This week’s Sweet Melissa Sundays selection is Chocolate Malted Layer Cake. I love malt-flavored treats and have many fond memories of eating them when I was small: malt balls from the bulk section of the health food store, Chocolate Malted Crunch ice cream from Thrifty Drug Store (25 cent cones!), Carnation frozen chocolate malts, milkshakes – you name it, I liked it! More recently I’ve been indulging in Ciao Bella’s Malted Milk Ball Gelato, which is awesome. Suffice to say, I was excited to see this cake appear on the SMS schedule. However, I was a little on the fence about the chocolate frosting. I think when I’d seen the name of the recipe, I was hoping that the icing would be more malt than chocolate (an entire pound!). I debated using another frosting, but I decided that in the spirit of the group, I should use the recipe in the book. I mean, we’ve already baked the devil’s food cake portion (which is a great basic chocolate cake to have in your arsenal) of the recipe a couple of other times, so it wouldn’t really be like a new Sweet Melissa recipe if I made a different frosting.
The bad news: my instinct was correct and the frosting was a bit too chocolaty for my liking. The recipe did call for milk chocolate, which I never buy since generally we don’t like it, and I used semisweet, so the darker chocolate could have put the chocolaty-ness over the top. The good news: Josh, who isn’t as crazy about malt-flavored concoctions, loved the cake. I had been slightly worried that this might actually be a dessert he didn’t like (he doesn’t eat the malt ball gelato and typically if there are pints of ice cream in the freezer, they disappear fast), so it all worked out. It’s much better if he consumes more of the decadent treats around here! I wish my dad lived closer and I could give him some of the cake, because I know this would be one he’d love too.
I thought this was a fun cake to make. In addition to being rich, the icing was very gooey to work with and I felt that it was kind of hard to slather on the sides of the cake (though by the time I was finishing up frosting the cake, it had thickened a bit). We actually had a blackout while I was frosting the cake, but luckily it was during the day and I was almost done. Josh rated the cake a 9 for Deliciousness, but I think I’m going to go with an 8 and a 4.5 for Effort, for an EDR of 1.77. Many thanks to Nicole of Sweet Tooth for selecting this wonderful cake and also for giving me an excuse to purchase malt powder and malt balls (I only made a half recipe, so I have some left to make other treats). You can find the recipe on Nicole’s site and visit the SMS blogroll to see what the rest of the bakers thought of the cake.
14 comments:
looks gorgeous- sorry to have missed this past week. I love all things malt but also love chocolate...so you've got me curious about that frosting!
The frosting does look interesting. I used canned frosting - embarrassed, but true! Looks like an amazing cake though. Glad that you liked it!
If you have the time, drop by the bake sale! You'll get to meet other food bloggers in the bay area and listen to Rose Levy Beranbaum talk about her new book. Hope to see you there!
Your cake looks absolutely delicious, Margo! I didn't like malted milk balls when I was little, but I've grown to love them, and this cake looks soooo good to me! I'm glad Josh enjoyed it, and maybe you can repeat it sometime for your dad? It always makes me a little sad when I bake something that I know a family member would love and they're not around to taste it.
Such a pretty cake Margot! I love the way you scattered the malted milk balls on the top! I don't remember ever having malt-flavored treats as a kid and even now, I'm just kind of "eh" on them. That probably explains why I just used Ovaltine in the frosting instead of picking up malted milk powder :)
Your cake is beautiful!! I thought the chocolate frosting was over the top, too. So I just filled the cake with it and added vanilla buttercream. I love the crushed malt balls on top, such a great detail to your cake!
looks great- and i love your footed cake plate!
Gorgeous picture of the slice of cake. I too love malt. Every year I look forward to the malted robin's eggs at Easter.
What a cute cake! I should make more minis and half recipes like you do. I'm not a malt fan (though I was as a child) so I sat this one out.
Your cake slice has me druling!!! It really showcases the texture of the cake. I was on vacation when the Devil's Food Cake was up so I never got to try it. I love it! Did you put malt balls between the cake layers too? YUM!!! What a great idea.
This looks like a chocolate extravaganza! I love malt balls - I'll have to look for that gelato!
What a lovely cake. I love malted chocolate too :)
Katie xox
Malt flavor treats are wonderful...I cannot have malted balls in the house for that reason (they never last long!)
Your cake looks gorgeous and I love the scattering of crushed malted balls on top.
Margot your cake looks amazing! I'm thrilled to be part of SMS. I just spent the past 40 minutes pursuing your past SMS treats. Your photos are gorgeous and I love your rating system!
Sorry, I missed your post last week! Our cakes looked very similiar - great minds think alike!
Your cake is gorgeous and I agree with you that it was too chocolately, something I rarely say, and that the icing was difficult to work with but still delicious!
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