Chocolate Malt Cake

This cake has it all: three layers of malted milk – soaked vanilla malt cake, sandwiched between and surrounded by silky chocolate malt frosting, topped with chopped malted milk balls. Plus, it’s personal sized! This cake is only four inches in diameter, which means you can have it all to yourself.

Vanilla Malt Cake

Author’s note: The recipes for these cake rounds and for the malted milk soak are modified from a cake recipe over at Hummingbird High and is posted with permission.

Ingredients

1 cup cake flour

1 tsp baking powder

2 tsp malted milk powder

1/4 cup salted butter, room temperature, or 1/4 cup unsalted butter plus 1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/3 egg white (I recommend using pasteurized egg whites, like egg beater’s egg whites, so you can accurately measure out 1 1/3 egg whites)

1/3 cup whole milk

Instructions

Preheat your oven to 350°F. Line two 4 inch round cake pans with parchment paper rounds and spray with nonstick baking spray. Whisk together the cake flour, malted milk powder, and baking powder in a medium bowl. Using a hand mixer or a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment beat the butter and sugar on medium speed for 3 minutes, until light in color and fluffy. Add the egg whites and vanilla and beat on medium until just incorporated, sparing down the sides of the bowl as needed. With the mixer on low speed, add the half the dry ingredients, then the whole milk, then the last half of the dry ingredients. Beat just until incorporated (you don’t want to overmix; if you do your cake will go from fluffy and airy to chewy and dense). Pour enough batter into each cake pan such that each pan is just over halfway full. Tap the pans on the counter a few times to pop any large air bubbles stuck in the batter. Bake the cake layers for about 20 minutes (times will vary depending on your oven) or until a skewer inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean or with just a few crumbs (no batter). Remove cake pans from the oven and allow to cool for 15 minutes before removing the cake from the pans. Cool layers on a wire rack until they reach room temperature.

Malted Milk Soak

Ingredients

1/3 cup whole milk

4 tsp malted milk powder

Instructions

Whisk until the malt powder has dissolved into the milk. The mixture will be a beige color.

Chocolate Malt Frosting

Author’s note: This frosting is the work of Amy over at She Wears Many Hats and is posted with permission.

Ingredients

½ cup butter, at room temperature*

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups powdered sugar (confectioner’s sugar)

½ cup cocoa powder

½ cup malted milk powder

7 tablespoons milk (I used whole milk)

*if using unsalted butter, add a pinch or two of salt to taste

Piping bag fitted with a medium-sized round tip

Instructions

Using a hand mixer or a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment beat the butter and sugar on medium speed. Add the vanilla extract, cocoa powder, and malted milk powder and mix to incorporate. At this point the frosting will look very dry and be hard to mix. This is where the milk comes in. Add in the milk one tablespoon at a time, beating between additions, until the frosting is glossy and smooth. Spoon about 1/2 cup of the frosting into a piping bag fitted with a medium-sized tip.

Assembly

What you will need:

Cardboard cake rounds

Pastry Brush

Revolving cake stand

offset spatula

cake scraper

A box of malt balls

Instructions:

After the cake layers have cooled to room temperature, place one of the layers on a revolving cake stand. With one hand firmly on top of the cake, trim the rounded dome off of the cake layer using a serrated knife. You’ll want to rotate the cake as you cut into it so that you can cut all the way around cleanly. Next, cut the cake layer in half using the same procedure. Repeat with the second cake layer. You should now have four cake layers. You can discard the domes, eat them (that’s what I do!), or crumble them up and use them for cake pops.

Using a pastry brush, brush the malted milk soak all over the cut surfaces of the cake layers. Be generous! The soak is what will give the cake most of its malty flavor. Let the malted milk soak in for around 5 minutes before continuing assembly.

Put a four inch cardboard cake round in the middle of the rotating cake stand. Put a small dollop of frosting in the middle of the cake round. This will hold the first cake layer firmly in place. Put one of the cake layers directly on top of it, soak side up. Pipe a line of frosting around the edge of the cake layer. This will form a “dam” to prevent the additional frosting you’re going to put on the cake layer from spilling out onto the sides of the cake. Now take a big dollop frosting from the bowl and use an offset spatula to apply as much as is needed to fill in the border you’ve created with frosting. Take another cake layer, cut side up, and press it down lightly on top of the layer of frosting. Repeat the procedure with the frosting and the remaining two cake layers. When you place the last cake layer on top of the cake, cover the cake lightly with plastic wrap and put it in the refrigerator for at least half an hour. This will solidify the frosting so that when you apply frosting to the outside of the cake the cake layers won’t slide around.

Take the cake out of the fridge and set it on the revolving cake stand. Using an offset spatula, apply a crumb coat of frosting. A crumb coat is a thin layer of frosting that prevents crumbs from coming off into the thicker layer of frosting that you will apply next. Make sure to cover the whole cake with this thin layer. Then place the cake bake in the fridge for twenty minutes to solidify the crumb coat.

Take the cake out of the fridge once again and set it on the revolving cake stand. Using an offset spatula, put about 1/3 cup of frosting on top of the cake and spread the frosting evenly over the surface of the cake until it overhangs just slightly over the edge. Now use the offset spatula to put a generous amount of frosting all over the sides of the cake, connecting it with the overhang. Turn the cake stand as you apply the frosting to make this step easier. Things are going to look pretty sloppy at this point, but you’re going to use a cake scraper to clean things up. Take the smooth edge of the cake scraper and orient it parallel to the side of the cake. Holding the cake scraper against the side of the frosting, rotate the cake stand and let the cake scraper smooth away all of the bumps and seams in the frosting. Now clean off the scraper with hot water, dry it, and do the top. Holding the scraper at a 40 degree angle to the top of the cake, pull the scraper in towards the center of the cake, pulling excess frosting from the edge in with it. Continue to do this until the surface of the top of the cake is smooth.

Now, chop the malt balls with a sharp paring knife. Chop most of the malt balls into eighths, some into fourths, and a few into halves. Sprinkle the malt balls over the cake to form a crescent shape, with the smallest malt balls at the tails of the crescent and the larger pieces nearer the center. You’re done! The cake can be stored in the refrigerator for about a week.

-Sam Cordero