Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Malt Frosting
Servings: 10
Calories: 770kcal
A perfectly moist and flavorful chocolate cake is topped with delicious chocolate malt frosting!
Print Recipe
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 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 3 eggs
- 3/4 cup whole milk or use skim milk and add a little cream
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 2 teaspoons 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 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3 1/2-4 cups powdered sugar
Instructions
Prepare the cake
- Heat oven to 350*F.
- Prepare 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. I baked the cake shown in two 7" pans and baked them 35-40 minutes. You will need to adjust the bake time based on the pans you choose.
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 and 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.
- Frost fully cooled caked as desired (notes below for cake pictured). Top with chopped or whole malt ball candies, if desired.
Notes
Look for malted milk powder near powdered chocolate milk mix.
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 7" cake pans. I 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.
Nutrition
Calories: 770kcal | Carbohydrates: 112g | Protein: 8g | Fat: 36g | Saturated Fat: 24g | Cholesterol: 110mg | Sodium: 534mg | Potassium: 289mg | Fiber: 4g | Sugar: 87g | Vitamin A: 777IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 116mg | Iron: 3mg