Ingredients

Chocolate Cake:

• 2 cups sugar
• 1 & 3/4 cups all purpose flour
• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, best quality available
• 1 & 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 & 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 3 eggs
• 3/4 cup whole milk (or use skim milk and add a little cream)
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup very hot water or hot coffee

Chocolate Malt Frosting:

• 3/4 cup malted milk powder
• 1/4 cup heavy whipping cream or half and half
• 1 cup unsalted butter left at room temperature about 10 minutes (but still cool)
• 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, best quality available
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 3 & 1/2-4 cups powdered sugar
• malted milk Easter eggs

Instructions

Chocolate Cake:

Heat oven to 350°F. Prepare 2 8-inch cake pans by rubbing the sides of the pans with a little oil or butter and dusting with flour. Line bottoms of pans with parchment paper.

In a large mixing bowl (the bowl of an electric mixer), stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla. Beat on medium speed for one minute. Stir in hot water or coffee (the batter will be thin, don’t worry, this is right).

Divide batter evenly between prepared pans. Bake until the top of the cake is smooth and has a slight dome and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 30-40 minutes. Let cool for 15 minutes in the pans and then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.

Make the Frosting:

In a small bowl add malt powder and heavy cream and stir well. This will make a thick paste. Set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat butter until smooth. Add cocoa powder and blend until well incorporated.

Add 1 cup of powdered sugar and continue to blend. Add the malt powder/cream mixture and blend well. Add vanilla. Add an additional 2 & 1/2 to 3 cups powdered sugar (while slowly mixing) until you’ve reached a nice thick consistency. The frosting should be thick, smooth and fluffy. If too thick to spread, add heavy cream or milk until spreadable consistency is reached.

Frost fully cooled caked as desired (notes below for cake pictured). Top with chopped or whole malt ball candies, if desired.

Chef’s Notes:

Look for malted milk powder near where the powdered chocolate milk mix is in the grocery store.

Adding coffee in the cake portion will not add coffee flavor to the finished cake, it simply enhances the chocolate flavor.

The cake pictured was baked in two 8″ cake pans. I also like to use 7″ pans to produce a slightly taller cake. This recipe would work perfectly well with either 6″, 7″ or 8″ cake pans, but the finished cake height will vary according to the pan size.

Feel free to bake this cake in a 9″x 13″ pan for a simple, single layer sheet cake.

The cake is fully baked when the top is smooth and has a slight dome, and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Recipe by Glorious Treats