Chocolate Malteser Cake

For the cake:
150g soft light brown sugar
100g caster sugar
3 eggs
175ml milk
15g butter
2tbsp Horlicks
175g plain flour
25g cocoa, sieved
1tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
For the icing and decoration:
250g icing sugar
1tsp cocoa
45g Horlicks
125g soft unsalted butter
2tbsp boiling water
2X37g packets Maltesers
Preheat to 170c. Butter and line two 20cm loose-bottomed sandwich cake tins with baking parchment.
Whisk together the sugar and eggs till light and frothy. Heat the milk, butter and Horlicks powder in a small saucepan until the butter melts, and is hot but not boiling. Beat the Horlicks mixture into the eggs and sugar, and the fold in the flour, cocoa, baking powder, and bicarbonate of soda. Divide the batter between the two cake 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 for 5-10 min then turn out of their tins. Allow to cool completely.
Put the icing sugar, cocoa, and Horlicks, in the processor, and blitz to remove all the lumps. Add the butter and process again. Stop, scrape down and start again, pouring the boiling water down the funnel with the motor running till you have a smooth buttercream.
Sandwich the cold sponges with half the buttercream, and then ice the top with what is left. Stud the outside edge with a ring of Maltesers, or decorate any way that pleases you.

“Maltesers” are British “Woppers” (the malted milk ball candy, not the fast food hamburger). So this, in America, would be a Wopper Cake. That said, I’m not sure there is an American equivalent for Horlicks. It’s a malted milk drink that comes in a powder like instant hot chocolate. I made this cake because my dad is a big chocolate fan, and my stepmom is a big horlicks fan, and both of them had birthdays this month, and are out here visiting.

Birthday cakes are fun to make.

This one was from a Nigella Lawson recipe. It was really good. The interesting thing was that you could really taste the chocolate and the malt almost separate from eachother. It was a chocolate cake, and a malted milk cake, at the same time. The frosting rocked too. It was also way fun to decorate.

Also, very fun to hear my two year old say “cake” over and over and over again, in a voice that is shocked, amazed, hopeful, and full of love gratitude and expectation. You wouldn’t think they’d be so complex at this age.