chocolate malteser cake

Ok, so what twit suddenly decided to start calling (Victoria) sponge sandwich cakes "naked cakes"? Did I miss something in a blog post one day? 

I'm sorry, I don't get it. Be gone with your daft, trendy, food lingo. Here I present to you a chocolate cake with chocolate malt butter icing and a lot of maltesers. I don't need to call it "naked" to make it sound and look more exciting or glamorous, I think the dense malteser topping is doing that for me!

I baked this dinky 6 inch round cake for my friend's 30th birthday on Monday. He likes chocolate and I'm still slightly obsessed with malt chocolate icing so I combined the two. My icing turned out completely different this time. It was darker in colour and more fudgey, not at all moussey like the batch from a few weeks ago. I must have weighed something incorrectly as I was throwing it together quickly. It was still incredibly tasty, just different.  

The birthday boy was definitely delighted with his chocolate cake. The crunchy maltesers were a lovely accompaniment to the soft, fluffy sponge and fudgey icing.

Chocolate malteser cake

chocolate sponges:

6oz/ 170g margarine/ butter

6oz/ 170g soft light brown sugar

3 large eggs

5oz/ 140g self raising flour

1oz/ 30g cocoa powder

2 tablespoons of milk

malt chocolate icing:

125g softened butter

200g icing sugar

50g horlicks/ovaltine malt powder

25g cocoa powder

2 tablespoons of boiling water

A bag of maltesers for decoration

Preheat the oven to 180C/160 Fan/Gas 4. Grease and line two 6 inch round cake tins with greaseproof paper. Beat together the margarine and sugar for about 5 minutes until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well between each addition. Add a tablespoon of the flour mixture with the last egg to stop the cake mixture from curdling. Tip in the remaining flour with the cocoa and milk and mix until everything is fully combined. 

Divide the mixture between the two tins (they will be quite full!) and bake in the centre of the oven for about 30 minutes until the cakes are well risen, firm to touch and a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. Leave to cool in the tins for a few minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to finish cooling. 

For the icing, beat together the butter and icing sugar for about 5 minutes until light and fluffy. Mix the horlicks, cocoa and water into a thick paste and beat into the icing sugar mixture. Mix well and use the icing to generously fill and top the cake. Decorate the cake with a pile of maltesers for full on chocolate malt indulgence.