This cake obviously gets the wow factor from its decoration, entirely made up of buttercream frosting and Maltesers. The recipe below is Lorraine Pascale’s, but I know Nigella has made a version of it too and I have also found a variation of it in the Hummingbird Bakery cookbook. Lorraine goes as far as to say she used a ruler to place the Maltesers on the cake so that they would all be perfectly in line. I tried (without the ruler) and due to Maltesers being all of different shapes, the overall result is that of a cake covered in a mess of Maltesers – no lines, no geometrical shapes. Can I just say that it tastes equally as good? Also, a bit of a note here: this is not the easiest cake to slice once decorated as the Maltesers will just fly everywhere, so don’t be afraid to get messy!
Ingredients (for the cake)
- 150g unsalted butter, softened
- 250g caster sugar
- 150g self-raising flour
- 125g sour cream
- 4 eggs
- 50g cocoa powder
- 1 tsp baking powder
- pinch of salt
- vanilla extract
Ingredients (for the buttercream)
- 100g dark chocolate
- 550g icing sugar
- 250g unsalted butter, softened
- 2 tbsp milk
- 4 x 135g packets Maltesers (brown or white)
Method
- First of all, grease and line two 20cm cake tins and preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
- Cream the butter and sugar together using a big spoon (or a freestanding mixer or a food processor, whatever suits you best), then add the eggs one by one and beat well after each addition.
- Mix the flour, baking powder and cocoa powder together, then add 1 tablespoon with the last egg. This way the mixture will not curdle and hold its shape.
- Slowly add the sour cream and the rest of the flour mixture, beating well until fully combined, light and fluffy.
- Divide evenly between the cake tins, then bake for approximately 25-30 minutes. Check the sponges are cooked by inserting a skewer in the middle of each one. It should come out clean. They should also start shrinking from the sides.
- Take the cakes out of the oven and leave to cool completely on a cooling rack.
- Start making the buttercream. Finely chop the chocolate and melt it in a bowl over a pan of simmering water. Take off the heat and leave to cool.
- Tip the icing sugar into the mixer together with the butter and beat well until light and fluffy. Add the milk and then the chocolate. Keep on beating until very light and uniform in colour.
- To ice the cake, sit one of the sponges upside down of cake board or stand and then spread about a third of the buttercream on. Sandwich the other sponge on top and use the rest of the buttercream to ice the whole cake.
- Open the bags of Maltesers and have fun decorating the cake!
Baking with Attitude 