Malteser Cake

Just three days after making the Honey Bee Cake, it's now my middle son's birthday, and he has chosen the Malteser Cake from Feast.

This one takes a little more concentration because you can't just put all the ingredients in the processor. Eggs and sugar are beaten together in a bowl; milk, butter and Horlicks are heated in a pan, and flour, cocoa, baking powder and bicarb are mixed together in another bowl.


Then the hot milk mixture is beaten into the egg mixture, and the flour mixture is folded in at the end. The runny mixture is divided between two 20 cm baking tins, and cooked for 25 mins at 170 C.

I think my sponges didn't quite rise as well as they should, and they were bubbly-looking on the surface. Something didn't quite go right here, but I tested a tiny bit and it tasted fine.

The buttercream is made by beating up icing sugar, butter, Horlicks and cocoa and then you sandwich the sponges together with half the buttercream and then spread the rest on the top.

(Or you get Birthday Boy to do this bit for you, and also ask him to decorate the cake with Maltesers while he's there.)

This cake tastes just like a giant Malteser!

It turned out very well, even with my strange-looking sponges. I can imagine this cake becoming a birthday regular.

Ingredients:
Cake:
150 g soft brown sugar
100 g caster sugar
3 eggs
175 ml milk
15 g butter
2 tbsp Horlicks
175 g plain flour
25 g cocoa, sieved
1 tbsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp bicarb

Icing and decoration:
250 g icing sugar (sieved or make icing in food processor)
1 tsp cocoa
45 g Horlicks
125 g soft unsalted butter
2 tbsp boiling water
around 80 g Maltesers (I bought a big pack)