Chocolate Malt Cake {Birthday Cake}

I turned the big two zero on Monday and to celebrate I made myself a cake. Alright Hannah and I made me a cake if I'm giving credit where credit is due n all that. I would say this cake was a no-brainer since hot chocolicks is my fave hot drink (a cracking combination of hot chocolate and horlicks mmmm) but until about two years ago I HATED chocolate cake *pause for gasps of horror and the shock that comes with that sentence*. It's true. I did in fact detest the ol' chocolate cake. Until I tried Hannah's mum's, which is without a doubt the best chocolate cake I have ever shoved down me throat (if y'all want to try it take a drive to her café in Catterick it's splendid), thus chocolate cake dressed head to toe in a thick layer of malty buttercream had to be my birthday cake. I don't think I have to explain the maltesers on top!!!

I am not particularly overjoyed by the photos I took of this cake, they are so dark but there is little I can do about that, living in rainy Liverpool at this time of year - I pretty much have my lights on from 4pm onwards, it's miserable. Despite the blog neglecting, (second year should have come with a no-time-for-anything-not-even-enough-time-to-write-up-your-lecture-notes warning) I didn't cut my birthday cake on my birthday because by the time I'd finished decorating it darkness had fallen and there wasn't a chance in hell I'd get a half decent pic no sir so boohooo I didn't eat any cake on my birthday just so I could take pictures the next day and post it on here. If that doesn't make up for the blog neglecting I don't know what does. Maybe this really crappy like sensationally crappy .gif of me blowing out the candles?

Miserable weather aside my birthday was awesome, Hannah bought me tickets to see MS MR in Manchester at the end of the month, amongst other groovy things, I am so excited as they are dead good so check them out:

This chocolate cake is moreish without being sickly (ie perfect - ego can be forgiven because it's my birthday, surely hehe), moist and fluffy and the buttercream is basically a fantastic concoction of maltiness (deffo not a word), crushed maltesers and sugar - three pretty top notch ingredients.

A few months back, the wonderful people at Tala (a British bakewear brand) sent me their Icing Syringe Set (thank you thank you thank you!). I have had an icing syringe set before but it was plastic, the suction was poor and I ended up wasting a lot of icing that just couldn't be pushed out of the syringe so I must admit that I was a bit apprehensive about trying Tala's product. I had a bit of a mess around with it and I was so impressed by the ease of using it, how it allowed me to create really groovy patterns with very little effort, how easy it was to clean and how unlike the other syringe it was. This post isn't really a fab representation of what this icing syringe set can do because all I did on this cake was create little midget-gem-looking mounds on top but I do have lots of icing extravaganza ideas floating around in my somewhat distracted brain!

I still don't have any working scales so the measurements used vary between imperial ounces, US cups and I even snuck in a sneaky grams measurement (sorry).

Ingredients

For the chocolate cake

6 oz unsalted butter (3/4 cup)
6 oz white granulated sugar (3/4 cup)
3 medium free-range eggs
4 oz self-raising flour (just less than 1 cup)
2 oz cocoa powder (roughly 1/2 cup)
1 heaped tsp instant coffee in as much water as it takes to dissolve it (you should only need a drop)
1/3 tsp vanilla bean paste
1/2 tsp baking powder

For the malted buttercream

3/4 cup salted butter
11 tbsp icing sugar (powdered sugar)
7 tbsp instant malty drink e.g. Horlicks
3/4 of a 130 g bag of maltesers

To top

Maltesers
1/4 cup salted butter
4 tbsp icing sugar
1 tbsp cocoa powder
1 tbsp Horlicks

Directions

1. Pre heat oven to 180 degrees C and grease/line a 16 cm cake tin at least 7 cm deep. In a mixing bowl cream together the butter and sugar then beat in the eggs. Sift in the flour and cocoa powder, mix, then add the coffee, vanilla bean paste and baking powder. Mix well until all ingredients are evenly combined and the mixture has lightened in colour. Spoon mixture into tin and bake for 45 - 50 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean.
2. To make the malty frosting cream the butter with the icing sugar and Horlicks. If this mixture is too thick thin it down to a consistency suitable for palette knifing with milk, adding 1 tsp at a time, if the mixture is too loose add more icing sugar 1 tbsp at a time. Roughly crush the maltesers in a sandwich bag with a rolling pin and add them to the buttercream mixture.
3. When the cake has completely cooled, use a palette knife to generously cover the cake in malty buttercream. Place the cake in an airtight container in the fridge to allow the icing to set a little.
4. Make up the decorative chocolate malty buttercream by combining the butter sugar, cocoa powder and Horlicks until a smooth paste forms. Use an icing syringe to decorate the cake with midget-gem shaped blobs, alternating blobs with matesers, or however you see fit really. Decorate in whatever way you fancy!
5. Top with candles, order everyone to sing happy birthday to you at a volume great enough to warrant a noise complaint or two, then serve up and get stuck in!! Happy birthday to meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee :)