Apple Bundt Cake » »
Wow, it’s been quite a while since I last blogged, eh? January has been a bit of an odd month food-wise… I’ve been relying on old favourites—you know the sort of thing—that I can cook in my sleep. Innovative and experimental cooking has completely gone out of the window. Maybe I’ll get back into the groove, and perhaps not. I guess we’ll see.
Yesterday was my birthday – twenty-one again, thanks for asking – and in keeping with my own personal tradition, I made a cake. This was a particularly greedy act this year as my in-laws had already given me a gorgeous chocolate-fudge cake, but it’s probably bad luck to break traditions, especially those which involve cake.
This year’s cake comes from Nigella Lawson’s newest book, Feast. I’ve had my eye on this particular recipe (Chocolate Malteser Cake) since the book came out; I can’t resist the kitsch aspect of replicating flavours, and I was also intrigued by the actual recipe. The sponge only uses 15g of butter and I wanted to know if it was possible to produce a good sponge with so little fat.
Having made the cake, I’m not convinced that you can make a really good sponge this way. It was okay, but I’ve definitely eaten better sponges in terms of texture. I’ve never personally made a good sponge—I don’t know why, but every sponge I make is sub-standard—but I’ve eaten plenty and this wasn’t a great one. The chocolate malted taste came though very nicely though.
A small tip: when making the malted milk, add the milk very slowly to the Horlicks so that you don’t end up chasing lumps around the saucepan. This also ensures that you don’t get lumps of Horlicks floating to the top of the sponge.
The buttercream was sublime though; more malted than chocolatey and very, very good. Dave and I both commented that the cake was surprisingly un-chocolatey—the depth of colour in the sponge leads you to expect a very rich chocolate taste, but it’s nice and light. Like a Malteser, I guess. Speaking of Maltesers, they provided a great crunch, which is always good when you’re icing a cake with buttercream.
For me, the best thing about the cake was its looks; three different shades of brown, all layered together neatly. Brown is the new black!
Chocolate Malteser Cake
From “Feast”, Nigella Lawson (2004)
For the cake
150g soft brown sugar (muscavado 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.
Makes 8-10 slices.
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Wow this cake is beautiful! I can’t believe someone should be so creative! YUM
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Yet another January baby! Happy Birthday Angela! We missed you at SHF #4. Welcome back!
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…and a happy birthday!
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happy birthday
the cake looks amazing- where did you manage to find horlick’s powder?
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Cooking Light’s version of a genoise never fails me and is a wonderful, very adaptable sponge. I am particularly partial to their “Triple Lemon Genoise with Raspberries.” A bit labor intensive, but worth it. My birthday was the 27th, btw, but I celebrated my 23rd for the for the 10th time this year, so I’m 2 years older than you!
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Happy Birthday!! And, that cake looks so, so good! I love the idea of a chocolate malted cake…mmmm. The buttercream looks so good, I could probably just eat it with the chocolate malt balls alone!
(By the way, I always fail with sponge cakes as well…just can’t figure out what my problem is!)
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I have this book and thought that this cake looked good too. I love Malteasers too altho’ they are not that easy to find in New Jersey. I know of two places that sell them – Wegman’s in their International section and a store named Garry’s in Basking Ridge. Otherwise, they are non existent in New Jersey.
Thanks for letting us know about the sponge. I don’t intend to bake a cake for awhile but I will try this one.
I have been known to make a good sponge though. I have also been known to do a lot of great baking, and to be a very big fan of Nigella’s.
Thanks for the review of the recipe.
RisaG
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Hi from Dublin! I like your site. I came across it in December when I was searching for mince pie recipes and subsequently made Nigella’s mince pies (and appley mincemeat) after reading about them here. Everyone loved them so thanks for the tip.
Have you tried the Chocolate Orange Cake recipe from “Feast”? My Mum’s a coeliac and as that’s the only gluten-free cake in the chapter, I made it for New Year’s Day. It’s suprisingly delicious; no butter or flour but it doesn’t taste like a ‘healthy cake’, just really good – even to someone who’s not usually a big fan of the choc-orange flavour combo.
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Happy Birthday!
The cake looks good. I have never attempted
a sponge cake.
My question is what is Horlocks?
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Thank-you Viv! I’m sorry that I missed it – I should go and see what the next one is….
Thank-you Jo!
Hi TP – thanks! Horlicks powder is sold in almost all grocery stores/supermarkets in the UK, so I had no trouble finding it.
Hi Kim! I’ve looked at that recipe quite a few times now, but never had an occasion to make it. I’ll give it a try sometime this summer – thanks for the recommendation!
Hi Risa – yeah, finding Maltesers is quite a challenge in the US. Glad you’ve got a good source for them! Enjoy the cake if you do try it
Hi Audrey – Cool! I’m glad that you and your family enjoyed the mince pies
I haven’t tried the chocolate-orange cake yet, but I’m a huge fan of the clementine cake it was based upon (from How To Eat).
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Hi Sue – Horlicks is a malted milk powder; usually you would mixe it with hot milk as a bed-time drink, but it can be used to provide a malted flavour in baked goods too. I’m told that it’s hard to find in the US, but you could undoubtably substitute regular malted milk powder.
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Hi Angela! Happy Birthday. I hope you enjoyed it. I missed your site this month. I was a bit anxious that you weren’t coming back.
I *love* malted milk powder in every shape and form. This cake looks absolutely amazing! Yes, I agree with you that brown is the new black. Perhaps I’ll make this cake too for my birthday this February.
But I will find a different sponge OR make a regular butter cake.
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Decadence if anything is! And Happy Belated Birthday to you Angela!
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Happy belated birthday Angela! thanks for the recipe—would try it with a different sponge cake recipe thou, to make it more moist and buttery…yum!
It was deliocious i loved it i couldnt stop loking at it then 4 about an hour i ate it was YUMMYY
Hello from the UK! I made this cake at the weekend and I thought it was surprisingly moist considering how little fat it has in it. Only downside was that it had lumps of uncooked flour in it (although I am thinking maybe it was undissolved Horlicks after reading your blog). I didn’t sift the flour. Do you think this made a difference? I would like to make it perfectly next time so would welcome any suggestions.
Hi Helen! God, I made this cake ages ago. Hmm… let me think. I would probably sift the Horlicks, too, if I were to make this cake again. And definitely sift the flour at least once. Incidentally, other people have said that the recipe was corrected in later additions to include more butter, so you might like to flick through a copy in a bookshop and check!
I have made this cake hundreds of times as my kids just love it and never get sick of it. The sponge also keeps very well for a few days as I have even iced (sugarpasted actually)for a birthday cake( on top of the malted buttercream of course). I have given the recipe to friends who love it as well and they continue to make it too.
Hi, I tried making this at the weekend. It didn’t rise, was in the oven ages, & still was a bit dampp with gooey patches. I know my oven was the right temp., & am a bit of a baker! Any ideas? Do you change the recipe at all? Thanks, Helen
Hi Helen! Sorry to hear that you had trouble with this one. It’s been ages (years) since I made it, but I think I would have noted down on the recipe if I had made any changes… It almost sounds like the flour didn’t get mixed in evenly—that’s the only thing I can think of to account for gooey patches.