Chocolate Malteser Cake

My husband Paul and I are members of a running club. He is a much more serious runner than I am and also a lot better than me. I only started running about 6 months ago and entered my first 10K race back in the summer. I started running as a way to keep fit as I was getting bored with going to the gym. Paul has been running for a while now and persuaded me to give it a go. Well I'm so pleased I did as although I don't feel that I'm all that good I can see that I have improved a lot and I have really started to enjoy it.

You'll probably wondering what running has to do with a chocolate cake. Well I'll let you know. Our running club Wimborne AC organise a race every November called the Wimborne 10. This is a ten mile race around the beautiful area of Wimborne. I didn't run the race this year as I'm yet to attempt that distance but Paul did. I volunteered to help out as a marshall on the day and along with 2 other people manned a water station for the thirsty runners.

One of the best things about this race is that it is so well recievd by everyone that takes part. For the last few years everyone gets a cup of tea and a slice of cake when they have finished the run. So this calls for volunteers to make the cakes. There were 700 runners in the race this year so this called for a lot of cake.

I volunteered to help with the cake and decided on the chocolate Malteser Cake from Nigella Lawsons Feast. I have made this once before and it is delicious. Sadly I didn't get a slice this time around as all the hungry runners has eaten all the cakes by the time I got there. I made three of these to take along on the day and they went down very well with everyone that ate them. There wasn't a crumb left at the end which is definately a good sign.

Makes 8 - 10 slices

For the cake:

150g soft light brown sugar
100g caster sugar
3 eggs
175ml milk
15g butter
2 tablespoons Horlicks
175g plain flour
25g cocoa
1 teaspoon baking powder
half a teaspoon of bicarbonate of sode

For the icing and decoration

250g icing sugar
1 teaspoon cocoa
45g Horlicks
125g soft unsalted butter
2 tablespoons boiling water
2 x 37g packets of Maltesers

Preheat the oven to Gas 3/ 170C. Butter and line two 20cm cake tins with baking parchment.

Whisk together the sugars and eggs until they are light and fluffy.

Heat the milk, butter and Horlicks in a pan until the butter melts and it is hot but not boiling. Beat into the sugar and egg mixture. Then fold in the flour, cocoa, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda. Divide the cake mixture between the tins and bake in the oven for 25 minutes.

Once the cakes are cold you can ice them. I used a processor here but you could make the icing by hand if you wish. Put the icing sugar cocoa and Horlicks in the processor and blitz to remove any lumps. Add the butter and process again. Stop and then slowly add the boiling water and beat until you have a smooth buttercream.

Sandwich the cold cakes together with half of the buttercream. The ice the top of the cake with the remaining half. Decorate with the Maltesers and enjoy.