Malted chocolate layer cake recipes

There’s a double hit of malt in this sweetly chocolatey layer cake – first from the malt extract folded into the cake batter and through the buttercream, and then from the Maltesers crushed and strewn between the layers. You can find malt extract in any high-street health food shop, and in a few of the larger supermarkets, too: it’s sold in jars, has a rich brown colour and a consistency somewhere between the sticky thickness of honey and black treacle.

Serves 10
For the cake
250g salted butter, softened
200g soft light brown sugar
125g malt extract
2 tsp vanilla extract
4 large eggs
300g plain flour
3 tsp baking powder

To ice
250g salted butter, softened
40g cocoa powder
3 tbsp malt extract
2 tsp vanilla extract
350g icing sugar
1-2 tbsp milk
150-250g Maltesers, crushed roughly

1 Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/gas mark 4. Grease two round 20cm cake tins and line their bases with baking parchment.

2 Beat the butter and brown sugar together for a good 2-3 minutes, until smooth and light. Stir in the malt extract and vanilla, then add the eggs one at a time, whisking well between each one. Don’t worry if the mixture is a little curdled at this point – it’ll come together smoothly as soon as the dry ingredients go in.

3 Mix the flour and baking powder together before adding to the wet mixture. Beat briefly to combine and give a smooth, loose batter. Divide the batter between the two prepared cake tins and bake for 25-35 minutes, or until the cakes are well risen and golden brown. A small knife inserted into the centre of each cake should emerge with no more than a crumb or two stuck to it. Leave the cakes to cool for 10 minutes in their tins before unmoulding them and transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

4 Once the cakes are completely cool (and you really do need to be patient here, because if cut while warm they’ll just crumble), slice each layer horizontally in half to give a total of four thin layers.

5 For the buttercream, beat the butter, cocoa powder, malt and vanilla extracts until smooth. Add the icing sugar a little at a time (add it all at once and it’ll take forever to work the ingredients together) and mix until the buttercream is thick and well combined. Add enough milk to loosen the buttercream to a lighter, spreadable consistency – it ought to be soft enough to spread over the delicate cake layers without ripping them.

6 Spread a fifth of the buttercream over each of the four cake layers. Sandwich the sponges together, sprinkling a few crushed Maltesers between the layers. Spread the remaining buttercream around the sides of the cake in a thin layer. Decorate the top of the cake with crushed or whole Maltesers however you want.