This post contains affiliate links. When you purchase through our links, we may earn a commission.
This Malted Chocolate Cake is what your dreams are made of! Moist, packed with amazing chocolatey flavour and topped with creamy frosting. What more could anyone want?
How about pairing this cake with Pistachio Ice Cream?
Looking for a decadent cake to make for a birthday or other celebration? Look no further than this rich, moist cake with intense chocolate flavours!
Try and tell me you don’t want to dive right in! If you are looking for a delicious chocolate cake with easy, no-fail steps, this cake is for you!!
This chocolate sponge is a legend, and doesn’t take a lot of technique to get right. And the icing is made in a food processor in a matter of 5 minutes! Even a beginner can successfully make this cake and wow everyone! Enjoy!
Chocolate sponge
The chocolate sponge is my stand-by and couldn’t be easier to make, and is virtually impossible to mess up. It’s both light and moist, with a luxurious chocolate flavour.
Because it is so simple and versatile, it’s a recipe I come back to often.
The method to making this sponge is quite simple. Mix up the dry and wet ingredients separately, then bring them together with the help of an This is an affiliate link.hand mixer.
Malted milk chocolate frosting
When choosing the frosting for this cake, I had my kids in mind. They don’t love chocolate flavour to be too strong.
I know that’s crazy, but it led me to decide to make the cake with malted milk chocolate frosting. This version is sweeter and less intense than dark chocolate. Just what my kids love!
I searched the internet for a while for the best frosting and ended up using Sweetapolita’s recipe because when it comes to cakes, she is the queen!
The icing uses malted milk powder to give it a distinctive taste and consistency. Malted milk is made from wheat flour, malted barley and evaporated milk. It’s a very useful ingredient for adding sweetness and lightness to things like frosting.
That frosting is easily made in a food processor and produces the creamiest texture I HAVE EVER SEEN!
Recipe Tips and Notes
- Let the butter come to room temperature before using. This ensures that it incorporates fully into the batter and allows for a more even bake.
- Let the sponge cool completely before assembling and decorating the cake. Cake sponge can be fragile and letting it cool before assembly makes it less likely that cracks will form or too many crumbs develop when adding frosting.
- The decorations I used are for a birthday, but this cake is really suitable for any occasion including, Christmas and Easter.
More chocolate cake recipes
Malted Chocolate Cake
Equipment
- This is an affiliate link.Hand mixer
- This is an affiliate link.Food processor
Ingredients
For the cake
- 1¾ cups / 220g all purpose flour
- 3/4 cup / 90g cocoa
- 2 cups / 400g granulated sugar
- 1½ tsp baking powder
- 1½ tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 eggs, large
- 1 cup / 250ml whole milk
- 1/2 cup / 125ml vegetable oil
- 2 tsp This is an affiliate link.vanilla
For the malted chocolate frosting
- 2¼ cups / 510g unsalted butter, room temperature
- 4 cups / 500g confectioners' sugar
- 1/2 cup / 65g chocolate Ovaltine or malted milk powder of your choice
- 1/3 cup / 80ml double cream/whipping cream
- 2 tsp This is an affiliate link. vanilla extract
- Pinch of salt
- 1/4 cup / 60ml creme fraiche or sour cream
- 9oz / 265g good quality milk chocolate
For the decoration
- 2 chocolate bunnies
- lemon thyme leaves
- bunting
Instructions
For the cake
- Preheat your oven to 350 F/180 C, butter and line 3 8″/20cm cake pans with parchment paper.
- Mix together flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl until combined. In a separate bowl mix eggs, milk, oil and vanilla essence. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ones and beat with an electric mixer until well incorporated.
- Divide evenly among 3 pans and bake in the preheated oven for 25 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean. I baked 2 layers together and then the third one later.
- Cool in the pans for 10 minutes, then remove cakes from the pans and cool completely on a wire rack.
For the malted chocolate icing
- Combine all ingredients except melted chocolate in a food processor and pulse until well combined. Take the lid off and check to make sure the ingredients on the bottom are well incorporated, use a spatula to mix them in if necessary.
- Add melted chocolate and pulse a few more times until the frosting is creamy and spreadable. Use immediately to fill the layers and cover the cake.
- Decorate with a sprinkling of lemon thyme leaves for the “grass” and “ivy” on a side and place chocolate bunnies on top.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Hello! What kind of flour did you use? Thanks! 🙂
All purpose flour, Alba.
Wow, I made this cake for my son’s birthday, and the icing is to die for! Super rich, as in rich even for me, and I love rich, chocolate icing. Totally decadent. I only had 2 – 9″ cake pans and my cakes fell in the middle, but still tasted good! Thanks for the recipe. I’m glad I found it.
Glad to hear you loved the icing, Karen. You might want to cook your cakes 5-10 minutes longer next time since you converted an 3 X 8 inch cake recipe into 2 X 9 inch your ended up with more batter per pan, so they needed to spend longer in the oven. I am happy to hear they still tasted good!! 🙂
Can I make this cake the night before an event? And should I store it room temperature or in the fridge?
You absolutely can, Pat. I recommend refrigerating the cake and taking it out 30 minutes before serving.
Hi, I have dutch processed cocoa powder, so is it okay if i use that or does it have to be natural unsweetened cocoa powder?
Thanks
Hi Humera, dutch processed cocoa powder is fine in this recipe!
Hi, I don’t have a food processor. Could I use a nutribullet to make the frosting?
Hi Sam, I don’t think nutribullet is big enough. Do you have a hand mixer? It would be a better tool for it.
Sorry, but I must have missed something. The ingredients for the frosting doesn’t say anything about melted chocolate yet the instructions call for it. Am I missing something? I REALLY want to try this recipe as I LOVE malt chocolate.
Hi there, the last item in the ingredient list is 9 ounces of good quality milk chocolate. Maybe your ingredient list got cut off in the print? 🙂
Can you tell me if the cream should be cold or hot?
And what whole milk. I am French. Thank you for answering
Hi Radia, the cream should be cold and whole milk means full-fat milk usually at 3.25%. I hope this helps!
Hi can you please tell me the measurements for a 2 layer cake?
Looks delicious!! Can this cake be frozen?
Thanks, Judy! I wouldn’t freeze a frosted cake but it’s absolutely fine to freeze individual layers wrapped in plastic wrap, then let it it defrost in the fridge before frosting.