I remember in uni just eating giant bars of Teasers and never feeling like I'd had enough. This bake is magical in the way it brings those flavours in cake form. I'm not one that likes butter icing, but the malt flavour here hides the flavour of butter and is so mouth-wateringly good! 

After prepping two sandwich tins and turning on the oven, I put soft brown light sugar, caster sugar and the eggs into the bowl of the standalone mixer and with the whisk attachment, I had these mixing together. 

The sugars and the eggs had to whisk until they were light and frothy. This takes some time, so while they were mixing, I got on with the rest of the cake. 

In a small pan, I poured in some milk, dropped in some butter and added some spoons of Horlicks. 

Horlicks is just like hot chocolate but instead of chocolate, it's malt flavoured. My dad used to drink this a lot when I was a child, but he's more of a green tea man now. So this was placed on the hob to melt gently - you don't want this to boil. Once the butter had melted in fully, I took it off the heat and left it to the side. 

When I went to go check on the sugars and eggs, they had gotten light and frothy. 

With the mixer still on, I poured in the hot Horlicks mix.

The last thing to go in was the dry ingredients: flour, cocoa powder (not hot chocolate), baking powder and bicarb. They were folded into the wet ingredients. 

The cake batter for this recipe is quite wet, so don't worry if it's runny. Just make sure your cake tins, which should be loose-bottomed and not spring-form, are put on a tray in the oven. It shouldn't leak out, but do this if you want peace of mind. 

I poured the batter equally between the two tins and baked them for around 25-30 minutes. 

I tested the middle of the cakes with toothpicks to see if they were ready. When they came out clean, I removed the cakes from the oven. They had only peaked slightly, but they did sink back down as they cooled.

I left the cakes to cool completely before starting on the icing. 

Later on that evening, I got all my icing ingredients out. Unfortunately, I had the gruelling task of sifting the icing sugar to get all the lumps out. Okay, it's not that bad, but icing sugar literally gets everywhere and it's so hard to wipe from the floor because when it gets wet it just spreads, then you got to wipe the bottom of your slippers because it'll stick and spread around the house! But back to the icing, after about two minutes (even though it felt longer) I had sifted the icing sugar, more Horlicks and cocoa powder into a bowl. Nigella uses a processor to get all the lumps out and make this icing, so if you have one, please use it. 

I then added the butter and again with the whisk attachment, I mixed this until it resembled breadcrumbs. 

With the mixer on, I poured in hot water and the icing became smooth and creamy. 

Finally, it was time to assemble the cake! The bottom layer of the cake was placed on the cake stand and half of the butter icing was slathered on top. 

The top layer of cake was cushioned on top of the butter icing and the remaining half of the butter icing spread on it. You can make swirls or make it as smooth as ice, anyway that you want. Mine was the 'I'm hungry for cake now' approach.

And then I daintily arranged Maltesers on the top in a kind of spiral. Again, you can arrange them in whichever way you like, just on the edge, in the middle or cover every surface area. 

And that's it! Easy, isn't it? And the great thing is that it looks like a lot of effort was put into it. Like you made the Maltesers yourself, churned the butter and grew the cocoa beans. The positives to this are that you can make it as a celebration cake or as I did, as a weekend treat for family and friends. Like I said before, I don't normally like butter icing, but the malt works its magic and offsets the sweetness and creates an icing that tastes like it's got cream in it. The actual cake itself isn't that sweet, there's chocolate flavour but it isn't rich like a Devils' Food Cake. Coupled with the lightness of the cake, you may find yourself having more than one slice as my mum did. Light, bouncy and malty. 

Serves: 10 people

Prep Time: 25 minutes 

Baking Time: 25-30 minutes 

Ingredients:

    For the Cake:

• 150g Light Brown Sugar
• 100g Caster Sugar 
• 3 Eggs, at room temperature 
• 175ml Milk
• 15g Unsalted Butter
• 2tbsp Horlicks 
• 175g Plain Flour 
• 25g Cocoa Powder
• 1tsp Baking Powder
• 1/2tsp Bicarbonate of Soda

For the Icing:

• 250g Icing Sugar. sifted
• 45g Horlicks, sifted
• 1tsp Cocoa Powder, sifted
• 125g Unsalted Butter, softened 
• 2tbsp Boiling Water 

For the Top:

• 2x 37g Bags of Maltesers (get more if you want)

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 170 degrees. Butter and line two 21cm/8" sandwich tins with greaseproof paper. 
2. Whisk together the sugars and the eggs until they are light and frothy. If using a standalone mixer, you can leave this to mix while you get on with the next step. 
3. In a small pan, gently heat the milk, butter and Horlicks until the butter has melted. Make sure it doesn't boil. Once the butter has melted, remove from the heat and get back to the whisking sugars and eggs. 
4. When the sugars and eggs are frothy, pour in the hot Horlicks with the mixer still on and then fold in the dry ingredients: the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and bicarb. Pour and scrape into the two sandwich tins equally and bake in the oven for 25 minutes. Check to see if the cakes are ready with a knife or toothpick - they should come out clean when ready. Leave to cool completely. 
5. To make the icing, sift the icing sugar, Horlicks and cocoa powder into a large bowl. Drop the softened butter into this and whisk until it clumps together to form breadcrumbs. Pour in the hot water with the whisk still on and mix until a smooth creamy icing is made. 
6. To assemble the cake, place the bottom layer onto a serving dish. Spread on half of the icing and sit the top layer of cake on top of this. Spread the remaining half of the butter icing to create either a perfectly smooth look or a swirled one - do it whichever way you want. Finally, use the Maltesers to decorate the top, again, in any design that you'd like.