Hello!
Doing the rounds at this festive time is a Malteser Cake in the style of a Christmas pudding, and one of my friends has challenged me to make this, so being one to thrive at the thought of a challenge I gave it a go! I basically have made a chocolate cake in a Christmas pudding bowl, sliced and iced then covered in Maltesers. Pretty simple but looks fairly impressive.
This recipe will make you the Christmas pudding and some spare batter, so you can pop in 12 cupcakes as well!
Ingredients:
350g plain flour
350g caster sugar
50g cocoa powder
1 tsp bicarb of soda
150g dark chocolate chips
435ml vegetable oil
1 cup of buttermilk (sour cream can be used as an alternative)
3 large eggs
For the icing:
350g icing powder
250g softened butter
Cocoa powder to flavour
Two large share packs of Maltesers
Melted white chocolate
A couple of cherries
Method:
Preheat your oven to 170C. Line a 12 hole muffin tin and grease a Christmas Pudding shaped bowl. I used a Pyrex dish, but if you haven't got access to one of these you can use a regular cake tin but you will need to shape your sponge once baked.
In a large bowl combine all of the dry ingredients - you want to get these mixed together thoroughly so it all looks even.
In a second bowl, combine the wet ingredients and beat together - this will look a little gross as the oil will separate the other ingredients but don't worry, it will look lovely in a minute!
Once the eggs have been fully mixed in the wet bowl, add this a little at a time to the dry mix, beating as you go. The batter will start to come together as you add all of the liquid and mix until everything is a universal chocolate-y goop. At this point the chocolate smells coming from the bowl should be pretty intense!
Fill the bowl/ tin you are using for the pudding about 3/4 full - it will expand as it bakes. With any remaining batter fill the cupcake cases about 1/2 way up the cases.
Put the cake in the over first and bake for around 45 minutes (check that a skewer comes out clean to tell if it is done). The cupcakes take around 18 minutes, and again test before removing. Allow both the cake and cupcakes to cool fully before attempting to decorate.
In the meantime, the buttercream icing can be made. Beat the butter until it has changed colour from yellow to pale cream, then sieve in about a third of the icing powder (if you don't sieve your icing may go lumpy!). When the icing has fully combined repeat two more times until it has all been incorporated. Sprinkle over a few tablespoons of cocoa, to make it slightly chocolate flavoured (the sponge is a very rich cake so we don't need too much here). If the mixture looks a bit stiff, add in a few dashes of milk.
When the cake is completely cool you can slice it with a large knife horizontally into thirds. Spread across some of the buttercream and sandwich each layer together. Now the fun really begins! You need to completely cover the cake with buttercream so that the Maltesers can be stuck on - I covered the cake with a couple of centimetres of icing and then added the balls. To add the Maltesers, the best method I found was to do a straight line over the middle of the cake, then a second line to split the cake into quarters, then filled in gaps with more Maltesers. To finish off the look of the pudding, melt some white chocolate and when it is almost cool pour over the top of the cake - this will look like the cream on top and add a couple of cherries if you really want to go all out!
If you have made cupcakes, you can dollop some extra buttercream on top of whip up any other flavour icing to decorate..
This makes a fab alternative for those who don't like fruit cake, and looks great in the centre of a Christmas spread!
I hope you love making this as much as I did!
Kirsty :)
Doing the rounds at this festive time is a Malteser Cake in the style of a Christmas pudding, and one of my friends has challenged me to make this, so being one to thrive at the thought of a challenge I gave it a go! I basically have made a chocolate cake in a Christmas pudding bowl, sliced and iced then covered in Maltesers. Pretty simple but looks fairly impressive.
This recipe will make you the Christmas pudding and some spare batter, so you can pop in 12 cupcakes as well!
Ingredients:
350g plain flour
350g caster sugar
50g cocoa powder
1 tsp bicarb of soda
150g dark chocolate chips
435ml vegetable oil
1 cup of buttermilk (sour cream can be used as an alternative)
3 large eggs
For the icing:
350g icing powder
250g softened butter
Cocoa powder to flavour
Two large share packs of Maltesers
Melted white chocolate
A couple of cherries
Method:
Preheat your oven to 170C. Line a 12 hole muffin tin and grease a Christmas Pudding shaped bowl. I used a Pyrex dish, but if you haven't got access to one of these you can use a regular cake tin but you will need to shape your sponge once baked.
In a large bowl combine all of the dry ingredients - you want to get these mixed together thoroughly so it all looks even.
In a second bowl, combine the wet ingredients and beat together - this will look a little gross as the oil will separate the other ingredients but don't worry, it will look lovely in a minute!
Once the eggs have been fully mixed in the wet bowl, add this a little at a time to the dry mix, beating as you go. The batter will start to come together as you add all of the liquid and mix until everything is a universal chocolate-y goop. At this point the chocolate smells coming from the bowl should be pretty intense!
Fill the bowl/ tin you are using for the pudding about 3/4 full - it will expand as it bakes. With any remaining batter fill the cupcake cases about 1/2 way up the cases.
Put the cake in the over first and bake for around 45 minutes (check that a skewer comes out clean to tell if it is done). The cupcakes take around 18 minutes, and again test before removing. Allow both the cake and cupcakes to cool fully before attempting to decorate.
In the meantime, the buttercream icing can be made. Beat the butter until it has changed colour from yellow to pale cream, then sieve in about a third of the icing powder (if you don't sieve your icing may go lumpy!). When the icing has fully combined repeat two more times until it has all been incorporated. Sprinkle over a few tablespoons of cocoa, to make it slightly chocolate flavoured (the sponge is a very rich cake so we don't need too much here). If the mixture looks a bit stiff, add in a few dashes of milk.
When the cake is completely cool you can slice it with a large knife horizontally into thirds. Spread across some of the buttercream and sandwich each layer together. Now the fun really begins! You need to completely cover the cake with buttercream so that the Maltesers can be stuck on - I covered the cake with a couple of centimetres of icing and then added the balls. To add the Maltesers, the best method I found was to do a straight line over the middle of the cake, then a second line to split the cake into quarters, then filled in gaps with more Maltesers. To finish off the look of the pudding, melt some white chocolate and when it is almost cool pour over the top of the cake - this will look like the cream on top and add a couple of cherries if you really want to go all out!
If you have made cupcakes, you can dollop some extra buttercream on top of whip up any other flavour icing to decorate..
This makes a fab alternative for those who don't like fruit cake, and looks great in the centre of a Christmas spread!
I hope you love making this as much as I did!
Kirsty :)
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