Friday 16 November 2012

Chocolate Malt Cake



Another Children in Need Day, another evening spent making fairy cakes with wholemeal flour because I forgot and was too late to get to the shop. Ditto, contemplating whether I could use cornflour to bulk out the fast disappearing icing sugar (ditto) and make it stretch to the 11th and twelfth cakes, on the basis that if I threw on enough sprinkles, no one would notice. These and other less creative thoughts were running through my head at 10.30 p.m. last night, but it's not my substandard fairy cakes that I want to share with you this morning.


No. What I want to share with you is the chocolate malt cake that is most definitely staying, selfishily, at home for my own purposes. For some reason, this cake popped into my head yesterday morning and wouldn’t leave. I’m not sure I’ve ever made it before, but I knew I had it scribbled down somewhere. Not just chocolate, but Ovaltine too. I’m not sure why I have such a fondness for Ovaltine – it’s not something that I remember as particularly featuring in my childhood, the whole ‘Ovaltiney’ thing being before my time, but somehow it’s there. In this cake, it adds a malty undertone to what is essentially a chocolate cake, but it’s a very welcome undertone.  



Dusted with icing sugar, still warm from the oven - a warm blanket of a cake, which was just what I needed last night, what with IT Support the Husband still away. So what if the Children in Need cakes were iced in a sub-standard fashion...




And although I've alluded to it just now, I must stress that if you can get your hands on this cake before it has completely cooled from the oven, it is well worth it...



Chocolate Malt Cake



350g plain chocolate, chopped (or use buttons/drops of cooking chocolate – Bloc is good)
200g unsalted butter
7tbsp Ovaltine
150g light muscovado sugar
3 large eggs
2tsp vanilla extract
160g wholemeal self raising flour
Icing sugar for dusting 

Grease and line a 20cm square tin, and pre-heat the oven to 1800C. 

In a pan, melt 200g of the chocolate and the butter, remove from the heat and allow to cool slightly, whileyou blend the Ovaltine with 2 tbsp water, and then, in a large bowl (using a mixer if you have one), beat together the eggs and sugar till light and foamy. Beat in the Ovaltine mixture, then the melted chocolate & butter, and the vanilla extract. Stir in the flour, then fold in the remaining 150g of chocolate pieces. Scrape the batter in to your prepared tin and bake for about 40 minutes till risen and just firm. 

Allow to cool (but not too much) on a rack, then dust with icing sugar and cut into squares. 


Not that you need to put it on a plate, you understand...

13 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Yum indeed - there's some left if you want to pop in... but as I'm home alone, I don't rate its chances of being around for much longer

      Delete
  2. Another absolutely delicious looking cake! Really like the malty addition (and the thought of eating it warm!) One of my favourite things when I was growing up in Northern Ireland was Veda bread which is malted. Sadly it's very hard to find here. Nothing quite like a thick slice of Veda toast dripping with butter (hungry now) :) x

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Am very much liking the sound of Veda bread - and the dripping butter!

      Delete
  3. This sounds delicious. I do like Ovaltine.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. it's even more comforting in a cake than stirred up with warm milk!

      Delete
  4. oh my goodness, that looks fabulous! I think ovaltine tastes a bit like malteasers, so I can see how this would work!

    ReplyDelete
  5. That sounds amazing! I have just found you through Love All Blogs and was immediately drawn to your amazing recipe book collection that really does look a lot like mine!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ah - the world needs more cookery books :-)

      Delete
  6. Ooh that looks good! looks like a cake/brownie hybrid - exactly what the world has been waiting for!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Indeed it is - and it has only improved with a couple of days in the tin...

      Delete
  7. Just visiting from funkie foodies, OMG, that looks fantastic!

    ReplyDelete

I LOVE comments - please leave one. Unfortunately, I have been getting hideous amounts of SPAM so please can you do the word verification thingy?

UA-44695690-1