Pure Joy and Maltesers

Actual photo of cake

If you follow me anywhere else from Facebook to Twitter, you'd have already seen me post about this decadent treat that my husband made me last week but today I finished off.  The.  Last.  Piece.  So, in much solemnity, I'm putting up the recipe for this cake from Nigella Lawson's Feast.

Chocolate Malteser Cake 
From “Feast”, Nigella Lawson (2004) and the recipe was found online here
The recipe says you get 8 to 10 slices, but I find that if you’re feeding children, you can get up to 12.

For the cake
150g soft brown sugar (muscavado sugar is best for flavour)
100g caster sugar
3 large eggs
175ml milk
15g unsalted butter
2 tablespoons Horlicks powder (or malted milk powder)
175g plain flour
25g cocoa, sieved
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

For the icing and decoration
250g icing sugar
1 teaspoon cocoa
45g Horlicks (or malted milk powder)
125g soft unsalted butter
2 tablespoons boiling water
2 x 37g packets Maltesers (or Whoppers)

Take whatever you need out of the fridge so that all the ingredients can come to room temperature (though it’s not so crucial here, since you’re heating the milk and butter and whisking the eggs.
Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 3/170C. Butter and line two 20cm loose-bottomed sandwich cake tins with baking parchment.
Whisk together the sugars and eggs until light and frothy. Heat the milk, butter and Horlicks powder in a small saucepan until the butter has melted and the mixture is hot but not boiling. Beat the milk mixture into the eggs a little at a time. Fold in the dry ingredients thoroughly. Divide the cake batter evenly between the two tins and bake in the oven for 25 minutes, by which time the cakes should have risen and will spring back when pressed gently. Let them cool on a rack for about 5-10 minutes and then turn them out of their tins.
Once the cakes are cold, you can get on with the icing. I use a processor just because it makes life easier: you don’t need to sieve the icing sugar. So: put the icing sugar, cocoa and Horlicks in the processor and blitz to remove all lumps. Add the butter and process again. Stop, scrape down, and start again, pouring the boiling water down the funnel with the motor running until you have a smooth buttercream.
Sandwich the cold sponges with half of the buttercream, and then ice the top with what is left, creating a swirly pattern rather than a smooth surface. Stud the outside edge, about 1cm, with a ring of Maltesers or use them to decorate the top in whichever way pleases you.

Now a brief note - my husband also added chocolate chips to the cake itself and crunched up malt balls to the middle layer of icing.  Which, as you can imagine, only made it THAT MUCH BETTER.