Malteser Drip Cake!
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A three layer malt chocolate cake with malt buttercream frosting, a chocolate drip and lots of Maltesers!
Malteser drip cake
So Malteser Buttons are now a thing, and I finally managed to find them in the shops after way too much time… and now they’re everywhere. I honestly couldn’t find them for so much time, and now they’re in every local supermarket. Including giant sharing bags in Sainsburys! But anyway… I wanted to include them in a bake. I was also craving a massive slice of cake, so a Malteser cake seemed appropriate.
Ages ago I posted my Malteser cake, and its definitely one of my favourites. The sponges that I use in the Malteser cake are different to this one for a reason. I like posting recipes and such, but I wanted to show a way to make the actual cake part of a Malteser related cake easier for some, as not everyone wants to go through the effort of my other Malteser cake. I still adore both types of sponges, but this one is definitely an easier one, and probably more stable for a drip cake!
Malt buttercream frosting
One thing I definitely couldn’t change between this recipe, my Malteser cake, and my Malteser cupcakes is the malt buttercream frosting. This part does confuse people slightly sometimes, but its a lot easier to make and source than people might think. All it is is a regular buttercream frosting, but with a Horlicks/Ovaltine type drinking powder mixed in. When you’re in the hot chocolate section of the supermarket, you’ll see them.
They do quite a few different ones, and sometimes they even sell Malteser hot chocolate or similar, but the most Malteser biscuit type flavour comes from the Horlicks/Ovaltine type powders. This bit is completely optional, you can just use a regular buttercream frosting it you want, but I like to stick with a theme in a bake. For example, in my honeycomb crunchie cake recipes, I use a honey buttercream frosting.
Semi naked cake
For this particular one, I thought I would go for a bit more of semi-naked style cake. Partly because I couldn’t be bothered to do the buttercream in the fully covered way, and partly because I really actually like the look of it! It’s not to everyones taste, but I love it. My Easter piñata cake is basically the same, but with the different buttercream flavour.
You can easily make this cake into a Malteser version of the Easter piñata cake, by following the same methods in the Easter piñata cake post, but filling with Maltesers. I didn’t actually have enough Maltesers on the day of baking this as I might have munched on a few too many, but you get the idea. Whichever way you decide to do this cake, it will be delicious.
Sponge
You can see from the slices of the cake that its super chocolatey, and I love that. I use the malt powder in the cake as well to get a hint of the flavour, but you can easily leave it out if you want. I know that Victoria sponge style cakes have 400g of dry ingredients (flour and/or cocoa powder), and technically this one does… apart from the Malt Powder. Adding this in after this makes the cake mix denser, but it makes it more madeira like.
If you bake the cakes the day before you decorate, its best to store them at room temperature (definitely not the fridge) and they will be super moist and fudgey the next day. Or, even if you decorate on the day of baking, it’ll be lovely. I love any type of chocolate cake to be honest, but when the sponge is deliciously chocolatey, then slathered with buttercream frosting, Malteser spread and then even more delicious you can’t beat it. HEAVENLY.
Tips & tricks
- You obviously don’t have to make straight edged buttercream if you don’t want to, but I just like the look of it! You can slather it on, and it’ll still taste damn delicious.
- However, if you do want to make it like this, I seriously recommend using a metal scraper for the decoration of the buttercream, and the disposable piping bags.. I wouldn’t be anywhere without them!
- All of the decorations are completely optional – but I love this style of cake! To make a smaller version of the cake, use:
- Two 8″cake tins
- 300g butter
- 300g sugar
- 255g flour
- 35g cocoa powder
- 75g malt powder
- 6 medium eggs
- And it might take an extra 5-10 minutes to bake and use 2/3 of the decoration recipes!
- This cake will last in an airtight container/cake box for 3 days!
Malteser Drip Cake!
Ingredients
Cake Ingredients
- 400 g unsalted butter
- 400 g light brown sugar
- 8 medium eggs
- 350 g self raising flour
- 50 g cocoa powder
- 100 g malt powder (Horlicks/Ovaltine)
Buttercream Ingredients
- 350 g unsalted butter (room temp)
- 650 g icing sugar
- 100 g malt powder
- 2-4 tbsp boiling water
Decoration
- 100 g dark chocolate
- 2 tsp sunflower oil
- leftover buttercream frosting
- Maltesers
- Malteser Buttons
Instructions
For the Cake
- Heat the oven to 180ºc/160ºc fan and line three 20cm/8inch cake tins with baking parchment – leave to the side.
- In a stand mixer, beat together the butter and light brown sugar until light and fluffy. Add in the flour, cocoa powder, malt powder and eggs and beat again briefly until combined – try not to over beat the mixture!
- Divide the mixture between the three tins and smooth it over – bake for 25-30 minutes until a skewer comes out clean when poked, and when the cake springs back.
- Once baked, leave the cake to cool in the tin for 10 minutes, and then remove and leave to cool fully on a wire rack. If the cake has domed slightly, leave the cake to cool upside down to flatten it slightly.
