Hello all and happy holidays!
These past few months of mine have been filled with busy schedules, exciting milestones, fun, new experiences, and not so much blogging. To remedy that, I have a lot of new posts planned for the new year, but before that, I'm going to squeeze in a final post for 2016!
It's that time of the year - the holidays! So much fun, joy, family, and holiday cheer to go around. It's also true that many, MANY weddings happen in December. My husband and I just celebrated our fourth wedding anniversary on December 16th a few weekends back.
Let's talk sugar. The cake I made to honor the occasion was this moist, decadent chocolate malt cake. This is seriously the perfect cake for any celebration this holiday season - especially for the chocolate lovers in your life. The cake brings back fond memories of Ovaltine, a chocolate malt powder for milk, a drink that I used to have often during my childhood trips to Pakistan in the summers. I can still picture us siblings and cousins, crowded around an old fashioned television, watching old cartoons in Urdu while drinking Ovaltine. The use of the malted milk powder in the cake and frosting creates this soft chocolatey flavor which is quite similar to that of a whopper candy ball.
Even though malted milk powder is not that common in the states, you can still find it easily at any grocery store next to the regular chocolate powder. I stumbled upon this recipe in a Facebook group for Pakistani home chefs and my nostalgia was triggered by it. I've never had malted milk powder in the states, but ever since I bought it for this cake, Baby and I have been having it with our breakfast almost daily! It's that good. So without further ado, here are the ingredients and steps for this special chocolate malt cake.
from Maham Alavi
(serves 10-20 people)
Chocolate Cake:
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
1 cup Chocolate horlicks, Ovaltine, Milo, or any chocolate malted milk powder
1 cup vegetable oil
3 large eggs
1 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Preheat oven to 180c. Grease and flour 2 (9-inch) cake pans.
In the bowl, combine flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
In a small bowl, combine milk and malted milk powder, stirring to dissolve.
Add milk mixture, oil, and eggs to flour mixture, beating at medium speed until smooth. Add sour cream and vanilla, beating just until combined.
Pour batter evenly into prepared pans, and bake for 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Let cool in pans for 10 minutes. Remove cakes from pans and let cool completely on wire racks.
Chocolate Malt Frosting:
1 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
3/4 cup heavy whipping cream
1/2 cup malted milk powder
3 cups icing sugar
4-5 tbsp cream cheese
Spread frosting between layers and on top and sides of cooled cake.
Chocolate Decorations (optional):
6 oz chocolate chips or melting wafers
1 oz white chocolate chips or candy melts
6-10 strawberries
chocolate wafers, cookies, candies, and sprinkles
Melt chocolate chips and white chocolate candy melts in the microwave at 30 second intervals, stirring in between.
Wash and dry strawberries carefully. Dip the strawberries in melted chocolate and decorate with sprinkles or white chocolate drizzle. Set on a parchment paper lined baking sheet to set. Spread any remaining melted chocolate on a baking sheet and use a cookie cutter to cut out a heart or circle shape for writing. Break the remaining melted chocolate with a knife in a random fashion. Once all the chocolate decorations are set, arrange them on the frosted cake.
Serve the cake cool. Enjoy!
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