Make/Bake 11: Chocolate Malteaser Cake

This year is quite a special one - this is the year I turn the dreaded Three-Zero. I'm not looking forward to turning 30 at all, so much so that I'm having nothing to do with organising an event to "celebrate" (leaving it to M and my friends) and I am referring to it as being 29+1. The only thing that is making it slightly more bearable is that I'll hopefully be getting a lovely shiny new Kenwood mixer/processor. There's nothing wrong with my old one, it's just getting a lot of use  at the moment so I want to get one which has a larger capacity!

As it's the year I turn 30, it's also the year lots of my friends turn 30 so I'm planning and making lots of cakes! The first of my old school friends to turn 30 is the lovely Jo who has two gorgeous kids and a bump on the way. As a birthday treat I said I'd bake her a cake of her choice and being a typical female she asked for anything with copious amounts of chocolate. I'd spotted a chocolate cake section in the Nigella Book "Feast" and thought I'd give them a sample so picked out the rather delicious sounding Chocolate Malteaser Cake. It was made by whipping up eggs and sugar initially and I typically make cakes through the creaming (mixing butter and sugar first) or all-in-one method so I thought it would be good to see which I preferred. I think it could be a winner! I found the batter was quite runny but it rose beautifully in the oven and produced a lovely moist cake.

Preheat the oven to 170°C and lightly grease 2 sandwich tins (20cm). The Cake involves whisking 150g Soft Light Brown Sugar, 100g Caster Sugar and 3 large eggs together until light and frothy. In a saucepan you melt 175ml milk, 15g butter and 2 tbsp horlicks until it's all melted but not boiling and then mixed in with the eggs and sugar. You then fold in 175g plain flour, 25g cocoa, 1 tsp baking powder and 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda. Divide between the tins and bake for about 25-30 until the cakes are springy to the touch.

What really intrigued me was the way Nigella made her buttercream - she mixed icing sugar (250g), horlicks (45g for the Malteaser taste) and cocoa powder ( 1 tsp) in a food processor until it was all uniform and powdery and then adds 125g butter and whizzes it back up again. The final step is adding 2 tbsp boiling water until it becomes a smooth buttercream. One huge positive was the fact I didn't need to sieve the icing sugar (my most hated task). I did find the buttercream wasn't very light and fluffy though so maybe I'd just use the processor on the icing sugar and follow my usual method next time.

A sandwich of chocolate malteaser buttercream and a sprinkling of Malteaser finished the cake off perfectly and it made for a perfect belated birthday cake!