For the Buttercream
- In a stand mixer, beat the room temperature butter with an electric mixer until it is smooth and loose and then beat in the icing sugar 1/3 at a time until its fully combined.
- Keep beating the buttercream for a few minutes so it starts to get fluffier and lighter.
- Add in the malt powder and beat again, adding 1tbsp of boiling water at a time until you get the buttercream you want. When its hot summer weather, I usually only add 1 tbsp.
For the Decoration
- Once the cakes are cooled, put the first layer on the serving plate - spread one or tablespoons of the buttercream onto the top of the first layer
- Add the second cake on top, and then top again with some of buttercream, and then add the final sponge layer.
- Spread a thin layer or the buttercream around the edges of the cake to fill in any gaps and form a 'Crumb Coat'. Leave this to set in the fridge for 10 minutes, or on the side for 30 minutes until the Buttercream crusts over.
- I then spread another layer round, but kept it quite thin as I wanted a naked cake style. However, if you want to fully cover the cake, add more on, and scrape it round until its smooth.
- I use a large metal scraper to do the smoothing. It's easier to roughly spread some around all the edges of the cake, and then smooth it all.
- Once finished, melt the dark chocolate in a heat proof bowl. Add in 2tsp of oil and beat until smooth. Using disposable piping bags, pipe it round the edge of the cake, edging over slight bits to create the drip.
- Leave it to set for about 10 minutes, and then add some more malteser spread on top. Alternatively, add the malteser spread on the top first, and then drip around the edges.
- Leave the chocolate/spread to set for about 10 minutes or so, and then pipe the rest of the buttercream on top, and add on some Maltesers, crushed Maltesers, and Malteser Buttons.
Notes
- You obviously don’t have to make straight edged buttercream if you don’t want to, but I just like the look of it! You can slather it on, and it’ll still taste damn delicious.
- However, if you do want to make it like this, I seriously recommend using a metal scraper for the decoration of the buttercream, and the disposable piping bags.. I wouldn’t be anywhere without them!
- All of the decorations are completely optional – but I love this style of cake! To make a smaller version of the cake, use:
- Two 8″cake tins
- 300g butter
- 300g sugar
- 255g flour
- 35g cocoa powder
- 75g malt powder
- 6 medium eggs
- And it might take an extra 5-10 minutes to bake and use 2/3 of the decoration recipes!
- This cake will last in an airtight container/cake box for 3 days
- You can freeze this cake for 3+ months
- If you can find and buy malteser spread, this is great to add between the layers of cake and buttercream
I made this and it smelled amazing and looked great, but the sponges were really dense and not the moist sponge I expected. I took them out when they were only just done, why were they so hard?
Dense sponges often mean that the cakes weren’t finished baking, or that some of the ingredients may have been too cold before making the sponge mixture! x
Hi Jane,
Was wanting to make this for a surprise 40th birthday – what would I need to do if I’m using 9 inch tins please still three layers? Also need to make things a bit in advance is it possible to freeze the cake first?
Love your recipes!!!
Thanks
Made this for my dad’s 80th birthday and it was a huge hit! If like me you can’t find the Maltesers spread anywhere, I ended up buying a 150g bar of the Maltesers chocolate and made it into a ganache using about 82g double cream – did the job nicely!
Hi Jane how many slices should I change this to get the correct ingredient amounts for 4x 8inch tins rather than 3?
I tried changing the 15slice to 20slices, this came out with uneven figures ie 533.33g butter and 10.67 eggs. What would you suggest? I need to know before next Wednesday for a birthday cake 🙏🏻
Thanks 😊
This is too late, but given it makes three layers of 8 inch, I would divide the amounts listed by 3 which will give you enough for a single layer and then multiple by the number of layers you want, so in your case 4, then round up for a bit extra if numbers are a bit odd.
Hi Jane, I love all your recipes! I’m looking to make this Malteser cake for my mother in laws 60th at the end of the month. How would I go about making a 4 layer? I prefer taller cakes. I was thinking if I divide the ingredients shown by 3 I’d get the ingredients for 1 layer, then I can add this 1 layer ingredient amount to the 3 layer amount and I’d have the total for 4 layers? Or would this not work? Note, my tins are round 8inch.
Thanks in advance 😊
My cake looked good but when cut the sponges was really stodgy- the skewer came out clean – what did I do wrong ?
Hiya! This is a chocolate fudge cake so is meant to be slightly softer! x
Hi Jane!
I took the cakes out of the oven only when the toothpick came out clean and whilst the cake looked and tasted great after about a day it still tasted great but maybe a bit dry – could I add a cup of coffee to the mixture and would it help with this and enhance flavour similarly to use of coffee in chocolate cakes? Or alternatively just add hot water? Or should I just reduce bake time (although finding this hard as the toothpick comes out wet if I don’t leave it in for long enough)
Help please!!
I added coffee without testing original recipe as I always do to enhance chocolate flavour so will let you know it works when it’s cut tomorrow!